Vocal Point with Martina McBride (Oct. 24th 2019)

Martina McBride: Hey, everybody, so I got to do something - Allen went with me. We both got to do something really, really special last week. We went to the set of The Voice.

Allen: It was very, very cool.

Martina: In LA.

Allen: Yeah.

Martina: And got to sit in the chair. You might have seen my picture on Instagram. Got to sit in the cool, big chair. I didn't get to turn around in it, but, uh, it was fun. And then we talking about cosy the whole vibe of the place is backstage.

Allen: Yeah, they had all these trailers kinda in a compound inside the soundstage. And the way the couches all out the front were. I could see why they'd like hanging out there.

Martina: To kind of describe it. Because the set is so glitzy, you know, with all the red lights and the big, fancy chairs, but backstage, they've got these, kind of - they're like RVs. right?

Allen: Uh, yeah, they're trailers. Camper trailers.

Martina: Camper trailers parked kind of in a semi, like a square, semi-square. Type of thing.

Allen: Yeah, kinda, yeah.

Martina: And, um, big couches in the middle of the room. And tables, where I figure they probably eat. It's just really cosy, like it feels like you just wanna - After the show, you'd want to make a drink and hang out there and talk to each other.

Allen: Yeah, cos you think about some places, I'm sure as soon as the show's done, everybody's gone. But this is probably a place where people want to hang out.

Martina: Want to hang out and - Blake's trailer, where we did the interview, was also really cosy and nice. I don't know. I've known Blake a long time and we've just always had a great chemistry. I always say that we're kind of like a brother and a sister.

Allen: I can see that.

Martina: With our, with the way we talk to each other and relate to each other. He's so much fun. He's just very, very charming. Really what you see is what you get. There's no fakeness about him. He's funny. Um, I just really loved the time we got to spend with him out there on the set.

Allen: To me, he seems like the same guy he was in 1990. He's the same guy.

Martina: Yep.

Allen: He's the same guy today.

Martina: Yeah. He hasn't changed as far as like how he acts or who he is. He doesn't act like he's better than anybody else. He's very, very down to earth and just sweet and funny and, um, I think he's found his calling, kind of, with The Voice. I mean, I know that he is obviously still making music and is still a big country music superstar, but I just love him on that show.

Allen: He's great.

Martina: Yeah. This is very candid and real. When I listened back to it, I was like, I feel like you're gonna feel like you were there in the trailer with us.

Allen: Sure. I can see that.

Martina: So it's a lot of fun. Blake Shelton on Vocal Point.

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Martina: If the weather outside is frightful where you are, please don't get mad at me when I tell you that today we are in beautiful, sunny Los Angeles, California at Universal Studios on the set of The Voice. And I'm sitting across from one of the most famous people in America. A true country star who has sold 30 million singles and 10 million albums worldwide. Grand Ole Opry member and the first and maybe the only country celebrity ever to grace the cover of People Magazine as, what? The Sexiest Man Alive.

Blake Shelton: That went over well.

Martina: [laughs] But you don't even have to scratch the surface to realize that Blake Shelton is still that country boy from Ada, Oklahoma who loves to hunt and fish, believes that flip-flops are a no-no and boots were made for wearing. And still loves to sing because that's what he was born to do. When Blake Shelton is your friend, you have a true friend through thick and thin, and I'm so happy to see my friend sitting across me this morning.

Blake: I'm happy to see you, buddy.

Martina: Yeah.

Blake: Thanks for coming here.

Martina: Thanks for doing this.

Blake: This has actually brightened my day up quite a bit.

Martina: Really?

Blake: Yeah. Yes. Because these Blinds that we're filming right now are just [sighs] It's a grind. At the end of the day, we're all a little bit pissed off at each other, just a little bit. Because it's like, 'Man, why'd you say that?' You know. So knowing that you were coming here - and thanks for coming here - I'm excited. I'm always happy to see you.

Martina: I'm happy to see you too. I was trying to remember, uh, did you - This seems impossible but did you open a couple of shows for me at some point?

Blake: Oh my god. Me and Luke. Together.

Martina: That's right. What the hell?

Blake: Me and Luke opened for you in, uh - I remember cos one of 'em was in Georgia, and of course, you know, Luke, that's where Luke's from. And he was just startin' to blow up. And I remember specifically because my tour manager came and told me that her outsold me in merch and I was like, 'What!? There's no way! I'm a way bigger star than Luke!' You know. And he was like, 'Well, he's in his home state.' So. We did that. We played, uh, South Carolina, whereever the Gamecocks' school is, I know that.

Martina: Yeah. I just remember we sat outside the bus one night, me and you and John, and had a few libations and talked til late in the night.

Blake: Mm-hmm. Yep.

Martina: It was fun.

Blake: I like to drink, there's no question about it, but I don't know that I've ever competed with such a small person like you that can just - It's just like, man, she just, she can sit here all night and do this, you know.

Martina: Well...

Blake: You should be proud of that, Martina.

Martina: It's fun.

Blake: People should know that about you.

Martina: You think so?

Blake: Yeah, yeah. [laughs]

Martina: We need to let people know -

Blake: [laughs]

Martina: - all the real talk.

Blake: I love - Mmm-hmm.

Martina: So how is this season of The Voice goin' for ya?

Blake: It's going good. This is - Yesterday was the first day, so this is the second day of what is going to be Season 18 of The Voice. So this -

Martina: Wow.

Blake: What we're filming right now today won't even air til next, I wanna say March. Something like that.

Allen: Oh wow.

Blake: Maybe.

Martina: Mm-hmm.

Blake: So, yeah, it's gonna be awhile but - So I don't know. I got a few people on my team yesterday, and we're all trying to still figure out, uh, Nick Jonas' play, and how he fits in. Cos he's, this is his first season and yesterday was the first day, and I think he was a little bit nervous cos he didn't know what to expect. We didn't know what to expect from him. So today, I think, the gloves will come off.

Martina: Yeah. How hard is that to have somebody new come in? Cos you guys have done this for so long. You've done it for so long.

Blake: Mm-hmm.

Martina: Is it awkward at first?

Blake: It is. Uh, because it's not like you're inviting an old high school buddy that you already some kind of chemistry with that you've known forever. It's, you're inviting a celebrity that has a following. There's a reason that they get the people that they get. And most of the time I've never met the person before, you know. I'd never met John Legend before he came. I could go through - All of 'em.

Martina: Right.

Blake: I never met before until they came here. And so, uh - Except Kelly. I had known Kelly for years. And that's why I think she fit in so well and it just instantly clicked. Because when you already have a relationship with somebody, you already know what buttons to push, what things to bring up. And people at home enjoy that, you know.

Martina: Yeah.

Blake: Yeah, it's awkward when you get somebody new. It's always the first day or two of the Blind Auditions, you go, 'Oh my god, this isn't working', you know.

Martina: This is weird, yeah.

Blake: But then by the end of the week, you know, it's, it always ends up being a lot of fun.

Martina: Do you guys have - Have you made a lot of close friendships from this show?

Blake: Well, uh, one in particular.

Martina: Well, I know [laughs]

Blake: Yeah. Yeah. But I have. I mean, you know, Adam and I, we still stay in really close contact. I mean, my god, we worked together every day for - almost every day for - almost ten years, you know. That he was on the show. And so we stay in contact. I mean, I was there when he got married, when he had his kid and then another kid. So a lot of life, he and I, went through together. And when I went through my divorce, I stayed with Adam a little bit, you know, at his house. And so it was, uh, those kind of things, it just creates those bonds, that they're just there, you know. Others I've remained friends with, uh, but you know, nothing obviously like my relationship with Gwen. Who would've ever thought - If you thought the People Magazine cover was shocking, my and Gwen's relationship is probably the biggest head-scratcher of all.

Martina: I was just gonna say, like, you are with Gwen Stefani.

Blake: [laughs]

Martina: [laughs]

Blake: Truly all you gotta say.

Martina: I know, right.

Blake: And then just a blank stare, right, like, what is this world? I dunno. You know, it's just - She and I - The first season she was on the show, I'd even say that she was the, of all the coaches, the least that I had gotten to know the first season she was on the show. Because she'd just had a baby. And I mean just had a baby. And so any time there was downtime, she was busy, she was gone, she was on her trailer, she was taking care of the baby, you know. And there was never, uh, those moments that usually happen on the show where, at the end of the day, we're sitting around out here at the couches having a drink, talking and laughing.

Martina: Mm-hmm.

Blake: So nobody really got to know her that well, that first season. And so, uh, but by the time the second season came around, you know, a lot of life had happened.

Martina: Yeahhh.

Blake: And we'd been through a lot and we bonded, actually, over that. So, uh, you know, it's one of those things that, who knows, it had to have been meant to be, you know.

Martina: Mm-hmm. It's been like four years? Almost.

Blake: Yeah. Four years.

Allen: That's awesome.

Martina: Man, time flies.

Blake: I know, right?! It does.

Martina: Yeah. Well, I'm happy for you.

Blake: It certainly flies. We're shocked every - Every year for our anniversary, I get her a number. She has this charm bracelet and I get her a number of what anniversary it is, and so just - For her birthday, I gave her a four. And it was like, I go, 'Is this - Wait a minute. Did I skip something? Is this right?' She goes like, 'Well, let me think'. It's like, holy crap, it's four years. What the hell?

Martina: I know, right? I met her - I got to do something with her a long time ago at like a pre-Super Bowl party thing.

Blake: Mm-hmm.

Martina: And we were onstage together. I just was like - She is such a star. Like you cannot stop watching her.

Blake: Yeah.

Martina: You know what I mean? And then she was really sweet and nice on top of it.

Blake: Right.

Martina: It was great.

Blake: She's literally - You know these people in this business. She's just the most normal, unassuming, just - Catholic girl from Anaheim, like, completely keeps to herself and it's amazing that - That's the Gwen that I know, and then I go watch her show in Vegas. Cos you gotta remember, I'd playing catch-up on Gwen Stefani. I knew who No Doubt was and Gwen Stefani but only the big hits, you know.

Martina: Yeah.

Blake: And then you go see her show in Las Vegas and you start going, 'Oh my god, that one too! That song! That's you!'

Martina: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Blake: And it's just crazy. It gives me goosebumps talking about it because her - The impact she had as, especially as a female rock/ska/whatever you classify is as, uh, to have the impact she has is pretty crazy.

Martina: Have you been able to introduce her to country music?

Blake: Yes.

Martina: So have you given her an education kinda?

Blake: I have. She's never going to be - and if she was sitting here, she would tell you - she's never going to be good with names. She can't remember anybody's name. But she knows so many songs now. In fact, I would say that Gwen - I don't know how she'd feel about me saying this but I'm gonna say it - I bet she listens to probably 75% country music now. Just that's what - In her car, that's the station that stays on when we're together. She has playlists. That's what she puts her kids to bed at night to is -

Martina: Awesome.

Blake: - country music playlists. She's just - Her favorite music growing up was seventies soft rock.

Martina: Yeah.

Blake: And so that's kinda what we became. Now I think we've moved past that.

Martina: Yes. [laughs]

Blake: As you know. But, uh, and so she loves that. She loves discovering, like, Rodney Crowell -

Martina: Oh, yeah.

Blake: - and artists like that, you know. Uh, Diamond Rio, You, you know. All these, all this music that kinda was what that was.

Martina: Mm-hmm.

Blake: So, anyway.

Martina: It was a special time in country music. So you live in LA? Or Oklahoma? Nashville?

Blake: I still live in Oklahoma. Obviously I'm here at least half the time, I mean.

Martina: Do you like LA or -

Blake: No, no.

Martina: You hate it?

Blake: I don't like it. It's nothing against LA people. I don't like any city, you know. I'm not cut out for it. I just get depressed. I get frustrated. I get sad when I think, 'Man, my truck is almost out of gas and it's gonna take me an hour to go a half a mile to go fill up. I'm gonna get yelled out, honked at, flipped off.' Literally today - I don't know how this happened, but we're driving down Ventura and Kevin was driving me, my tour manager. And we both just happened to look over at the same time and this guy caught my eye, sitting on the sidewalk, stood up, and took his clothes off. Literally took his coat off, completely naked. It was almost as if, 'Hey, there's Blake. I need to show him my genitalia. Right now.' And it's like, that's -

Martina: That's -

Blake: I miss Oklahoma right now. [laughs]

Martina: Right, right.

Blake: I did not need to see that this morning, you know.

Martina: Especially in the morning.

Blake: Yeah. I'm awake now.

Martina: Well, Delaney and Emma both lived out here - My two girls lived out here for awhile, and I think Emma adjusted to it better than Delaney, but it was just, it's just a big adjustment.

Blake: I remember when they came out here cos it was acting, right?

Martina: Mm-hmm.

Blake: Didn't they do some acting?

Martina: Emma, yeah. And now she lives in New York.

Blake: Really? Still doing it, though?

Martina: Yeah.

Blake: Good for her.

Martina: She's going to an acting school there. Last time I remember you saw Delaney, you guys were singing karaoke together.

Blake: Mm-hmm. Well, I used to - I texted her to ask you to sing I'm Sorry with me.

Martina: Oh, yeah, yeah. That's right. And what did she say, Blake?

Blake: I can't -

Martina: Remember?

Blake: She's always had something smart aleck to say, like. There's never any conversation with her that there wasn't some kind of jab or something. I can't remember what she said. Something - I think she said, why don't you ask her yourself?

Martina: Yeah, probably.

Blake: Something along those lines.

Martina: Okay, so I want to talk about your pet turkey. You had a pet turkey. Yes?

Blake: [laughs] Ye-eah. I haven't talked about my pet turkey in a long time. It's still hard to talk about my pet turkey because it's dead.

Martina: Oh, god. [laughs]

Blake: Uh. I had several pet turkeys, uh, over the years.

Martina: Several pet turkeys.

Blake: Yeah. Probably like three of them. And I just kept renaming them Turkey because I figured they're not gonna live very long, and this way it'll seem like I've had the same one for ten or twelve years. You know.

Martina: So you named your pet turkey Turkey?

Blake: Yeah. And I used - And I was talking about that this morning, actually, to the boys before they went to school. I told them, I said, 'I used to feed my turkey turkey.'

Martina: [laughs] Oh no.

Blake: Yeah.

Martina: You did not.

Blake: And I remember one Thanksgiving I went out in the backyard - Cos it stayed by the back door so it could beat the hell out of ya every time you came outside. That was its game. And then one day I walked out there with a plate after Thanksgiving of stuffing, and I just threw it in the yard and watched it eat that. Just knowing it was stuffing. Something about that made me so happy.

Martina: [laughs] So how do you get close to a turkey?

Blake: You don't.

Martina: I mean, why would you have a pet turkey?

Blake: I remember - and I'm not kidding and thank god there wasn't iPhones back then - This is when I still lived in Tennessee. Um, I used to go out and purposely try to get to my truck and I would end up in a fist fight with that turkey.

Martina: [laughs]

Blake: And I'm talking about, like, I remember slapping it in the face as hard as I can just to get it off of me. And you - Nothing you could do would deter this turkey from -

Martina: They're strong, aren't they?

Blake: Strong and just commited to just whipping your ass before you get in a car. Every day. You know, it had decent spurs but it was mostly its wings. It would just beat you to death and if you ever turned your back to it, it would literally - I mean, like a football player. Just -

Martina: Tackle you.

Blake: It's unbelievable. It's like, 'Why do I have this?' Remember those old movies, those old Pink Panther movies where the Pink Panther had that guy that just attacked him everywhere?

Martina: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Blake: That's how I felt. In my own house. I guess this turkey's keeping me on my toes.

Martina: I just wonder why you would have, you know, that turkey experience and then go through it two more times.

Blake: Well, the last one I had was the most violent one I had. And that was the end of the turkey. Whenever, whatever killed it killed it. I finally, one day when I was out brush hogging and I saw a pile of feathers there - coyotes or something had killed it and I had a good laugh about it.

Martina: Oh, man.

Blake: Yeah. That's gonna go over well.

Martina: Yeah. I know.

Blake: I don't care. I literally don't care anymore if I piss off PETA.

Martina: Okay.

Blake: They don't buy my records anyway. [laughs]

Martina: So I also heard - Because I didn't know this about you and I'm curious, bare feet? You don't like it? Now is -

Blake: I don't mind so much on girls.

Martina: It's just guys.

Blake: Yeah.

Martina: I agree with you. 100%.

Blake: Yeah.

Martina: Nobody needs to see no guy's bare feet.

Blake: No. God didn't give us the kind of feet that I want to see anyway. This is me speaking, but... Yeah, I don't wanna - Something about it is just over the line for me. Hairy toes -

Martina: I know.

Blake: Ingrown. Yellow toenails. All that stuff.

Martina: And guys in flip-flops, I'm not into it.

Blake: You know, my step-dad said to me years ago - and I've remembered it ever since - My sister was dating a guy who came over and we were clearly very judgmental about him. And he came over and he was, like, he probably played golf or something, and he had his flip-flops on. And when they left and my step-dad said, 'You know, a man that wears flip-flops doesn't work. And if there's ever an emergency, what's he gonna do? What's he gonna do in flip-flops if there's a fire? He can't help.'

Allen: That's true.

Blake: I remembered that ever since then.

Martina: Yeah. Did he say that in front of the guy?

Blake: No. But not that he wouldn't have. He was just telling me as we were making fun of the guy.

Martina: Good point, good point.

Blake: [laughs]

Martina: So you just officiated Trace Adkin's wedding last week.

Blake: Yeah.

Martina: Are you like an ordained minister?

Blake: I am ordained by the Universal Life Church or whatever that's called. But yeah, um, actually that's the fifth wedding I've done. I did a couple - You remember Mike Kennedy in -

Martina: Yeah.

Blake: - Kansas City. He started this thing. Because they had like a, some sort of a stupid contest back in the -

Martina: He's a radio guy.

Blake: Yeah. And it was like, you know, 'get married by Blake Shelton!' you know and people wrote in their entries. So this couple won. They had me ordained through this whatever that is and I married this couple like on air or whatever. Whenever I was coming through town. Then because I had that license, um, my sister asked me if I would marry her to her husband. And so I did.

Martina: Not the flip-flop guy?

Blake: Not the flip-flop guy, although this guy wears 'em too and he gets browbeaten pretty bad about it. Uh, and then I married a couple, another couple in Kansas - my friend Tom McMillan's niece to her husband. I married Ashley Monroe to her husband.

Martina: Oh, wow.

Blake: And then, uh, and then Trace and Victoria last weekend. Which is -

Martina: So are these marriages legal?

Blake: They're legal. It's scary, it is scary, but they're legal. I signed all the paperwork and stuff Saturday right before the wedding, so apparently it's legal.

Martina: This is the first time I've seen your tattoo in person.

Blake: Oh, c'mon.

Martina: No.

Blake: Really?

Martina: How long have you had it? I've seen pictures.

Blake: I was on tour with Rascall Flatts in, uh, 2005. And which one was it? Joe Don came in - This was early -

Martina: Sounds like you said Joe Dahahn. [laughs]

Blake: Joe Dahahn.

Martina: Joe Dahahn, you know.

Blake: Joe Dahahn came in and we were in Missouri and I was in the production office, and he was showing everybody - He'd just gotten this huge tattoo. It went from his wrist like all the way up to his elbow. And it was this eagle and it was the same tattoo that I think his dad or grandpa had had. I can't remember what he said. And it just looked so cool to me.

Martina: Mm-hmm.

Blake: And I'm not gonna lie, I was still actually probably drunk from the night before. As long as we're all being honest on the Martina McBride podcast.

Martina: It's hard to believe.

Blake: And so I turned to my tour manager and I said, 'Man, I want a tattoo.' And he goes, 'Okay.' So he called around and found a tattoo parlor right there in - I wanna say Sedalia, Missouri. Is that a place?

Martina: Probably not the tattoo capital of the world.

Blake: No, and I wouldn't recommend where I went. So I went and he got me an appointment. And I went and I said, 'Man, I want deer tracks on my arm.' And this guy was probably not in any better shape than I was in, and he said, 'I'll do whatever you wanna do, but I don't have a template for that. I don't know what a deer track looks like.' And so I just drew him a deer track and he took that drawing and put it on a copier and made his template out of that. So my tattoo is what I drew, hoping that I could just remind him what a deer track looked like.

Martina: You didn't mean for him to literally put -

Blake: No, but I thought, 'Well, he knows what he's doing. He'll know.'

Martina: [laughs]

Blake: No. And so then later, about six months later, uh, actually Miranda and I were in Phoenix, Arizona. She went in to get those pistols that she has on her forearm with the wings.

Martina: Mm-hmm.

Blake: And while she was there, when she got done, I said, 'Hey man, will you do something with these deer tracks?' So he put the barbed wire around 'em, which I don't know if that helped at all, really.

Martina: Is that the only tattoo you have?

Blake: Yes. They're not addictive.

Martina: No?

Blake: I am proof that they're not addictive. Necessarily.

Martina: I dunno. A lot of people get a lot of tattoos.

Blake: I know. This is the most humbling thing I ever did. Cos every time I start feeling awesome, it's like, 'Oh god. What the hell is that?'

Martina: [laughs] So you grew up in Oklahoma. In Ada, Oklahoma, which is just about four hours south of where I grew up.

Blake: Mm-hmm.

Martina: Sharon.

Blake: I thought you, I thought it was Hutchinson?

Martina: I lived in Hutchinson.

Blake: Okay. Where did you work at Dairy Queen?

Martina: In Hutchinson.

Blake: Oh, okay.

Martina: Yeah. I was the Dairy Queen.

Blake: Yeah. You know, Martina owns a church out there in Kansas.

Allen: I know.

Blake: Yeah, the one she grew up going to.

Allen: Very cool.

Martina: Well, you know, it's about 180 people. It's gone down now, maybe it's 150.

Blake: So you reopened it?

Martina: No -

Blake: Oh, you're talking about Sharon, Kansas.

Martina: Yeah, not the church.

Blake: Oh, okay. Okay.

Martina: The whole town. [laughs]

Blake: [laughs] I started to say, that's a hell of a church in Kansas.

Martina: So, what was it like - Your mom was a beauty - What do you call it?

Blake: A beautician. Uh-huh.

Martina: And your dad was a car salesman.

Blake: At one point, he was. For the second half of my growing up, he was a car salesman. He grew up in the construction industry, and when I was born, that's still what he did. Then eventually he started selling cars.

Martina: Were they musical?

Blake: God, no. My mom can sing but, you know, that's about it.

Martina: How did you discover that you wanted to sing and play guitar? You've probably told this story about a hundred times but I haven't heard it so here we go.

Blake: Yeah, but it still doesn't make sense even when I tell it. It's just - My brother loved music and so I always, his room was right across the hallway from mine. And he loved, you know, Hank Jr and Waylon and Bob Seger and Van Halen, all the same guys. Ted Nugent. And so I - He would just be in there - When I was probably seven, eight years old, he was already a teenager driving. And so he was listening to music so freaking loud, like the windows on the house were shakin'. You know. It was that - Dad would come down and beat on his - 'Turn that down, dammit!' And so when he would leave the house, I would go into his room and get all his cassettes and listen to 'em, mostly because if he liked music that much, it's gotta be cool, you know.

Martina: Yeah.

Blake: Uh, and so that's kinda how I got into music and then, you know, have the fake microphone singing all the songs in my bedroom - Cat Scratch Fever, all of that stuff, you know. And that's really how I got into it. And then Mom, because I was so into it at one point, she started entering me into pageants and stuff around Ada, Oklahoma. Cos they had those talent portions of the pageant -

Martina: Wait, hold on.

Blake: Yeah.

Martina: Back up.

Blake: [laughs]

Martina: Back up. You were in a - What kind of a pageant?

Blake: Just like straight up, like, evening wear.

Martina: Mmmm.

Blake: All that. The whole thing, you know. And there would only be like two boys in the whole pageant and the rest were all little girls.

Martina: How old were you?

Blake: I was six or seven.

Martina: Did you enjoy it?

Blake: No. I literally hated it. It the most embarrassing - And just hated to get dressed up. But I did it, and I agreed to do it, cos I got to sing on the talent portion of it. And there wasn't that many, I'd say there was probably, I don't know, five or six. It felt like a hundred, you know.

Martina: Yeah.

Blake: Until I finally told my mom that if - I don't want to sing anymore if that's I have to do to do it, you know. And I didn't sing for a long time. But I stayed excited about music, I kept taking guitar lessons and, uh, eventually by the time I was thirteen or fourteen, I'd started having the itch to get up in front of people and sing again. By that time, there was, uh, a couple of those little local Opry type shows in the area, and she was able to beg and get me on a few of those. Until finally I became a regular on one of them, and I think they had two shows a month at the McSwain Theater there in Ada. That's what I did right up until I graduated high school and - There was never any, like, 'I wonder what I'm gonna do' moment.

Martina: Me too.

Blake: It was just, 'I guess as soon as I can get my truck loaded, when I graduate, I'm going to Nashville.' Same thing you did.

Martina: Yeah. So you went to Nashville and you're like seventeen. How'd that - What did your parents think about that?

Blake: They didn't - I think they felt like, 'This is really probably the only shot this kid has at something.' You know. Better than what's around here. Cos they knew I wasn't going to go to college. I just, I barely, I literally graduated, I think, with a 1.75 grade average. I don't even know if you could graduate with that these days, cos it's - I don't know where the bar is. But, uh, that's what I graduated with and that was just because my teachers liked me, you know. I was friends with everybody. I just would not do the work. I just would not do the work.

Martina: Right. It was boring to you, probably.

Blake: Yeah. I just, I don't know what the block was, it was just - As soon as I heard the word 'homework', I just, I went deaf at that moment, you know. I just wouldn't do it. And I'm sure it was frustrating for my parents, but at the same time I was so into music and I was - By the time I was in high school, it's all I thought about, it's all I did. The coaches were trying to get me to play sports cos I was bigger than everybody, you know. But I did that, then I couldn't do the other. Cos of practice and games and... And so I just moved to Nashville as soon as I graduated.

Martina: Did you know anybody?

Blake: I knew Mae Axton.

Martina: Ah, okay.

Blake: Uh, because she was from Ada and she had come back for an award at one point, so I got to meet her, and she told me, she said, 'Well, if you move to Nashville, give me a call when you get there and I'll introduce you to some people.' And she did. She did. She hired me to do some work around her house -

Martina: Where did you live? What part of town?

Blake: I lived over there by, uh, Blackbird. I lived - There's an apartment complex called The Bransford House.

Martina: Okay.

Blake: Right there by the train tacks.

Allen: Oh, yeah! I know exactly where it is.

Blake: It's a wonder I lived, actually. Looking back. I mean, especially back then. That was, you didn't -

Martina: Rough.

Blake: - want to be over there back then, you know. It was really close to the fairgrounds and that was just a scary part of Nashville to be in. But it was the only place that I could afford. And actually, probably the only place that had something available right then, you know. Looking back, I know why. But I only lived there, I think, about six or eight months. And then we moved to an apartment complex called The Knolls, which is over on Nolansville and Franklin Road. I moved all around that town. I lived a little bit everywhere. Where was your first place?

Martina: In Donaldson. Up by the airport.

Blake: Yeah. Apartment?

Martina: It was a duplex. I think it was $450 a month. And we had - John and I were married. We'd gotten married in Kansas, so we'd come down together and scoped out a place to live. I don't know how we got routed in that direction -

Blake: How old were you when you got married?

Martina: Twenty-one.

Blake: Oh, okay.

Martina: Yeah. He was older. [laughs]

Blake: [laughs]

Martina: And he's always gonna be older than me. But, um, yeah, Donaldson. This little - And in this little duplex where we lived, there were probably seven or eight neighbors that moved in or out in, like, the year and a half or two years we lived there. And it was just a seedy kind of situation. I got pregnant with Delaney and I was like, 'I'm not having this baby in -

Blake: Right, right.

Martina: - this place.' And by that time, I had a little bit of success cos it was '94. Independence Day had just come out. I still wasn't making any money, but we'd borrowed enough to move to a house.

Blake: Mm.

Martina: In Brentwood. I lived there for like a long time.

Blake: Yeah.

Martina: So.

Blake: That's not where you're at now?

Martina: No. We're, um, at - My exact address is - No. [laughs]

Blake: [laughs]

Martina: No, we live just south of Downtown. Yeah. So just walk me through your day here. Everybody sees it on TV and they see the big chairs - where I want to sit before I leave -

Blake: Yeah.

Martina: But what's your, like, what's it really like?

Blake: Well, so, it depends on what part of the season we're in, but let's just talk about the Blind Auditions since that's what I'm doing right now. I usually have a call time of, like, ten-thirty for me. And I normally get here about eleven-fifteen. Cos I know what they're doing, you know. They have this call time that's like an hour of getting your hair done and changing clothes. I don't need that long, you know. This is me we're talking about here. So I'm gonna put on a jean jacket and comb my hair for me and some make-up, but - So I usually roll in about eleven-fifteen and, uh, they're always running late. If they're supposed to start at noon, we'll start at twelve-forty-five or one. That's just, I guess, how television -

Martina: Showbiz.

Blake: - production works. Yeah. There's a lot of moving parts on this show, you know, and it used to blow me away and now that I've been doing it awhile, it's like, 'Yeah, I can see how.' It's just a lot going on here. And so we'll normally have a meeting out there with the producers. They'll say, 'Hey, yesterday you got three people. Kelly, you got two.' Just kind of remind us of what happened yesterday. And if there was any, you know, what d'ya call 'em, runners. Like any jokes, ongoing jokes that are going to happen. They usually happen, obviously, organically but if there's something really funny that happens and that they can make it a constant throughout the blinds, like 'Hey, don't forget -

Martina: Yeah.

Blake: - you've made fun of Adam's hair. You said he looked like Ellen.'

Martina: [laughs]

Blake: 'So today, you know, think of some more people to say he looks like.'

Martina: Okay.

Blake: And so, um, that'll happen and then we'll go out there and start, you know. Carson usually introduces us and we'll go out and say hi to the studio audience, wave at them. Try to be fun. And then those chairs turn around and we start.

Martina: So do you have a strategy? Do you try to get a variety of people on your team or?

Blake: The only time I do that is whenever I can see that - 'Holy crap, I just, I've only got four people on my team and they're all girl country artists', you know. 'I can't push for another one of those'. Uh, but that very rarely happens. I mean, you get what you get on this show. And every time you think you've got somebody like, 'Oh, that's a country singer singing Ol' Red.' I mean, really. And then they'll pick Kelly or something.

Martina: Yeah.

Blake: And then sometimes just the opposite. You'll pick somebody, you know, a girl singer singing a Whitney Houston song and out of nowhere she chooses me as her coach. And I only hit my button out of respect.

Martina: Right.

Blake: And so you're really never knowing. And you find out that a lot of times people come in to this audition process with somebody in mind, like, that if John Legend hits his button, I'm for sure picking him. So many times we'll find out after the fact - through Carson or somebody - they'll say, 'They said whatever Kelly said just struck a nerve with them'. The pitch really does work. Even though you think, 'Nothing I say right now's gonna matter. Just try to be funny or whatever.' But it really does matter to a lot of people what you say to 'em.

Martina: Yeah. I was talking to Howie Mandel and he was talking about, um, when he went and did Deal Or No Deal, and how he had this whole comedy bit around - He had writers and a really last minute thing, and he was like, 'I'm gonna go out there and be funny', and he said the first contestant showed up and it was like this single mother and she turned down the first deal. She was like all in. And he was like, 'Oh, shit.' Like this is serious for her.

Blake: Right, right.

Martina: Like I need to change my whole attitude about the thing.

Blake: Right. He was joking it away and it was a big deal, yeah. It is. And you forgot sometimes because we're having so much fun with it that, you know, whatever journey this person is been on, to get them to this point, we don't know any of that until we watch the show back and we see all the backstories and find out that somebody, you know, had cancer, they overcame it, they took care of their mom and so they had to put their career on the backburner. You find all that out and then the moment comes. We don't know any of that. We're sittin' in our chairs laughing and -

Martina: Yeah.

Blake: - nobody turns around, and you go 'Oh my god', you know.

Martina: Yeah.

Blake: No idea. But at the same time, that's the music industry. That's - It's heartless. The industry part of it.

Martina: I love watching and there's like always this big, they do a lick or there's some kind of tone that they do. There's something that just clicks with somebody on the - either one of you or all of you.

Blake: Sure.

Martina: And it's like, 'That's it!' I love that moment.

Blake: Yeah.

Martina: Because that's how it really is. You hear something that's kind of undeniable. Even if you're just a fan of somebody on the radio. I love that.

Blake: Well, so many songs, like, a song like Wicked Game or something. Somebody comes out and they start singing it, and they're singing it really good but you're waiting to hear - are they gonna do the falsetto part that Chris Isaak does? Are they gonna sing it full-voice, you know? You may be sitting there waiting, I gotta know if they got a falsetto before I hit my button. So that's when you see those moments where you go, 'Ah, he did it!' You know.

Martina: Okay, love it. We're going to play a game.

Blake: Alright.

Martina: It's called 'Fake Or -

Blake: Did you write this game? C'mon. Be honest. You didn't -

Martina: I didn't. But listen, I wanted to tell you, I really - Allen knows, I'm very invested in this. And I really do spend a lot of time getting ready.

Blake: Okay.

Martina: And I love it. So - But I do have somebody who -

Blake: [laughs]

Martina: Cos I would have never thought to play a game, to be honest.

Blake: Right.

Martina: Right? Cos I dunno. I just never would've. So Adam's his name and he comes up with these games.

Blake: Mm-hmm.

Martina: So if you don't like it, it's Adam's fault.

Blake: Alright. Fair enough.

Martina: Anyway -

Blake: You have an Adam that you pick on too.

Martina: Yeah, exactly. It's called 'Fake or Blake'.

Blake: Okay.

Martina: Okay. And in this game, we're going to stroll through your Twitter feed.

Blake: Oh, god. Great.

Martina: The most hilarious tweets. And you have to guess which tweets are fake and which tweets are Blake.

Blake: Okay.

Martina: 'Yeehaw bitch'.

Blake: That's gotta be me.

Martina: [laughs] That was you.

Blake: That's Blake.

Martina: May 5th 2015 as a matter of fact. I don't know what that was about.

Blake: 'Yeehaw bitch'.

Allen: That's -

Blake: I was talking to my dog Betty.

Martina: That's deep.

Blake: Yeah. [laughs]

Allen: I love that, yeah.

Martina: Okay. 'Happy birthday, Martina. You got a shitload of spankings coming next time I see you. I love you.'

Blake: Oh, that's gotta be Blake.

Martina: Yep, that was you. That was sweet.

Blake: And I owe you a bunch of spankings, by the way, too.

Martina: I mean...

Blake: A lifetime's worth.

Martina: You know - [laughs] Okay. Here's one. 'Well, hell. Just ripped the crotch of my jeans and nobody told me. Hope you enjoy the view, front row.'

Blake: I think that's fake.

Martina: That's fake.

Blake: Yeah.

Allen: Sounds like something I would do.

Blake: Only cos of the word shitballs wasn't in there, you know. I feel like I would have said that.

Martina: Yep. Okay, 'I'm never drinking again.'

Blake: Fake.

Martina: That's totally fake.

Blake: Yeah.

Martina: It was too easy.

Blake: [laughs]

Martina: [laughs]

Blake: Although I have said, I would never say it on record like on Twitter.

Martina: You don't want to have anybody hold you to it.

Blake: Right. Right.

Martina: Okay. 'I'm so drunk right now I just defrosted my cat in the microwave.'

Blake: That's gotta be real.

Martina: That's real.

Blake: That's Blake.

Martina: I bet you got a lot of good response from that.

Blake: I'm sure PETA - I think they gave up on me. They don't even -

Martina: They don't even look -

Blake: They used to, they used to fire back a little bit at me, and now they just, they realize that I don't care.

Martina: Yeah. Okay. Here's the last one. 'Martina McBride just drunk dialed me and blamed me for Kenny Chesney.'

Blake: Ooh, that could - That's a good one. Is that fake?

Martina: Is it fake?

Blake: That's fake.

Martina: Okay. It's fake.

Blake: Okay.

Martina: That's right. Okay, some really quick questions. What's the worst food that you've ever eaten?

Blake: Oh man, I tasted vegemite one time.

Martina: Ergh.

Blake: And that crap is -

Martina: Terrible.

Blake: - horrifying. It's like it comes directly out of a cat's asshole. Onto your sandwich.

Allen: Wow.

Martina: Yeah.

Allen: That sounds wonderful.

Martina: What's your favorite food? Or, you know, just one of 'em. Just something.

Blake: Um, my favorite - I'll never get tired of just chicken fried steak and gravy. I mean, look at me. I can't - I can go on the path for five or six months and do good, and then one holiday, I'm just right back off the wagon and the next two years eating, you know, steak fingers and -

Martina: I love fried food.

Blake: - whatever you get at Dairy Queen.

Martina: Does Gwen cook?

Blake: Yeah, she cooks a lot.

Martina: Yeah.

Blake: She loves, uh, parties, like family type parties where she can - Like festive foods and things like that. We do a thing every year, every Christmas. This'll be the fifth one coming up, I guess. Fifth? Or fourth? I can't remember anymore. Well, we look up some kind of a unique dish that we try. And we'll always do a practice run and then we do the real one for Christmas. Last year was called a Timpani [sic] - I'm going to say this wrong - Timpani [sic] pasta dome.

Martina: Ooh. That sounds complicated.

Blake: Yeah, it was. It took forever to make it. She did a beef wellington. We're always trying to find something -

Martina: That's fun.

Blake: - new. Last year for Thanksgiving, Zuma, the middle boy, wanted to do a Hot Cheetos turkey.

Martina: Ooh.

Blake: Which he saw on YouTube. So we made that. You should try that. Hot cheetos turkey.

Martina: I like the hot cheetos, yeah. The girls like hot cheetos. Okay, what's your favorite TV show?

Blake: Uh, Good Morning Football. On (the) NFL channel. Love that show.

Martina: Yeah?

Blake: I watch it even when it's not football season. Like through the summer.

Martina: They have it on when it's not football season?

Blake: Which is weird, I know, but yes, they do. It's just a - The cast is just so much fun, just a fun group of people to watch.

Allen: I agree. It's a great show. And in off time, they're talking about, you know, once football's done, then there's the draft, then there's the -

Martina: Yeah.

Allen: There's always -

Martina: There's always something. I think football - Cos John's a big football fan. I think it's just, it used to be one or two days a week, now it's like five.

Blake: It is, you're right. [laughs]

Martina: Um, what Golden Girl would you be?

Blake: Which one was Bea Arthur?

Martina: Me too.

Blake: Yeah.

Martina: Dorothy.

Dorothy. Yeah. Because I just loved how - It's kinda how I feel on the show, you know what I mean. She was so sarcastic. Especially with Rose, just... Just beat her to death.

Martina: [laughs]

Blake: With sarcasm. It was so good.

Martina: I loved it too. Ah, let's see. Two more. Oh, how do you say 'porcupine'?

Blake: Porc-u-pine.

Martina: Thank you.

Blake: How do you say it?

Martina: Porc-u-pine.

Blake: How does other people say it?

Martina: Porc-e-pine.

Blake: Porc-u-pine. No.

Martina: My husband is a porc-e-pine person.

Blake: Really?

Martina: Yes. We have a big thing about it.

Blake: Why does he say that?

Martina: I don't know.

Blake: God, he gets on my nerves. So bad.

Martina: [laughs] Okay. Um. What stresses you out?

Blake: Is he still off the Diet Cokes or the -

Martina: The Dr Pepper?

Blake: Dr Pepper. Is he -

Martina: Yeah. Well.

Blake: Totally off of it?

Martina: Not totally. But way - You know, he used to drink about twenty-four of those a day.

Blake: Yea-ah.

Martina: Now he's down to about one a day.

Blake: Really?!

Allen: Somedays not one. It's really - he's basically off of them. From what he was.

Martina: Yeah.

Blake: Well, good for him.

Martina: Only took thirty years. [laughs]

Blake: [laughs]

Martina: I mean, nagging him and - What's the weirdest gift a fan has ever gotten you?

Blake: I've got two of those. Um, one is - and I still have it framed at my house - it's a toilet seat autographed by Earl Thomas Conley.

Martina: [laughs] Wow.

Blake: Yeah. Cos I used to tell this story about when I used to write songs with Earl. And about the first time I went to his house, I went to go use the restroom and all I could think about was how cool it was that Earl Thomas Conley sits on this toilet. And I used to tell that in my shows. So they went and got a toilet seat and had him autograph it for me. And I thought it was funny.

Martina: That is cool.

Blake: Uh, and then I was playing at a fair a hundred years ago, just probably somewhere in who knows where. And it's just a little one and at the end of the show, people were throwing - Ol' Red was the single at the time so people used to throw little stuffed animal dogs up onstage. Not a lot, two or three, you know. But I kept 'em.

Martina: Mm-hmm.

Blake: And so I picked up a couple of those stuffed animal dogs and then there was a paper sack with the top rolled up lying there, so I picked it up too. So I went to the bus and I sat down and it was hot and I had a drink. And I looked over at that sack and I thought, 'I wonder what that is.' I opened it up and, uh, a green iguana jumped out of the sack. Literally jumped out like it was desperately waiting for somebody to open this thing so he could get the hell out of there. It landed on my shoulder and I freaked out. I grabbed it and I just threw it across the bus and it slammed against the wall. And it was just as confused as I was, you know. And I found out, this fair, instead of, you know, back in my day the little ring toss, you could win a freaking goldfish or something.

Martina: Yeah.

Blake: Literally, they were giving away iguanas as prizes. And some parent was like, 'You're not -

Martina: Taking that home.

Blake: 'You're not keeping that. Give it to Blake.' I guess. So that's what happened. And my monitor guy Tim Moore, he ended up keeping it. Took it home, you know. I don't know whatever happened to it.

Martina: Oh my god.

Blake: I guess it recovered from the wall slamming.

Martina: Geez.

Blake: But it scared the crap out of me.

Martina: Yeah. Okay. Last question. When are we going to do a duet?

Blake: We've done a duet!

Martina: Well, yeah.

Blake: Whenever. I'm ready.

Martina: Okay.

Blake: I would be honored to do a duet with you. I can't sing with you, though.

Martina: Yes, you can. You're a great singer.

Blake: You have to dumb down to sing with me.

Martina: No, no, no.

Blake: Yes, you do.

Martina: That's not true.

Blake: Maybe we can find a key that - I always felt like I'm Sorry should've been a single.

Martina: I love it.

Blake: That was a great song. Chris Stapleton wrote that one.

Martina: Oh, I didn't know that!

Blake: Yeah. I remember when I cut that and then you sang on it, I played it for Trace one day. I don't know why I play songs for Trace cos he hates everything. He told me one time that, uh, Sangria was the worst song he had ever heard.

Martina: Really?

Blake: In his life. And then I reminded him that he recorded Swing Batter Batter Swing and Brown Chicken Brown Cow.

Allen: Yep.

Martina: Yeah. Gotta keep him in check.

Blake: But anyway, I played him I'm Sorry, and he said, 'You only recorded that cos Chris Stapleton's singing and the demo's real good.' That was his critique.

Martina: He's a positive guy.

Blake: Why's he so grumpy? Why do I waste my time on that guy? Unbelievable.

Martina: Maybe he's happy, maybe now that you've officially married him, he'll be happier.

Blake: I doubt it.

Martina: Yeah. [laughs]

Blake: I doubt it.

Martina: Well, thank you. I'm happy. I'm happy that you did this.

Blake: Me too!

Martina: Thank you so much.

Blake: And we're going to do a duet.

Martina: Okay. Alright. I'd love it.

Blake: 'K.

Martina: I'm like, I'd have to wear my high heels, though.

Blake: [laughs]

Martina: Vocal Point with Martina McBride.