Launch Media (March 5th 2002)

Blake Shelton Changed By Success

Blake Shelton beat the odds and broke through onto the country music scene with the release of his very first single, "Austin," which shot to the top of the singles charts.

Shelton says he never expected such success right out of the box, and keeping up hasn't been easy, as he tells us: "It's hard to grow and be smart about it when it happens that fast, you know? I'm just now starting to settle into this a little bit and maybe get to where I can make some right decisions for a change and just be smart about it. It's hard to go from nothing to that because people don't see that you came from not knowing. They just see that you have a big hit song. It's all a blessing, but it's hard to hold on to."

While grateful for the momentum in his rapidly rising career, Shelton admits instant fame changed him over the course of the last year, as he explains: "I think I did change last year a little bit. I kind of stopped being myself and was kind of resistant to people and kind of pushed a lot of people out of my life for no reason. It's hard to explain why you do that, so I spent the better part of December and January making up with everybody and apologizing for myself. You just kind of go through something that is hard to explain. I guess I just started kind of pushing people away and kind of pulled into myself a little bit. I'm just now getting to where I'm comfortable with what I do."

Shelton's current single, "All Over Me," sits at Number 18 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart. His next single, "Ol' Red," will be released to radio on March 25.