Country Aircheck (July 5th 2011)

Blake Shelton's Voice Post-Mortem

In one of his first interviews after completing work on the first season of The Voice, Blake Shelton sat down with our Lon Helton for CMT’s Country Countdown USA. In the midst of that interview, he spoke with Helton for Country Aircheck about his experience on the show:

CA: Congrats on the huge success of The Voice and, most of all, thanks for representing all of us in country so well.

BS: Thank you. I’m happy about the impact it’s had on my career, but, more than that, just working with those kids and getting to know them has changed my life.

How so?

I learned a lot about myself. I’ve been doing this for 10 years and may have gotten a bit calloused. Being around Xenia and Dia and seeing that fire in their eyes awakened part of me and reminded me why I love what I do.

At one point they cut to you when Miranda and Dia were singing “The House That Built Me.” What were you thinking?

I was mostly thinking about Dia. No more than two months ago she was about to give up on her dream of music and had moved back home with her mom and sisters in Utah. I was so happy for her because I got so emotionally invested in Dia. I had never wanted to see something happen so bad for somebody who wasn’t family. Miranda wanted [success] really badly for Dia, too. Once Dia figures out what her plan is, you’ll probably see her and Miranda write together.

Was there much disappointment that Javier won?

The night before the results show, Dia said to me, “I would feel stupid if I beat Javier because I think he represents more what the show is than me.” And I can’t argue with her on that, because Dia is a unique artist. Javier is The Voice. Dia is an amazing singer who did give it every thing she had and almost won that thing. She’s going to do everything she ever wanted to do, and she’s also really genuinely happy and relieved that Javier won.

You came out OK, too. I saw a New York magazine blog that said you were the winner among the judges.

That’s cool, but I probably had the most to gain. The other three are pop and rock stars; they’re on TV and in magazines a lot more than country artists. I was in a situation to not make a difference at all, which would have been expected, or to get up there and wave my arms and get noticed. I really appreciate what you said when I first sat down because the one thing that was in the back of my mind the whole time - the thing that probably kept me from self- destructing like I often do - is knowing what I was representing.

I felt a responsibility to country music and to Nashville to take it serious and to work as hard as I could because everything that happens in this genre on a stage like that affects what happens back here. There may be people who never listen to country music that might go buy one of my records now because of that show. And when they buy one of my records, they’ll say, “Who’s Miranda Lambert?” and buy that one, and, next thing you know, they’re buying country records. That’s important to me.

Is it true you almost passed on the show?

When I heard it was another music talent show I just thought, “That’s stupid, there’s already one of those. Why would I get involved in that? People are going to laugh at it.” The turning point was two things: They sent me a link to watch the Dutch version of “The Voice,” and there was so much going on, which I thought was a lot of fun. But mostly when I saw the other three coaches had signed on [I realized] how big they were and really felt stupid for dragging my feet.

With the show’s success, are you concerned about remaining who you are with the music and not going Hollywood?

I actually haven’t gotten back to my normal life yet. The show just ended, and now I’m back here promoting my album, which is the heart and soul and core of what I do, [which] still, and always will be, is country music. And it is hard to stay focused, not because of being on television and that type of exposure, [but] because of dumping all my energy and focus into those kids. It’s an adjustment to go back to, “Oh, now it’s about me again” and concentrating on selling me.

And the network probably did this with everyone on the show, but my manager said the network wanted to talk about me appearing on a sitcom or maybe even writing one for me. But here’s how I look at it: This is a dream job for me. I get to be on TV and basically make an ass of myself, as I would at a karaoke bar or somewhere, but I get to do it with rock and pop stars. I’m never going to be on a show bigger than this, and I still get to go make country music and tour and do what I love. Everything else would be a step down from this. I just want to enjoy these two things I have going on and live them out as much as I can, and not muddy the water.