Blake Shelton Explains Why He’ll Never Live in Nashville: ‘It Never Felt Like Home’
Country superstar Blake Shelton is known for his hit music and TV appearances in The Voice and Barmageddon. More recently, he left The Voice behind to continue his quaint country life with Gwen Stefani and her kids in Oklahoma. And he once explained why he had no interest in living in Nashville. Here’s what he said.
Blake Shelton explained why he doesn’t want to leave Oklahoma for Nashville, Tennessee
Blake Shelton was born and raised in Oklahoma, where he lives with his wife, fellow rocker Gwen Stefani. While Shelton’s traveled the world as a country superstar, he loves his roots.
Shelton answered questions on the Bobby Bones Show, and one listener asked Shelton why he didn’t want to live in Nashville, the country music capital of America.
“Well, you know, I did for about, right at 12 years,” Shelton explained. “I moved there in ’94. I was 17 when I moved to Nashville. My plan was always, if I ever got my foot in the door and had some success, I was gonna move back home to Oklahoma. Nashville always just felt like where I would go to work. But it never felt like home to me. I’m just from Oklahoma, and that’s just how it’s always been for me.”
Shelton came from humble beginnings in Ada, Oklahoma. He lived with his father in an apartment after his parent’s divorce. “I went fishing or hunting every day after school,” he said on 60 Minutes. “Whatever I had ended up on that porch. We were bachelors. We had a lot of chicken chow mein in that house. And deer chili.”
Blake Shelton moved to Nashville in the hopes of hearing 1 of his songs on the radio
When Blake Shelton moved away from Oklahoma to Nashville, Tennessee, in his teens, he had one goal — and that was to hear his song on the radio.
“I moved to Nashville after I graduated high school hoping to hear just one of my songs on country radio,” Shelton told Billboard, according to CMT. “I don’t think there’s a word to describe how blessed or fortunate I’ve been over these years.”
Shelton’s debut single in 2001, “Austin,” was his first song to hit No. 1 on the charts. “Now, to have 28 No. 1 singles — not to mention two consecutive ones with the fantastically talented and life-saving Gwen Stefani — my lucky streak continues,” he stated.
Gwen Stefani has fully embraced the Oklahoma lifestyle
Gwen Stefani is a California girl, but she embraced Blake Shelton’s country lifestyle in Oklahoma. She admitted it’s been quite an adjustment, but she loves it.
“I am not really a dirt person, a bug person, I don’t like that much humidity,” she told People. “But it’s so beautiful [in Oklahoma], and you kind of feel like you’re going into this vortex. Nature — and God — is all right there.”
Shelton and Stefani live on a beautiful 1,300-acre ranch in a 2,000-square-foot home, and they even had a chapel built on the property so they could get married on the estate. It seems like they’re sticking with the country life moving forward.
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