Blake Shelton reveals he’s looking forward to his career slowing down so he can spend more time with his family.
The country singer was a guest at the Country Radio Seminar 2022 where he sat down with “Country Countdown USA” host Lon Helton for an intimate hour-long interview.
He talked about everything from his music, to his childhood, but when it came to the twilight years of his career, Shelton said he wasn’t afraid.
“What I’ve been looking forward to doing for the last four or five years … is eyeing that timeline, that part of my career, where I just need to start stripping some things away,” the 45-year-old said during the event in Nashville, via People. “You gotta get some life in there, and marrying Gwen [Stefani], I’ve married into a family. She’s got three boys … and all of a sudden you go, there’s other stuff.”
The two began dating in 2015 after co-starring as opposing judges on “The Voice.” They were married in 2021 and raise Stefani’s three sons Kingston, 15, Zuma, 13, and Apollo, 8, along with her ex Gavin Rossdale.
The two are a picture-perfect couple now, but getting married and becoming a family together wasn’t always in the cards.
“I think Gwen thought, when we first started seeing each other, that it was just gonna be a moment in time because of [her sons],” he said, as taking on children along with a new relationship was difficult for a lot of people.
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But the country star never once hesitated over taking in the No Doubt singer’s children.
His own father accepted his mother’s son Richie from a previous relationship with open arms.
“He took Richie on and raised him from the time he was 1 year old, and my brother never thought of my dad as anything other than his dad,” said Shelton, whose brother died in a car accident in 1990. “The example that my dad set for me was that [child] was not even a consideration [in a romantic partnership]. You got three boys? Awesome! My dad did it. My dad raised me. I could do this. I didn’t know what I was signing up for, but I was all about signing up for it. And every day I’ve fallen in love with the boys as much as I do with Gwen.”
As for his own relationship with his sons, Shelton said they often bond at his Oklahoma ranch.
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He taught the city boys how to enjoy the farmland and rural life.
“The two of them were like, ‘Well, what do we do now?'” Shelton recalled of their first visit. “I go, ‘Go out that door and don’t come back till you’re too tired to go any further.’ Well, they can’t even imagine just going down to the creek with a net or turning over rocks or getting on a buggy and driving around.”
Now he likes to warn people of the mischief his boys get up to in the outdoors.
“When it comes to burning things and starting fires and throwing hatchets, you better get out of the way!” he teased.
It’s because of what he has to look forward to with his family, that he’s prepared for the end of his own career.
“I’ve kind of always been prepared for when this ends and my songs aren’t getting played anymore,” he said. “And I learned to accept it a few years ago — maybe three or four or five years ago — that it’s coming … You have to be honest with yourself, and you can’t believe that this is gonna go on forever, because it’s not.”
