Blake Shelton’s Honey of a Hit

Ten years after his first #1, Blake Shelton was in Nashville to celebrate his 9th chart topper.  Like “Austin,” his latest spent multiple weeks at the top.  But “Honey Bee” was also his fourth #1 in a row, and that’s a first for Blake.  Before the party, Blake spoke to the Nashville media about this song and his career.

The song’s writers, Rhett Akins and Ben Hayslip, told the media they wrote the song for Blake. “We wrote the song humorous, and that’s where Blake came in.  We could hear him saying this to Miranda.  That’s why we put in the line ‘This might come out a little crazy.’  I thought nobody else would cut it but Blake.  So Blake, thank you.”

There’s a line about “You’ll be my little Loretta, I’ll be your Conway Twitty.”  Where did that line come from? According to Rhett, “We were trying to rhyme with whiskey, and were looking for ‘icky’ rhymes.”  Blake also had Conway’s name in Hillbilly Bone.  Any concerns?  “No, I don’t think there’s been enough talk about him. I also recorded Goodbye Time, which was a hit for Conway.   I gotta find somebody else to brag on.  Can you put Earl Thomas Conley in a song?” 

Blake, where were you when you first heard Honey Bee? I was in Evansville IN, doing a TV special for GAC.  My producer played it for me, and it was one where I said, ‘Yep.’  First listen, instantly knew I was gonna cut it.  My only concern was I couldn’t get it out fast enough.  We hadn’t released the Greatest Hits album yet.  So that was my worry, but they were patient, and here we are!  I’ve had hits before, but never one that’s had that much impact.  Who would have thought that my signature song would happen ten years into my career.  It’s awesome.

What was it about the song that appealed to the fans? It’s not brain surgery, it’s just so catchy and fun.  There’s nothing heavy.  The quirky parts are what fit into my fan base.  There’s no down side to that song, great melody, I wish I had 20 of those, it’s hard to figure out why people reacted to it the way they did, but it was timing and everything coming together.  I wish I knew.

How does it feel to be nominated for CMA Entertainer? It’s probably a little early, but I’m pumped about it.  Just to get in there, and maybe next year or the year after, I could be that guy.  That’s what I want to be.  But most of it has to do with The Voice and hopefully I was a good representative for Nashville on a show like that.  I think that alone is why I’m in that category this year, but the momentum with Honey Bee, now’s my time to take advantage of it.  But I’m freakin’ out about it.

How do you feel about the New York Times calling you the Ambassador of Country?  I don’t know if it puts pressure on me.  You don’t see a lot of country artists end up in pop culture.  Somehow Miranda and I are there now.  It’s all good for this town, and that’s what’s important.  Country music is what’s important to me, it’s why I moved here.  So for them to call me an ambassador is a biog deal to me, and I love it.  It was my dream to be an important country artist.  How I got here isn’t important.

You don’t live in Nashville now, so why was it important for you to come here today for this party?  I love to collect trophies and prizes and things.  This song isn’t one that anyone should skip out on.  This is a big deal.

You & Miranda are famous now, so does it make it hard for you to go places?  We definitely don’t go to as many places like we used to.  But if that’s the worst thing, it’s awesome.  It can be a pain, because some of the stuff is hurtful.  But outside of that, this is what I moved to town for.  It’s awesome, and it’s been ten years and it makes it more gratifying to me.  I know how rare it is to be in this position.  So it’s not a problem.

Talk about the new video for “Footloose:” The video is cool.  We did it yesterday in Lewisburg TN.  It’s got a bunch of kids in it.  I expected it to be polarizing, and that’s OK because I’m that guy.  I’ve been reading a lot of comments from people about it, and they’re either ‘I hate it,’ or ‘I love it.’  That’s what I’m good at.  I’m interested to see how the movie’s gonna do.  There’s a whole generation of people who haven’t seen it.  I think they did an amazing job with it.  When we went in to record the song, I didn’t want to change a thing.  It worked the first time around, and that is THE scene in the movie.  With me singing it, it’s countrier than the first time, but that’s how I sing.

Tour plans for 2012? We’ll be making an announcement in a couple weeks.  I signed on to tour with Brad Paisley this year, and two months later I got the offer to do The Voice, and I wanted to do that too.  So it was rough because I had to travel a lot to do both.  So with The Voice starting next month, I’m not touring this fall.  I’m not going to do that again.  Any headline tour will be next year. 

Talk about the video for God Gave Me You: I knew how I wanted to begin the video.  There was this wedding video that leaked out by one of us who didn’t know how to use the computer.  The wedding video began with Miranda talking to me, and what she was saying was so cool, and the reason I cut that song was because of her and the ups & downs of our relationship.  Everything she said at the opening of that wedding video was the truth.  It said everything that is the reason I recorded that song.  So we took that and made it my chapter in the video, and then had a lot of other stories.  But that’s probably the most personal video I’ve done, and the reason why I recorded the song.  She thought about me using it for a week.  She wants to keep more of us for us.  But I talked her out of it.  Probably be the last time.

Tags: Blake

Category: NEWS