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On The Cover: BLAKE SHELTON
Label: Reprise Records
Current Album: All About Tonight
Current Single/Video: “All About Tonight”
Current Producer: Scott Hendricks
Hometown: Ada, Oklahoma
Management: Starstruck Management Group
Booking: William Morris Endeavour
Recent Hits: “Hillbilly Bone” (No. 1), “She Wouldn’t Be Gone” (No. 1), “Home” (No. 1)
Awards: ACM Award for “Vocal Event of the Year” and CMT Award for “Collaborative Video of the Year”
Special TV/Film Appearances: Good Morning America, The Today Show, Chelsea Lately
Birthdate: June 18, 1976
Interesting Facts: Likes orange flavored gum, thinks Chuck Taylors look ridiculous, loves the Golden Girls and garage sales.
Outside Interests: Hunting, gardening (growing watermelon, squash, sweet corn and potted tomatoes)
Musical Influences: Earl Thomas Conley, Bellamy Brothers, Conway Twitty, John Conlee… notice I am not listing anyone who isn’t country
Favorite Record: Somewhere Between Right & Wrong (Earl Thomas Conley)
Two Six Paks in, Shelton is feeling as good as he’s ever felt about his career. “This has been an amazing year for me,” he says. “If you would have told me when I started out that I would have two major awards, a CD in the upper reaches of the charts, a sold-out show at the Ryman Auditorium and a career that’s generally on fire, I would have thought you were pulling my leg.”
He’s got all that and more. The Six Paks, of course, are Blake’s two most recent CD’s, innovative ways to get music into the hands of his fans more often. The first, Hillbilly Bone, included a title track that sped to the coveted No. 1 spot on the singles charts and won Blake two major awards—Vocal Event of the Year from the Academy of Country Music and Collaborative Video of the Year (with his partner in crime Trace Adkins) from CMT.
Now, with the release of the follow-up, All About Tonight, Blake is ready to take it up yet another notch. “No one should be surprised that I love a good six-pack,” says the Ada, Oklahoma, crowd-rocker, “and when you’ve got a party crowd, if one is good, two is better.”
Blake has hit a sweet spot with these latest releases, drawing on the talents of songwriting buddies like Rhett Akins, Dallas Davidson, Ben Hayslip, Jeff Bates, Tony Mullins and Craig Wiseman. All About Tonight continues Blake’s tradition of capturing on record both the touching and the rowdy aspects of country life.
Blake has visited the No. 1 spot on the country singles chart six times, with three of those coming in the last three years. Both “Home” from Pure BS Deluxe and “She Wouldn’t Be Gone” from Startin’ Fires hit the top, and he has not had a single that peaked outside the Top Ten since 2007.
And while he is blazing trails with Six Paks, he is also re-inventing the way country’s rowdier acts are connecting with fans via social networking. Though Twitter, YouTube and the like were once thought to be the domain of younger, more pop-oriented artists, Blake has recreated the genre in his own image. His tweets are irreverent, edgy, timely and hilarious, and they have become the talk of fans and industry alike.
Category: Artist
