Blake Shelton Q&A: Why He Wanted To Make A ‘Stereotypical Country’ Record

Country superstar Blake Shelton just dropped his new album, “Bringing Back The Sunshine.”

It’s lucky No. 9 for Blake – his ninth studio album – and with it, he’s worked hard to capture a more traditional country sound.

In a new interview with Access Hollywood’s Shaun Robinson, Blake addressed making his new record, and his “country as dirt” single “Neon Light.” He also told Shaun about why he finds it so hard to say “no” to opportunities.

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Shaun Robinson: ‘Bringing Back the Sunshine,’ your new album, I know you’re very excited about it. … You said that this was a grittier album than your last two. Why do you think so?
Blake Shelton: Well, you know what? The last two, I tried to make albums that are kind of a reflection of where I’m at in my life right now, and those last two records I made — the first one was just before Miranda [Lambert] and I got married and then the last one was just after we got married so we were kind of in the–

Shaun: You were in a happy time, right?
Blake: Oh yeah, and now it’s like, we’ve been married for three years, I’ve gotta sing some damn drinking songs again, you know what I mean? It’s like, honeymoon’s over, so… I just wanted to make a country — stereotypical country — record. And I love that. It’s one of my favorite things about country music. Everybody says, ‘Aww man! It’s just crying in your beer.’ Yeah, you’re damn right it is. That’s why I do it.

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Shaun: You said ‘Bringing Back Sunshine’ is kind of like bringing back the country. Do you feel like country’s gotten a little lost?
Blake: I don’t know that country’s gotten lost, I mean, I think it’s definitely going in a direction that it probably needs to go and wants to go. I mean, the younger, more popular artists are the ones who really steer the format wherever it’s going to go. You got guys like Luke Bryan and Jason Aldean and Taylor Swift, and my wife, and so they’re going to steer it wherever it wants to go. I think some of my older stuff has kind of gotten lost in the shuffle… for myself, and so this album–

Shaun: How do you mean?
Blake: Just constantly pushing the boundaries and pushing the boundaries, and I’m proud of everything I’ve done and I’m going to keep doing that. I just wanted to kind of take at least one record to kind of reflect on how this all started for me, you know what I mean? And I think ‘Neon Light,’ the first single off this record is a good indicator—

Shaun: That’s true country?
Blake: That’s right. … We recorded it, it’s got elements of what you hear on the radio today with some loops and things, you know? But, man that sucker, that’s country as dirt, you know what I mean? And I’m proud of that.

Shaun: Have you ever been tempted to go a little pop like Taylor Swift?
Blake: … I recorded a song with Christina Aguilera that was a single and I did a song with Shakira, and I don’t know, I–

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Shaun: It doesn’t feel like you?
Blake: It feels awesome, I just don’t know that people take me seriously doing something like that. I mean, it’s still me. I mean, I’m still inbred so I don’t know, I gotta stick with my country inbred roots.

Shaun: You toured this summer, then you taped ‘The Voice,’ now you’re doing album promotion. Does your schedule ever become too much? Do you ever wake up and kind of say, ‘What day is this and what am I doing today?’ Does is ever become too overwhelming?
Blake: Yes, yes it does, and, and every year I declare like, ‘That is it! Damn it! I don’t care, I’m taking a year off,’ or I’m taking six months off and then it’s, ‘All right, three months, three months I’m taking.’ And now it’s like, I’m taking this week off now. You know, things come, they line up, there’s opportunities and I love what I do … and I don’t want to look back on this one of these days and go ‘Man, I wish [I had done that] extra season of ‘The Voice,’ or I wish I’d a done that one more leg of the tour.’ You know what I mean? I don’t ever wanna look back and say that, so right now I’m just trying to do all the things that I want to do and not be a wimp about it.

Shaun: Do you ever feel that you will scale back your role on ‘The Voice’ like Christina Aguilera did?
Blake: Well, you know what? Not like Christina Aguilera did. … I won’t ever take a season off and then come back. I mean if I ever step away it’s gonna be moving on to whatever’s next, you know? And I’ve said that from day one. Right now it would be hard for me to see that show come on TV and someone else sitting in my chair, you know?

Shaun: You’d feel kind of bad about that, wouldn’t you?
Blake: I mean, that show is my baby too at this point, you know? And Adam [Levine] and I, and Carson [Daly] — the three of us have been there since day one and it’s, it’s a big deal to us, you know?