Blake Shelton Looks Back on His Touring Career

Lately, Blake Shelton has been getting a little reflective. With all that he has achieved in his career since he started in 2001, it’s understandable. One of the things that Shelton started thinking about was his touring career and how it’s different now for the artists compared to his time.   

After years on the road, he is looking back at the miles and the memories that shaped him into the superstar he is today.   

In an interview (via Country Now), the former The Voice coach revealed how surprised he was by how country artists can now release a breakout album and then sell out stadiums. “I look back at my touring career and I guess the pinnacle was…it would’ve been probably back when I had an album called Based on a True Story, and it had ‘Boys ‘Round Here’ and we were really having some big records back then and my touring had gotten was strong, and we played Wrigley Field one night, and that was really cool to sell that out.”  

He added, “But I feel like we got there, and then it didn’t stay up there. For me, I’ve always kind of been about that level of an arena touring act, you know what I mean? Which, by the way, who gets to do that? It’s incredible.”  

The "Pour Me a Drink” singer acknowledged the fact that country music artists today can have a hit through different channels, specifically, going viral on social media: “I see these kids coming up now like Luke Combs and Zach Bryan and these guys are selling out stadiums, stadiums multiple nights and I’m just going, ‘Wow, gosh, I didn’t even know that was out there for country artists to be able to do that.’”  

He explained, “These kids now are just like one album, and next thing you know, they’re playing a stadium. It’s just music is taken in differently now with streaming, and an artist doesn’t just have to rely on having one hit song on the radio. They put out an album, and it catches on. People know every single song on their album, and they can sing along to it at your shows. It’s just different.”  

Still, Shelton would not change anything he did for his career, even playing at clubs, since they were a lot of fun. “I was lucky that I got to come up when there was still a club scene out there because now I feel like it’s pretty much gone now, outside of few legendary places like Billy Bob’s or Grizzly Rose, there’s just not that many left. But when I was coming up, there was a lot of country dance clubs and things where we would get booked.” 

He also recalled performing anywhere and everywhere; bars, bowling alleys, and restaurants, but he didn’t mind. “I was still just getting by, but I didn’t care because it was just having, I was getting to live my dream, getting to go play. I had a song on the radio.”