Blake Shelton says “God’s Country” “reignited his excitement” when he felt his recording career was “slipping”
Warner Nashville
Wednesday evening at Music City’s Ole Red Nashville venue, Blake Shelton celebrated the chart-topping success of his multiple-week number one, “God’s Country,” with its writers: Devin Dawson, HARDY, and Jordan Schmidt.
“I’ve been very fortunate as a recording artist to get the right songs along the way,” Blake observes. “I write a little bit, but I’ve always considered myself a singer first.”
“I’m just the kind of guy that I want to make the best records I can possibly make,” he continues, “and I don’t care who writes the song. I just want the best songs I can find.”
The star of The Voice admits “God’s Country” came along when he felt he needed it.
“If I said, ‘Hey man, my last record kind of felt like things are slipping, and this is sloughing off a little bit here,’” he explained, “people would say… ‘What are you talking about? You had a number-one song on there, and the album’s gold. It’s a platinum single…’ But still, you kind of feel it.”
Blake was at home in Oklahoma mulching trees with a tractor when he first heard the song’s demo.
“I was literally working in the spot in the video where we burned the tractor,” he reveals.
Blake immediately felt “God’s Country” was the song that could give his recording career the boost he felt it needed.
“I stopped and I called [producer] Scott [Hendricks],” he recalls. “I go, ‘Man, I don’t know where that song came from, but that’s literally the kind of song that makes me want to make another record, that kinda reignites my excitement — not for country music, but for what I do in country music.”
Blake also teased he’s already recorded what will likely be the follow-up to his latest number one.
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