Turns out, Blake Shelton nearly walked away from music altogether because his mama signed him up for beauty pageants.

Long before Blake was headlining tours, racking up 30 No. 1s, or cracking jokes on The Voice, he was a small-town Oklahoma kid belting out rock and country hits at local pageants. And let’s just say… he wasn’t exactly thrilled about it.

In a recent interview on Q with Tom Power, Blake opened up about that early and wildly uncomfortable chapter of his childhood. “Can’t you tell by looking at me that I’m pageant material?” he joked. But behind the humor was a story about a kid trying to chase his dream in a way that didn’t feel like his own.

Back then, his biggest stages were gymnasiums and high school auditoriums. And while he loved singing, being the only boy in a sea of sequined dresses wasn’t exactly where he saw himself. “I was so embarrassed and humiliated by being in those pageants,” he admitted. “I told her, I said, ‘Mom, I don’t want to sing anymore because it’s just embarrassing. And my friends are going to find out.’”

The pageants may have only happened “six or seven times,” but to young Blake, it felt like a lifetime. He had two signature songs: “Old Time Rock and Roll” and Ted Nugent’s “Cat Scratch Fever.” Great songs, but not exactly what you’d expect from a seven-year-old boy. “We literally thought it was about somebody’s house cat scratching them and making them sick or something,” he said, laughing. “Neither me nor my mom had a clue what that song was about.”

That chapter was enough to make him hang it up for a while. No more talent shows, no more microphones, just silence. “I quit after that,” he said. “And it wasn’t until I was probably 12 or 13 that I started wanting to perform again.”

Thankfully, his mom didn’t give up. Dorothy Shelton might’ve had some questionable taste in booking her son’s early gigs, but her belief in his talent never wavered. When Blake started showing interest again, she tracked down every “Opry-type” show she could find in and around Ada, Oklahoma. “She would go beg ’em to let me be on,” he recalled. “And that’s when I was finally getting to do the stuff I loved—Kentucky Headhunters, Travis Tritt, Paul Overstreet, Mark Collie.”

From that point on, there was no stopping him. The kid who once swore off performing was back with a vengeance, now singing songs that actually sounded like his own. And this time, the spark stuck.

What’s wild is that those cringe-worthy pageants might’ve just been the very thing that lit the fire under him. As awkward as they were, they gave Blake his first taste of a stage. And they taught him something every country artist learns eventually: you’ve gotta take the hits, roll with the weird gigs, and find your way through the mess to get to the music that matters.

Now, decades later, he’s got platinum records, packed arenas, and a career most country kids can only dream about. But he never forgets where he came from or the well-meaning mom who made him sing “Cat Scratch Fever” in a pageant tux.

From pageant kid to country king, Blake Shelton’s journey proves that even the most embarrassing detours can lead you exactly where you’re meant to be.