Turns out, Blake Shelton nearly walked away from music altogether because his mama signed him up for beauty pageants.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s just say\u2026 he wasn\u2019t exactly thrilled about it.<\/p>\n
In a recent interview on Q with Tom Power, Blake opened up about that early and wildly uncomfortable chapter of his childhood. \u201cCan\u2019t you tell by looking at me that I\u2019m pageant material?\u201d he joked. But behind the humor was a story about a kid trying to chase his dream in a way that didn\u2019t feel like his own.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t exactly where he saw himself. \u201cI was so embarrassed and humiliated by being in those pageants,\u201d he admitted. \u201cI told her, I said, \u2018Mom, I don\u2019t want to sing anymore because it\u2019s just embarrassing. And my friends are going to find out.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The pageants may have only happened \u201csix or seven times,\u201d but to young Blake, it felt like a lifetime. He had two signature songs: \u201cOld Time Rock and Roll\u201d and Ted Nugent\u2019s \u201cCat Scratch Fever.\u201d Great songs, but not exactly what you\u2019d expect from a seven-year-old boy. \u201cWe literally thought it was about somebody\u2019s house cat scratching them and making them sick or something,\u201d he said, laughing. \u201cNeither me nor my mom had a clue what that song was about.\u201d<\/p>\n