Billboard country music artist Blake Shelton has recorded ten studio albums, performed all over American country artist circles and has been a judge on NBC’s The Voice since its inception in 2011. In addition to The Voice, Shelton has hosted other singing competitions, such as Nashville Star and Clash of the Choirs. The Oklahoma born music sensation has been singing since age 12, wrote his first song at 15 and won a Denbo Diamond Award at age 16. Shelton moved to Nashville to pursue a music career after graduating high school.
His original label, Giant Records, originally wanted to have Shelton release the song, “I Wanna Talk About Me,” but changed their mind thinking it was unsuitable as a debut single. That song was eventually recorded by Toby Keith and reached number one. His star power was simply too much to be dependent on any one song. Shelton’s debut single, “Austin,” which hit number one shortly after Giant Records closed down, with Shelton being transferred to the parent Warner Bros. label.
While a product of the Nashville music scene, Shelton records at studios all over the country, such as the Evergreen Stage and Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles and Electric Lady Studios in New York. In fact, he along with renowned country music producer Scott Hendricks recently recorded a string session at the Evergreen Stage.
Scott Hendricks has produced music for more than 30 country music artists, including Brooks and Dunn, Alan Jackson and Faith Hill. His work spans a career dating back to 1985 and he was instrumental in lifting Shelton to his status. However, Hendricks is forever humble, often crediting the artists almost entirely for the work they create.
As of 2019, Hendricks has produced 112 Top 10 hits, with 71 hitting No. 1. In all, he’s spent 114 weeks— over two years —at the top of the chart. He is most proud of the fact that he has taken nineteen different artists to the Top 10, thirteen of which have reached No. 1.
As of June 2017, Blake Shelton has had 33 singles on the charts, including 24 hitting number one, 17 consecutively. The 11th consecutive No. 1, “Doin’ What She Likes,” broke the record for the most consecutive No. 1 singles in the Country Airplay chart’s 24-year history. He is also a seven-time Grammy Award nominee.
