Blake Shelton is back on top. Shelton currently has the No. 1 hit in the country, with "Texas." The song is from his upcoming For Recreational Use Only album, out on May 9.
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"Texas" also marks Shelton's 30th single to land at the top of the charts. It's an accomplishment Shelton admits he finds hard to believe.
"It's been a few years since I've had a solo No. 1 single, and I'm super fired up about this one," Shelton says. "I had no idea if 'Texas' would be a number one song, but the first time I heard it, I knew that it was something different and it sounded like nothing else I'd ever done before."
Shelton goes on to praise the songwriters Johnny Clawson, Kyle Sturrock, Josh Dorr, Lalo Guzman, before sharing his honest thoughts on having 30 No. 1 singles.
"I've always been a nerd for stats and things like that in country music," Shelton says. "I'm always looking up artists, whether it's Ronnie Milsap or Alabama or George Strait or Reba, just to see how many albums they've sold or how many number ones they've had. And because of that, the idea of me having 30 number one singles, it blows my mind. I can't even wrap my head around it, because I know how long it takes to get there, and how hard it is, and how blessed and lucky you have to be to get here."
" data-instgrm-version="14" style="background:#FFF;border:0;border-radius:3px;margin: 1px;max-width:540px;min-width:326px;padding:0;width:99.375%;width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px);width:calc(100% - 2px)">The Story Behind Blake Shelton's "Texas"
"Texas" is the debut single from Shelton's next record, his first on BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville. It's also the song that convinced him he had signed with the right record label, based on their reaction to the tune.
"It kind of walks a line that's a little bit of a 'Stranger In My House' or something like that," Shelton tells American Songwriter.
Shelton knew right away that he loved the song, but was even more excited when others reacted so strongly to it as well.
"I don't record songs that I don't love," Shelton explains. "So that was the easy part to, know that I loved it. I needed to know what other people thought about it before I was willing to say, 'Let's come with it first.' I haven't done this in a long time, and I wanted it to have an impact ... When I went in and played three or four things for BMG, they're the ones that went, 'Oh my God, this song.'"
