Blake Shelton Gushes That Gwen Stefani Inspired His New Album and is His 'Closest Ally'
Blake Shelton can thank Gwen Stefani for inspiring his new album, If I’m Honest.
In an interview withRolling Stone, the 39-year-old country star opened up about how his relationship with Stefani, and 2015 divorce from Miranda Lambert, helped get him back in the studio.
WATCH: Blake Shelton Gushes About Gwen Stefani
"When I started going through what I went through last year, the last thing on my mind was making a record," he said of the split with Lambert. "I was trying to figure out how I was going to piece my life back together. And I figured out making this record helped me get that out of my system."
"But as I was making the record, other developments were happening," he continued. "I was spending some time with Gwen all of a sudden, and she became my closest ally, my friend, my person in my life who had my back, and I had hers. [I] created this bond with somebody that I never would have thought in a million years."
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The album is a journey through Shelton’s split from Lambert, to finding love again. "It starts out with 'Straight Outta Cold Beer,' it's kind of like a continuation of a lot of my music that I've had in the past," he explained. "And then the tape kinda slows down and it fades off like the bottom just drops out. And then all of a sudden I'm in this dark place for a long time on the record. Slowly it starts getting better and starts getting better and happier and happier until we end up with 'Savior’s Shadow."
Besides being a musical muse of sorts, Stefani joins Shelton on the song, "Go Ahead and Break My Heart," which the couple performed at the Billboard Music Awards last month.
The duo has become regular faces on the gossip pages, and according to Shelton "98 percent" of the stories in gossip rags are a "complete fabrication," including an In Touch Weekly story accusing him of going to rehab for alcoholism. He’s currently suing the publication over the story, though In Touch Weekly stands by the report.
An attorney for Bauer Media, the outlet's parent company, stated that Shelton "has staked his reputation on heavy drinking," and regularly Tweets about booze. Shelton has said the social media posts are more of a “schtick” with his fans.
"With the lawsuit that I have going on right now, I'm not backing off of it," he vowed. "Because with that level of a lie, I don't want one kid to walk by that magazine rack and see that and have it affect who I am in their mind. "I also have professional reasons. I can't allow somebody to print something like that about me. That could affect my job. I felt like they crossed a line, and now they know they did. Because we're moving forward with that. And that's a good thing for me."
Also in the interview, Shelton talks Twitter trolls, politics (he proclaimed the 2016 election the "most addictive, entertaining things" he’s ever seen), and Beyonce. Like Shelton, Queen Bey tackles relationship struggles on her eye-popping visual album, Lemonade.
"I watched the movie, and it blew me away," he said, adding that the chorus in Bey’s "Don’t Hurt Yourself" convinced him that Jay-Z’s alleged infidelity isn’t just a rumor. "That's not a marketing stunt. I can't believe that's anything other than true."
See how Bey and Jay have been handling the cheating rumors in the video below.