Blake Shelton | Totally Private

Blake Shelton has told a lot of hilarious stories across his 25+ year career, but opening up about his "terrible, inappropriate, stupid rap phase" might just top them all. During an exclusive interview with Katie Neal ahead of his 'Totally Private' concert performance in Las Vegas, Shelton shared how making up annoying rap songs in his truck on his way to the studio turned into a smash for the late, Toby Keith. “At one point I went through a phase where I was making up these really terrible, inappropriate, stupid rap songs,” Shelton laughed. “Walking into the studio and just [singing] something I made up in the car on the way over just for shock factor for [producer] Bobby [Braddock].” Little did Shelton know at the time, his raps served up some inspiration for Braddock, who decided to pen a Country-Rap style song to include on Shelton’s debut album. “I did it so much that he decided he wanted to write me a Rap song and so he went and wrote, ‘I Wanna Talk About Me,’ and when I heard the song, I was like, ‘Oh my God, this song is so funny!’ I actually cut the song… I said I wanted to put it on my album, so we went in and recorded.” Seasoned Country fans will recognize the song title, but not because of Shelton. The song was later recorded by Country music’s legendary Big Dog Daddy, Toby Keith, who included it on his album. Pull My Chain, which released in August 2001. So how did the song end up with Toby? “Back then, before streaming and being able to tell which songs were going to be a hit… they used to do these focus groups where they’d get a group of people and play a new artist's album and everybody would vote on the song,” Blake explained. “It [Blake’s version of ‘I Wanna Talk About Me’] scored so bad that they said, ‘Not only do we not want this to be your single, we don’t even think you should put it on your album. Why waste a spot on your record if people hate this song so much?’” That opened the door for Keith, who immediately released it as a single after hearing it and sat pretty at the top of the charts with it for a healthy few weeks as his seventh career #1. “The first person they played it for was Toby,” Shelton shared of where his producer took the song after he decided not to release it. “I like to think it was meant for Toby… he was just the one guy that could say that [the lyrics] and we would all laugh about it. I don’t know that it would have worked like that for me.” He concluded, “He always used to give me crap about it. He’d say like, ‘Man, your version must have really sucked,'” he laughed. “Toby was always that way with me.” Hear more about Toby and Blake’s friendship, the ETA of new music, his ‘Lost Country’ playlist and so much more by checking out his full conversation with Audacy’s Katie Neal above. Words by Monica Rivera Interview by Katie Neal