Happy birthday to Blake Shelton, who turned 44 on Thursday, Jun 18! To celebrate the milestone, we rounded up eight surprising facts about the singer.

1. He was only 17 years old when he moved to Nashville.

Two weeks after Blake graduated from high school, he left his hometown of Ada, Oklahoma, chasing dreams of country music stardom in Nashville. While he found a job with a publishing company, it would take him seven more years until he found success in country music, with his debut single, “Austin,” which also became his first No. 1 hit.

2. His older brother, Richie, was killed in a car accident.

When Blake was only 16 years old, his brother Richie, who instilled in him a love of country music, was killed in a car accident.

“His bedroom was right across the hallway from mine when I was little. And he was listening to Hank Williams, Jr. or Waylon, Lynyrd Skynyrd or Bob Seeger,” Blake told 60 Minutes. “Richie loved all the music. And I would be sitting there going, ‘Man, that guy’s my hero. That’s the coolest guy. He’s my big brother.’”

3. He was almost replaced by Reba McEntire on The Voice.

Blake went from being a country music star to a television superstar, thanks to his role on The Voice –– a role he would never have had if Reba had agreed to do the show first.

“If I’m not mistaken, they wanted Reba to be a coach on The Voice first. They knew they wanted a country artist to be a coach on The Voice to fill that lane,” Blake said at a media event last year (via Taste of Country). “For whatever reason, she couldn’t do it, or they just decided it wasn’t the thing for her at the time.”

Not only did Blake find a second successful career on the reality TV talent show, but he also found love, with fellow coach, Gwen Stefani. The two have been dating since 2015.

4. Blake’s first wife was a school teacher.

Most people know Miranda Lambert as Blake’s wife, but before Miranda, he was married to Kaynette Gern, a school teacher. The couple tied the knot in 2003 and divorced in 2006. While they were together, she worked as his road manager, when Blake was just getting started.

5. Blake was invited to join the Grand Ole Opry via Twitter.

Blake was an avid Twitter user, long before it became one of the most-used social media platforms by artists. So it made sense that Blake was invited to join in 2010, via Twitter, while at the Grand Ole Opry. Blake was there as part of the Country Comes Home concert, to celebrate the Opry house reopening following the devastating flood that took place earlier in the year. It was his good friend, Trace Adkins, who told Blake from stage that someone had a message for him, which was an official invitation to become a member of the Opry.

“After Trace Adkins invited me to join the Opry via Twitter on September 28, I went out in the parking lot and called my parents and said, ‘I’m sending a bus for you, because it’s that important to me that you be here,'” Blake recalled (via The Boot).

6. He does his own work on his Oklahoma ranch.

By now, Blake could afford to hire anyone to do his work for him, but he prefers to do much of it himself. In fact, he was working on his ranch when he heard the demo for “God’s Country,” a song he credits with revitalizing his desire to make music.

“It was the most shocking moment I’ve had in my 20 years of doing this,” Blake told The Tennessean. “I was in a place physically that I consider to be God’s country doing the thing that makes me feel the most connected to God, which is working on the land … It’s almost like a chance to stop and catch your breath and go, ‘We’re still all here. We still like this stuff, too, right?’”

7. He established the Blake Shelton Cancer Research Program at Oklahoma University’s Children’s Hospital in honor of his cousin.

Blake’s infant cousin, Aspen, underwent treatment for cancer at the Jimmy Everest Center when she was only five months old. Prior to opening the center, he made a $600,000 donation to the Jimmy Everest Center, during a concert stop in Oklahoma City in 2016, where he brought Aspen on stage with him.

“This time last year, we had a scare,” Blake said (via The Country Daily]. “And, we didn’t know what was going going to happen. And, you can see that she’s here right now . . . [Jimmy Everest Children’s Hospital doesn’t] turn any kids away. You come in there, you have a problem, they don’t turn anybody away, so I thought ‘That’s a place that needs some money. Let’s all do the right thing.’ This is our money, Oklahoma.”

8. He had a pet turkey named Turkey.

Blake had a somewhat aggressive turkey, which he appropriately named Turkey. The bird, who passed away in 2003, would fight Blake when he tried to leave –– and Blake apparently fought right back.

“When I still lived in Tennessee, I used to go out and purposely try to get to my truck, no trouble,” Blake revealed in an episode of Martina McBride’s Vocal Point podcast. “And I would end up in a fistfight with that turkey … I remember slapping it in the face as hard as I can just to get it off of me. Nothing you could do would deter this turkey.”