Blake Shelton loves everything about Independence Day. The 48-year-old has fond memories of celebrating the holiday as a child in Oklahoma, which in some ways was the end of his multi-week birthday celebration.
“Fourth of July when I was a kid was extremely important, [a] big deal to me because the fireworks stands, or we called them firecracker, they always opened about four or five days before my birthday,” Shelton says. “My birthday is June the 18th, so they always opened a few days before that, so I got tons of fireworks for my birthday, which I loved.”
Unfortunately, Shelton’s eagerness for July 4th sometimes meant there weren’t many fireworks left by the actual holiday.
“I would try to save the cool ones until the Fourth of July, like the fountains, some of the bigger ones,” Shelton says. “Although by the time the fourth got there, I’d be down to almost nothing. But, I was just obsessed with them.”
Shelton’s July 4th celebrations now likely include his three stepsons, from his marriage to Gwen Stefani. After years of focusing on himself and his career, the Grand Ole Opry member is thrilled to place his attention on Stefani’s children from her first marriage.
“I take enjoyment in all of it. I also stress out a lot about it,” Shelton recently told CMT (via Music Mayhem). “It is important to me, and I don’t want to be the guy that advised them to do the wrong thing somehow.”
Shelton joined The Voice for its inaugural season in 2011, and likely would have stayed past Season 23 — his final season — if not for the three boys.
“I take that stuff — it’s about the only thing I do take pretty serious in my life,” Shelton explained. “Obviously, everybody out there watching that’s got a kid knows what I’m talking about …There’s not that one thing that I can put my finger on, there’s things every day.”
Stefani also echoed Shelton’s sentiments, explaining his departure from The Voice as a way to spend more time with her and their blended family.
“I think he just wants more time,” Stefani told Extra. “I don’t know if people realize if he’s doing two seasons a year, [and] in between that he’s touring. So he actually has two teams at the same time at a certain point; they overlap. It’s a lot of brain power. It’s a lot of time away from the family. Those kinds of things, he just got to a point — he just wants time at his ranch time to do the other things he loves to do.”
Find all of Shelton’s music and tour dates at BlakeShelton.com.