Blake Shelton is back, and better than ever. The Oklahoma native has a Top 10 hit with “Texas,” a song that in many ways resurrected a career that might have otherwise been on the verge of slowing down. Written by Johnny Clawson, Kyle Sturrock, Josh Dorr,and Lalo Guzman, “Texas” is the debut single from Shelton’s next album, and his first on BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville.

“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. “It’s kind of got this haunting thing about it, but you can also jam out and rock out to it at the same time.”

Shelton was unsure what his new label would think about “Texas,” which is much different than anything he has previously released. Fortunately, they immediately gravitated to it as much as he did.

“I knew I loved the song, but I don’t record songs that I don’t love,” Shelton says. “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.’ Then as I went around and played it for other friends and family and people that I work with. It was unanimous every time I played it for people. They were like, ‘Play that again.’”

“It was exactly what I was praying for throughout this process,” he continues, recalling one person who asked him to play it three times in a row. “I am to the point in my career where I’ve started to think people maybe a lot of times were going to wait to see what I say first.”

Shelton has openly admitted that it was Post Malone who deserves the credit for Shelton’s career resurgence, after the rapper-turned-country singer asked Shelton to join him on “Pour Me A Drink.”

“You can thank Post Malone for that. He got me out of bed and made me get in the studio again,” Shelton tells Pure Country Radio. Shelton knew it was time to leave his longtime label, Warner Music Nashville, where he had been for 23 years. But it was “Texas” that convinced him to sign with his new label.

“When I went to go look for a new label home, I had recorded some songs, just on my own with [producer] Scott Hendricks,” Shelton remembers. “We got together and made some recordings. And so my very first meeting with BMG Records, I went in and sat down …. I played three songs for them, and ‘Texas’ was one of them. The President of the label, a guy named Jon Loba, stood up out of his chair, and he went, ‘We’re done here. That’s your first single. If you sign with us, we already know what your first single is going to be.’ And I was relieved to hear that, because when you’ve been doing this as long as I have, sometimes you start losing perspective … because the business moves so fast.

“I thought it was what I thought it was,” he adds. “But I was never going to lay my neck out on the line and say, ‘This is my first single.’ So to hear those guys say it and get that excited about it, that’s how the decision was made.”

“Texas” set a new career record for Shelton when it was released, with the most first-week adds at radio ever in his career. Shelton will kick off his Friends and Heroes Tour on February 27, with his former touring partner, Trace Adkins, plus Craig Morgan, Deana Carter and Emily Ann Roberts. Find “Texas” and all of Shelton’s music and tour dates at  BlakeShelton.com.