The Voice winner Todd Tilghman apparently has a new best friend in Blake Shelton. The Mississippi pastor reveals that he has already exchanged phone numbers with the country music superstar, who vows to help Todd however he can.

“He told me to text him whenever I want,” Todd told People. “And hopefully, even though it may be slow as the world starts to open back up, we’re going to make some plans to get together in person. I’m hoping that we can do that and take it step by step from there. My first bullet on my list of things to do after The Voice is to glean as much as I can from these people, these connections that I’ve made. They know the industry, and I do not. I need to learn from them.”

Todd hoped when he auditioned for The Voice that Blake would turn his chair around, never imagining that all four coaches would fight to have him on their team. Still, it was Blake who Todd knew he wanted to work with from the beginning, as much for who Blake is as his professional guidance.

“He’s been a friend to me,” Todd boasted. “We got to laugh together and share little, stupid stories about life. That’s what I was hoping for when I picked him. I was hoping that if I were to make it further in the competition, that we could actually build a relationship with one another. And that’s what we did.”

Winners of The Voice receive $100,000 and a recording contract with Univeral Music, although Blake had some strong words for the record company and how they have handled winners in the past.

“The frustrating for me, as a coach on this show, year after year, is they win this record deal with Universal and so many times, the ball’s been dropped, and there hasn’t been a lot of follow-through with the record deal,” Blake said in a press conference (via ET Canada). “I’ve been vocal about that from the beginning, because it’s a hard pill to swallow, when somebody works as hard as Todd has, and they get this chance, and there’s just no follow-through with the record deal.

“So, I still feel like that’s something that has got to be improved on, and worked on,” he continued. “Because here’s a guy that clearly America has connected with. They love him, they bought his original song, and it went to No. 1 on iTunes … he’s clearly an artist that moves the dial. Let’s get together; let’s get a plan together. As his coach, whatever I can do to contribute to the record label, to make all of this stuff come together –- it’s clearly something that’s ready to work, and it’s been handed to the label. Now, let’s see what they do.”

Todd has yet to decide if he will continue pastoring while pursuing a music career, but he insists he is not in a hurry to make up his mind. The father of 8 does plan to take his family to Disney World as soon as the park reopens.