Blake Shelton is Elaina Smith’s co-host on Backstage Country from May 5-9! Aside from spilling the tea on his latest album, For Recreational Use Only, coming out on May 9, Shelton will also be sharing updates on his latest projects, including the highly anticipated singing competition series, The Road, premiering on CBS.
Blake Shelton on Working with Keith Urban and Taylor Sheridan
Smith asked Shelton about the singing competition, The Road, in which he and Taylor Sheridan are executive producers, and Keith Urban is the headliner. Shelton said, “I'm very proud of this thing that we were able to pull off, because it seemed like a long shot. But for years, I was a coach on ‘The Voice’ and when you work for somebody for a long time, you can't help but at some point, go, ‘Well, man, if I was the boss, I would do it this way.’” Shelton clarified that there’s nothing wrong with how these other shows go, and how he’s always respected American Idol and The Voice.
He explained the premise of the show: “I've always had the idea and my friend Lee Metzger, who's also a creator on the show, on what would it be like if we had a competition show? These people that are out on Broadway and at Billy Bob's in Texas, and whatever bar in your small town across the country... What if they were able to do what they do in those bars, but on a TV show in front of one of these audiences that didn't come in there to hear a band? They came in because they had a long day at work, and they wanted to have a beer, and you got to try to win those people over.”
He added that Urban is also a producer of the show, and what they will do is basically, “Roll into a town, send out a tweet that morning, ‘Y'all wanna come see Keith Urban tonight? Come on down!’” He added that since it’s Urban, “within six minutes you can hear gears and tires squealing down the streets, and people are lining up. What they don't know is they're going to see these ten artists, which shrink over the course of the season. So, they came there to see Keith Urban, but they're waiting through an hour of who these people are that [they've] never heard of. We figure out who is having the best connection, who's getting the biggest reception, and people in the audience actually are able to vote that night on their favorite. So, till we whittle down who the perfect person is to open for Keith Urban.”
Shelton revealed that they already did the season finale and how proud he is of the whole project.
The Road will premiere on CBS this coming Fall.
