Blake Shelton Jokes Gwen Stefani Suffered ‘Music Abuse’ Before Falling in Love With Country Music

It wasn’t until Blake Shelton started dating Gwen Stefani that she fell in love with country music, which Shelton says actually has very little to do with him. Instead, the “Hell Right” singer says Stefani fell in love with country music just by being introduced to it, after suffering what he calls music abuse as a child.

“There’s a photo of her when she was a kid with a cowboy hat on holding two kittens –– that’s about as country of a thing that I can think of,” Shelton told Fox News. “But you know what? Since we’ve been together, this girl has literally fallen in love with country music. It’s all that she listens to, it’s all that’s on in her car.”

“It’s not to do with me or anything,” he continued “It’s just she grew up in Anaheim and moved to Los Angeles –– she didn’t hear a lot of country music is all I’m saying. Her parents abused her with this other music they played. It was music abuse, I’m telling you. She just wasn’t exposed to a lot of country music, but now it’s all she listens to. I hope she’s OK with me saying that.”

Shelton will spend the holidays with Stefani and her boys in California, before returning to his Oklahoma ranch.

“We’re going to do Christmas here in the wintry hills of Los Angeles,” Shelton joked to Entertainment Tonight. “I have not been handed the schedule yet. I just know that I am going to be a part of whatever is happening.”

Shelton received an early Christmas gift this year, when he was presented with a plaque certifying his “God’s Country” single was double platinum, for sales in excess of two million copies. The song, which he predicts might be the biggest single of his career, also earned him an unexpected Grammy nomination, for Best Country Solo Performance.

“You never know until a couple years later, when you get past it, and look back, but it’s gotta be,” Shelton said of the song, while on The Kelly Clarkson Show. “That was a big record. And for me to get nominated for a Grammy, they hate me at the Grammys, so for them to be like, ‘Oh my God, just nominate him, just put him in there. It’s fine.”

Shelton will kick off 2020 with his Friends and Heroes Tour. Find dates at BlakeShelton.com.

Photo Credit: Getty / Christian Petersen