Although Blake Shelton‘s latest project, Fully Loaded: God’s Country, is only a few months old, Shelton is already working on a new set of tunes, which includes a song by The Swon Brothers! The duo, made up of brothers Zach and Colton Swon, came in third on Season 4 of The Voice, on Shelton’s team, and have remained in contact with him since then. Still, it took both American Idol winner Carrie Underwood and Shelton’s girlfriend, Gwen Stefani, to help the song get on Shelton’s next album.
“You talk about the ultimate compliment,” Colton told PopCulture.com. “One, you just never, especially us but I think it’s probably every artist, you never write something like, ‘That is just killer. This is going to be a hit.’ I’m just not that guy. I’m like, ‘Is it good? I don’t know. Is it?’ You don’t know until people listen or don’t listen to it. Or sing along at a show. And live songs versus songs to radio or to streaming. They’re a little bit different. You have different areas you need to feel on a record, for us anyway.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
The Swon Brothers sent the song to Shelton’s longtime producer, Scott Hendricks, who they’ve sent every song they’ve ever written to, but didn’t expect to get the reaction they got when they sent him the song that ended up on Shelton’s record.
“He’s always been brutally honest,” Zach acknowledged. “It’s either like, ‘You’re getting better,’ or ‘Don’t show this to anyone,’ or ‘This isn’t good. Keep writing’ or ‘I don’t know what you want me to do with this.’ He’s just brutally honest, which I think has made us better overall, writing, just handling the business.”
The Swon Brothers, who were formerly on Arista Nashville, originally planned to release it themselves, until one of the most famous reality TV talent show contestants, Carrie Underwood, suggested they pitch it to other artists.
“We were about to release it,” Colton recounted. “The only reason we even sent it to anyone else is because of the name drop. We sent it into Carrie Underwood and she was like, ‘Guys, this is really good. Have you ever thought about just pitching this? This is better than most songs I get pitched every day.’ And that’s a huge compliment from her, but that just didn’t cross our mind.”
Still, The Swon Brothers still were pretty sure they wanted to release it themselves, until Hendricks told them who he wanted to hear the song.
“I sent it to Scott thinking, ‘All right, this is it, we’re going to get a big label behind this song,’” Colton recalled. “He’s like, ‘Hey, I’d love to pitch this if you guys are willing to part with it.’ And we’re like, ‘Is it some new artist, what?’ It was like, we’re about to be bummed out. And [he said], ‘I’d like to put this in the Blake pile. You’re at the bottom of the pile; it’s a long shot, but if you’re willing I want to play it.’”
The song not only earned the approval of Shelton, but his girlfriend, Gwen Stefani, as well.
“Last time we saw him, Gwen was there,” Colton said. “I think it may have been the year before but he’s like, ‘Yeah, I really like that song. Well, Gwen really likes it, so I guess I’m going to cut it.’”
“Gwen brought it up before he did,” continued Zach. “We didn’t even bring it up because at that point it was on hold and we didn’t know if he had heard it or what. And Gwen was back in her dressing room and she was like, ‘Hey, you guys wrote that song!’ And she was like, ‘I love that song. We’ve been playing it on repeat.’ And it was like, that’s awesome.”
No word yet when Shelton will release the song. A title has yet to be revealed.
Photo Credit: Getty / NBC
