George Strait Responds After ‘The Voice’ Calls Blake Shelton ‘King of Country’

As one of the most popular and successful country music artists of all time, George Strait is widely known as the King of Country, and the musician took notice after The Voice aired a new promo for its upcoming 19th season referring to coach Blake Shelton as “The Country King.”

The clip begins with Gwen Stefani in her coach’s chair speaking to a contestant on stage in what appears to be an attempt to get them to join her team. “Blake Shelton, obviously, he’s a country king,” she said as the footage cut to a shot of Shelton with the words “The Country King” behind him. The promo then went back to Stefani, who added, “but he is so burnt out.” Shelton and Stefani’s fellow coach Kelly Clarkson couldn’t help but joke about the clip, tweeting, “I must have missed George Strait in this video” along with the hashtag #justkidding.

Strait later retweeted Clarkson’s comment, jokingly sharing his feelings about the promo without saying a word. The 68-year-old rarely uses social media and typically only uses Twitter and Instagram for business-related messages, making his retweet extra noteworthy.

Shelton is the reigning champion of The Voice after his team member Todd Tilghman was announced as the winner of Season 18, giving Shelton his seventh win as a coach. Season 19 premieres on Monday, Oct. 19 on NBC and the promo declares that Stefani, Clarkson and coach John Legend are determined to “dethrone” Shelton.

The singing competition is currently being filmed in Los Angeles, where Shelton and Stefani performed in front of a green screen for the recent ACM Awards. During the show, Shelton received the trophy for Single of the Year for “God’s Country,” bringing his total collection of ACM Awards up to six.

“Holy cow, single of the year! This is a complete shock and an absolute honor,” he said in a taped message accepting the honor before thanking his producer, Scott Hendricks, his record label and country radio before sharing a message for Stefani. “Thank you to my management and thank you to the fans and thank you Gwen Stefani for continuing to encourage me to keep doing this and keep trying and being my inspiration,” he said. “And thank you, God. Thank you, everybody, Single of the Year! Yes!”