Blake Shelton Gets Emotional About His Late Brother on ‘The Voice’

Blake Shelton is connecting with The Voice singer NOIVAS over the mutual loss of their loved ones. In Monday’s episode of the NBC singing competition, the country star shared an emotional moment with the Texas-born musician as he stepped into the studio to help NOIVAS prepare his Playoff Round performance of “Come Together” by The Beatles.

“We’re both two tall guys, pretty good-looking, if I say so myself,” NOIVAS observed of the similarities between himself and the longtime Voice coach. “And, even the fact that we’ve both lost brothers.” The 30-year-old musician shared with Shelton that his brother Alfred, who was a physical therapist, and his father died when he was just 21 years old. The “God’s Country” artist, 46, suffered a similar loss at age 14 when his brother Richie was killed in a car crash.

“The last thing he told me, was to just do me,” NOIVAS remembered of his brother, noting that it helped him find his confidence to pursue music. “It wasn’t until I lost my brother that I started to become fearless.” Shelton shared, “My brother, he would have freaked out if he had known what I went on to do. He was such a huge music fan. You’d hear him coming six blocks away, the stereo blaring out of his truck.” He added, “That’s cool, that your brother got to see you do it.”

This season of The Voice is Shelton’s final one, as the OG coach announced in October he would be stepping away from the show after Season 23. In February, the “Boys ‘Round Here” artist revealed on the TODAY show that he was “close to calling it a day” with the show right when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, “and then, because of COVID, I didn’t want to walk away from the show and leave everybody in a bind. I mean, this show changed my life. I’ll stay here until the world kind of gets back to normal again.”

Shelton added in a sentimental moment that his time on The Voice had changed everything for him. “I met my wife [Gwen Stefani] on this show,” he said, adding, “When I came on as a coach on this show, I mean, everything in my life was turned upside down. And in a good way, you know? This has been incredible, but it’s time, you know. It’s time for what’s next. A little bit of nothing would be nice.” The Voice airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.