At the grand opening of Ole Red Las Vegas, Blake Shelton discusses what might make him return for one more season of ‘The Voice’
Fans of The Voice might be missing Blake Shelton, but the OG Voice coach isn’t missing The Voice, at least not enough to return and try to get his winning record up from nine to 10.
“I miss the people,” Blake told ET. I mean, those people became like family to me, literally from the crew all up to the producers of the show. I was with them more than I was with my family… I miss that,” Shelton said, before noting that he doesn’t “miss the job at all.”
Shelton was the last remaining original coach when he exited the series in Season 25 after more than 12 years on The Voice. And he has never had anything negative to say about the show, which brought him greater recognition in both his career and in his personal life, because it was on The Voice that he met wife Gwen Stefani.
He explained the reason for his departure to ET, saying, “I totally needed a break from that, because if I wasn’t into it then it wasn’t good for whoever was on my team. I don’t want to be someone who’s just going through the motions. Those artists need somebody fighting for them. The second I started feeling like, ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t even remember what season this is anymore. Who are the coaches on this season?’ [I knew that] I needed [to get] away from here.”
At the time of his exit, he credited the show with changing his life in every way for the better.
“It’s been a hell of a ride over these 12 years of chair turns and I want to thank everyone at The Voice from NBC, every producer, the writers, musicians, crew and catering people, you are the best. It takes a lot of work, passion, and adult beverages (Ha!) to pull off a live show twice a week,” he said.
Cee Lo Green, Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine, Blake Shelton
Photo by Michael Desmond/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
So, what could possibly bring him back? The Cowboy claims that if NBC ever decided to do a season with the original coaches—him, Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green—he would consider it.
“If they were ever able to put together the original four coaches again, maybe [I’d return] for one season, a one-off,” he told ET. “That would be fun for me… That would be something I would be interested in doing.”
Of course, there is very little chance that that will ever happen, and it is unclear if Blake is aware of it or not, but it was reported by Radar Online that CeeLo, who was on The Voice for four seasons (Seasons 1-3 and 5) is no longer welcome on the singing competition, which is considered a family show, because of the taint to his reputation.
Again, according to Radar, in 2014, Cee Lo pleaded no contest to furnishing a controlled substance to a woman, who accused him of drugging and sexually assaulting her.
According to MusicTimes, the sexual assault charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence, and by pleading no contest, the “Forget You” singer did not admit guilt but agreed to accept the punishment for the charge.
NBC News reported that he was sentenced to three years of probation, 45 days of community service, and ordered to complete 52 Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings.
In 2016, he was removed from supervised probation having complied with his sentence. In fact, Cee Lo surpassed the number of community service hours he was required to perform and was praised for having a cooperative attitude in his final probation report, it was reported by the Associated Press.
The Voice airs Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. Streams next day on Peacock.
