Blake Shelton: Snapshot

Blake Shelton: Five Fun Facts

1. As a kid, Blake Shelton's mother entered her little boy in beauty pageants. "I would have to come out and do the damn evening wear, and whatever [the girls] had to do I had to do in order just to be in the talent portion," he complained decades after his toddler-in-tiara years.
2. What were Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert's favorite engagement gifts? His-'n'-hers flasks and matching shotguns! "We were outside the city limits, so we went right out of the tent and tried them out – it's a real shotgun wedding!" the bride-to-be gushed to PEOPLE of their engagement party.
3. Long before making PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive list, Blake Shelton sported a mullet – for most of the '90s. "Nobody else in the world seems to think it was as awesome as I still think it was," he told GAC.
4. Blake Shelton's older brother Richie sparked his interest in country music. "He would have Hank Williams Jr. playing so loud that literally the pictures on the walls would be shaking" he recalled. "As a 6- or 7-year-old kid I already was in there with a spoon acting like I was doing a concert."
5. Blake Shelton was invited to join Nashville's Grand Ole Opry via Twitter in 2010. "You're invited to join the Grand Ole Opry! See you on 10/23/10," read the fateful Tweet.

Blake Shelton: Biography

1990s

Outta This Town

At 17, Shelton, who performs at local honky-tonks, leaves his native Ada, Okla., for Nashville in search of a record deal. Along the way he meets country legend Bobby Braddock, who helps Shelton develop as an artist while he makes the rounds as a demo singer in the country music capital. "That's when the dream is so far off it seems like it will never happen," the up-and-comer reflected of his pre-fame days to CNN.

2001

July 31

'Austin' Calling

After years of making the rounds in Nashville, Shelton finally releases his self-titled debut, boasting his first No. 1 single "Austin," which spends five weeks at the top of Billboards Hot Country Singles chart. The album also helps earn Shelton a top new male vocalist ACM nomination in 2002. "I love what I do for a living," he gushed at the time. "I can't think of a better situation."

2003

Gettin' Hitched

With the release of his second album The Dreamer, Shelton spends most of the year on tour with Toby Keith and receives his first CMA Award nomination for new artist of the year. Although he doesn't take home the prize, he does nab a bride in girlfriend Kaynette Williams, whom he weds on Nov. 17. Their marriage goes bust nearly three years later.

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Blake Shelton: Special Feature