The Voice without Blake Shelton just isn’t the same! In 2023, the country crooner officially left singing competition, and we’ve been holding out hope ever since that he’ll return.

Shelton has been a mainstay on the popular singing competition show since its very first season in 2011. 

He coached up promising artists on Team Blake for a total of 23 seasons (that’s 12 whole years!). 

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Shelton explained that after such a long stint on The Voice, his heart just wasn’t in it anymore.

“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,” he explained.

“I don’t want to be someone who’s just going through the motions. Those artists need somebody fighting for them.”

The seemingly revolving door of coaches every season on the show didn’t help Shelton’s situation either. “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,” he added.

Shelton emphasized that he doesn’t “miss the job at all,” but he does miss certain aspects of his coaching role. “I miss the people. 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 reminisced.

Of course, plenty of good things came from Shelton’s time on The Voice, including meeting his now-wife, Gwen Stefani. The “Hollaback Girl” songstress came on as a coach for season 7.

“The first season she was on The Voice we met [but] we really didn’t talk that much… If you would’ve told me the first season that we met that what was gonna happen, I would’ve been like, ‘No, we actually don’t even have anything to even talk about. What are you talking about?’ It’s crazy how things work out,” Shelton recalled.

Even good things must come to an end, and has time has passed Shelton is confident he made the right decision in leaving, “every day feels a little bit better,” he said.

For now Shelton has closed that chapter of his life, but he did say he would return to The Voice under special circumstances: if all four original coaches come back together. Shelton coached the first season of The Voice alongside Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera, and Cee-Lo Green.

“If they were ever able to put together the original four coaches again, maybe [I’d return] for one season, a one-off,” Shelton told ET. “That would be fun for me… That would be something I would be interested in doing.”

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Source: Chicago Tribune