Today's cover of Billboard features Blake Shelton opens up about how he fell in love with Gwen Stefani, the heartbreak following his divorce, and starting over after being in the 'middle of hell'.
On the heartbreak he endured after his divorce with Miranda Lambert:
"When we recorded the vocals for some of these songs, I was only six months removed from when all the crap went down," says Shelton. "When you have a broken heart -- at least, when I do -- you got to get it out of your system. You want people to sympathize with you. I was at rock bottom, in the middle of hell." For a while, Shelton stayed with Adam Levine. "As close as we have been, we got even closer."
On telling Gwen Stefani about his divorce for the first time:
"I won't forget that day," he says. "I looked over at Gwen -- who I didn't really know -- and she had these huge tears in her eyes. I thought, 'Wow, she feels super bad for me!'
Shelton recalls Stefani's reaction to the news:
"I thought it was going to be another one of those things-are-going-to-be-OK talks," he recalls. "She didn't tell me much, because we didn't know each other at the time, but she said, 'I'm going through something very similar to what you're going through. I understand. And I hate it.'
Shelton admits the conversation was the start of their relationship:
"That's kind of how our friendship and bond started, that day. It went from that, to checking in on each other once a week through email -- 'This shit happened to me, what happened to you?' -- to maybe three times a week, then every day, to 'Hey, here's my phone number if you ever want to text.' Next thing I know, I wake up and she's all I care about, and I'm wondering if she feels the same about me."
On how Gwen helped him overcome heartbreak:
"Gwen saved my life. Who else on earth could understand going through a high-profile divorce from another musician? You can't even imagine the similarities in our divorces."
On whether he supports Trump or Clinton:
"I'm not going to have the political conversation with you about Trump, or about Hillary Clinton, but I will tell you this: Whether you love him or hate him, he says what he thinks, and he has proven that you don't always have to be so afraid...."
