Shutterstock
By now, Blake Shelton has more or less declared himself the god of country music and nobody seems to dispute his claim. The man’s been slinging #1 hits since the early 2000s and has been charming the masses through various competition shows for years. He’s pretty much established himself as either the guy your mom wishes you were or the guy your mom wishes you married. But the true weight of someone’s worth isn’t the feelings they inspire in others, it’s measured in cold, hard cash.
Blake Shelton Net Worth As Of 2018: $60 Million
Turns out you can make quite a bit of money by making popular country songs, touring for most of the year, starring on one of the top reality shows in the world and being named People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive 2017. Having steel-blue eyes and a square-jawed face that looks like it stepped clean out of a John Wayne western probably doesn’t hurt. This is a drastic update from his net worth in 2013, which was listed as being a mere $18 million. The current number comes to us from sources such as Bankrate, Daily Mail, and Celebrity Net Worth.
Early Life
Born on June 18, 1976, young Blake Shelton got his start by taking guitar lessons from his uncle in his hometown of Ada, Oklahoma. He displayed an early aptitude for songcraft and by the age of 16 had won a Denbo Diamond Award, a prize best known for having been won by Blake Shelton when he was only 16. After high school, Shelton skipped college in favor of running to Nashville and fulfill his calling as a singer. He quickly got a job at a music publishing company. It was there that Shelton met Country Music Hall of Famer Bobby Braddock, who would go on to be Shelton’s most ardent supporter. After working with Shelton for a few years, Braddock got his protege signed to Giant Records in 2001.
2001-2011
Shelton’s early success was somewhat hindered by industry wrangling. His first project for Giant Records was the single “I Wanna Talk About Me,” but the company didn’t see the song making a profit and shifted it to Toby Keith, thinking it would be good filler between a few of his bigger hits. Keith’s version was a #1 hit single. Shelton did get his debut single, “Austin,” recorded, but Giant Records collapsed shortly afterward and Shelton was folded into the parent company, Warner Bros. Records. After release, “Austin” sat at #1 on the Billboard Country chart, immediately letting Warner Bros. know just what a hot commodity they had on their hands. They helped Shelton to release his self-titled debut album, produced by Braddock and featuring several top 20 hits. It went certified platinum within the year.
Shelton released his second album, The Dreamer, in 2003 and married his long-time girlfriend Kaynette Gern that same year. By this point, between his own accolades and Braddock’s full-hearted endorsement, Shelton had enough cred to do guest vocals for other country artists, cover classic country songs and have more creative freedom at the record label. He released Blake Shelton’s Barn & Grill in 2004, landing him his third #1 hit single and second platinum record. Shelton began his small acting career in 2005 with a small cameo role in the TV movie Christmas Blessing, which starred Neil Patrick Harris and Rob Lowe.
He got divorced in 2006, only a year before he released his third album, Pure BS. That was also the year he began his lucrative career as a TV personality, appearing as a judge on Nashville Star and Clash of the Choirs. Somehow, Shelton was able to juggle both his roles on television with his passion for music and released his fifth album, Startin’ Fires in 2008. The album featured many collaborations with other country music stars, including Miranda Lambert who Shelton later married in 2011 and Trace Adkins, whose duet with Shelton, “Hillybilly Bone,” reached #1. By this point, Shelton had had so many hit songs and was known as such a prolific worker in the industry that he was able to release his first greatest hits album, Loaded: The Best of Blake Shelton, in 2010, only nine years after debuting. As an added bonus, he was also invited to join the famed country music cabal the Grand Ole Opry soon after.
2011-Present
In 2011, Shelton landed his most lucrative gig to date: a judging role on the singing-competition show The Voice. As if to prove his credentials to the non-country music audience who’d never heard of him before, he released Red River Blue in the same period, featuring the #1 hit “Honey Bee.” Through The Voice, Shelton was not only able to perform for a more diverse audience, but he was given the opportunity to grow new talent and collaborate with veteran performers from a variety of genres. In his time on the show, Shelton has helped a record six contestants take the crown.
Shelton released his first Christmas album, a passion project entitled Cheers, It’s Christmas in 2012, topping both the Country and Holiday charts. His next studio albums, Based on a True Story and Bringing Back the Sunshine, would follow in the coming years. In 2015, Shelton divorced from Miranda Lambert and started dating his Voice co-star Gwen Stefani. He released If I’m Honest only a year later. Only a month after the album’s released, Shelton was denoted his own exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, all but guaranteeing him a spot in the hall at some point in the future.
