Blake Shelton, Trace Adkins share behind-the-scenes tidbits about “Hillbilly Bone”
“Hillbilly Bone” isn’t just the fast-rising hit of Blake Shelton’s career, it also is the title track and lead-off single to his new album, out today.
And it represents the culmination of the Oklahoma country music star’s longtime goal of doing a project with his pal and fellow good old boy Trace Adkins.
“I would say within about three listens to it, I knew I wanted to record it, and also within that same amount of time, I also knew that I would want Trace Adkins on it with me just because it sounded to me like a Trace Adkins song. So once I made the decision that I was going to record it, and I talked to my producer about it, I told him, ‘Man, really we should get Trace Adkins in there to sing that bass part on the choruses.’ And so we called Trace and he said he would do it,” Shelton told me in a recent phone interview.
“Then after he did that and we lived with it for awhile, we decided, man, it still needs more Trace on it. And so we called him back and said, ‘Hey, man, could you come back and sing a verse with me.’ And he said he would do it, and I can’t imagine the song without him on it now.”
The stars also aligned to film a hilarious music video for the single. It features the rowdy pair turning an upscale restaurant into an unpretentious party.
“It was fun, and Blake’s one of my favorite people in this business. Any time I get to work with him, hang out with him, we always enjoy that and have a lot of fun with it,” Adkins told me in a fall phone interview, adding, “The funniest stuff was cut out really.”
Shelton agreed: “Some of our moments that Trace and I have together aren’t even appropriate for each other. We give each other some serious hell just being buddies. A lot of people don’t realize that Trace is one of the funniest people I’ve ever met in my life. He’s just such a big guy and his sense of humor is so dry, I think he scares more people than anything. But man, I had an absolute ball. But Trace and I’s biggest problem when we get together is just trying to keep our language clean; it’s almost like who can insult each other the worst.”
Shelton, who was born in Ada and now lives in Tishomingo, acknowledges that he probably had more fun than anyone else on the video shoot.
“I was the only one kind of having my own party. You know, Trace doesn’t drink at all, but I d— well do. And so when we were making the video — we filmed it here in Nashville at the Stockyards Restaurant — they kept bringing Trace a glass of grape juice so it would look like he was sitting there drinking fancy wine. But they were bringing me actual bottles of wine that I was drinking straight out of the bottle. And man, by the end of that video, I was getting pretty buzzed. So I was having a hell of a time. I think I was probably irritating everybody around me because in my mind we were all having a big party and in reality everybody was there working,” he said with laugh.
“Hillbilly Bone” was nominated this morning for the Academy of Country Music’s vocal event of the year trophy. The ACM Awards will air live April 18 on CBS.
-BAM
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