Blake Shelton Won’t Ask Trace Adkins for Hosting Advice

Blake Shelton is prepping to co-host the Academy of Country Music Awards next month with Reba McEntire -- but he won't ask his buddy Trace Adkins for any tips.

When Trace hosted the American Country Awards in December, he was understandably apprehensive. According to Blake, the moments leading up to the awards were anything but fun for Trace.

"We're standing backstage together and he leaned over to me and said, 'I'm not going to be very funny,'" Blake tells Country Weekly. "I said, 'Hell, man, don't say that, this is gonna be cool.' [Trace responded,] 'No, you don't understand, none of this is funny to me. How can I be funny if I don't even think it's funny?'"

The result, Blake says, is that Trace didn't do well in the gig. "When I say he did a crappy job, I mean capital C-rappy," Blake says. "It made him look even dumber than I know he is in real life."

Trace's stature and demeanor may have been his saving grace. "Trace just comes across as if he's gonna whip everyone's ass if they don't laugh at his jokes," Blake says. "The good thing about Trace is people know Trace and they know his personality and they know his sense of humor and that's why he's able to make things like that work. You want to see him be grumpy and yell at people as long as its not you."

But for the 'Brown Chicken Brown Cow' singer that isn't what it's all about. "Speaking from the artist's perspective, it's like a family reunion," Trace told The Boot before the awards. "That's what we look forward to. A lot of people think that we all hang together and run together, and we really don't. We're all so busy trying to keep this career thing going that we don't have a lot of time to visit with each other. That's what those award shows give us the opportunity to do is catch up with one another and just hang out. From that aspect, they're a lot of fun."

The ACMs will broadcast live from Las Vegas' MGM Grand Garden Arena April 3 at 8:00PM ET/PT on CBS.

Blake is on tour. His next scheduled concert is March 16 in Austin, Texas. For more concert news, check here.