Luke Bryan Is So Glad Blake Shelton Convinced Him to Do ‘American Idol’
Luke Bryan admits that he and Blake Shelton "inadvertently compete against each other" with their respective singing competition TV shows — Bryan on American Idol, Shelton on The Voice — but he's still glad that his buddy urged him to do Idol in the first place.
That's how Bryan puts it in a new episode of his Apple Music show Party Barn Radio. When Shelton dropped by the program, the two looked back on how the "God's Country" crooner convinced Bryan.
"You said, 'Do it,'" Bryan recalls to Shelton on the latest Party Barn installment (Episode 6), as reported by Country Now. "I said, 'Heck yeah, I'm going to do it.' Man, it was like you told me. It certainly opens your eyes, opens your world up to stuff you never can imagine … Thank you for that."
As viewers are doubtless aware, Bryan's taken to his TV gig like a fish to water. Further, he's not afraid to show emotion when a contestant brings it out in him. In a recent preview of American Idol's upcoming Season 19, Bryan's eyes well up with tears as he watches one participant.
"Nothing is more fun than being in the room when a star is born," Bryan says. "I mean, you got to go through hundreds of people to find that star."
Recalling a highlight from Idol Season 16, the "One Margarita" singer continues, "It's just like when Gabby Barrett walked into American Idol. She didn't win American Idol. But even I just said, there was just something magical about that. I know you've seen that stuff too, and that's what brings you back."
But the two country singers' television jobs aren't exactly the same — something Shelton points out of the overall differences in contestant selection between American Idol and The Voice.
"I've always said that the tough parts of our jobs are in two different timelines," Shelton elucidates, "because what you guys do with the audition process, you're literally out there hitting the streets. People coming in with a number taped on their back or chest or whatever, and they're just as raw as they could possibly be. Where on The Voice, by the time they get through the audition process to make it onto the blind auditions, they're a little more prepared for that moment because of what they go through just to get to that part."
Still, each entertainer's developed quite a knack for evaluating and encouraging up-and-coming singers in front of a TV audience. Now, it's hard to even imagine an American Idol without Bryan — not to mention Lionel Richie and Katy Perry — as part of the show's celebrity judging panel.
Shelton recently finished up the latest season of NBC's The Voice alongside his fiancée, fellow singing star Gwen Stefani. Bryan returns for American Idol's new season on ABC in February.
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