Blake Shelton Said Yes to Garth Brooks Duet, ‘Dive Bar,’ Without Even Hearing the Song
Blake Shelton and Garth Brooks' new duet, "Dive Bar," marks the first time the two country hitmakers have ever teamed up to work on a song -- but that's not for lack of enthusiasm. In fact, according to the Tennesseean, when Shelton heard the news that Brooks wanted to collaborate, he was so excited that he said yes without even listening to the song in question.
Shelton recalls that he was hanging out with a turkey hunting buddy at his farm in Oklahoma one day, when he got a text from his manager asking permission to pass along his phone number to Brooks. Of course, the singer immediately answered yes, and within about a half hour, the two performers were on the phone.
"He said, 'I've got this song I wrote. I wanted to see if I could send it over to you and you tell me what you think about it.' It was kind of like that," Shelton recalls to the Tennesseean.
However, Shelton didn't need to hear the song -- he was ready to agree to work on any project with Brooks, no consideration necessary. "I'm going to tell you right now, even without hearing the song; I'm apt to say, 'Hell yes, I'll do it,'" he told the legendary country star. "He laughed and said, 'You should at least hear the song.'"
Just as he thought he would, Shelton loved "Dive Bar" once Brooks sent it to him later that evening. The singer says it reminded him of the singer's most defining works, like "Friends in Low Places" and "Ain't Goin' Down til the Sun Comes Up." Those were the kinds of tracks that helped Shelton make the choice to pursue a career in the format, back when he was just a kid starting out in music.
"He just tapped back into that mid-'90s stuff, when I was deciding I wanted to be a country singer, and all I could imagine was being the next Garth Brooks," Shelton added. "He didn't need me on this [song], but I'm not gonna tell him that."
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