The country crooner‘s favorite fireworks as a kid? “The fountains!” Get to know a young Blake Shelton‘s fantastic appreciation for 4th of July fireworks through his own recollection of the good ol’ days.
Blake Shelton’s childhoods were consumed by anticipation for July. July meant many things for a young Blake: his birthday, the Fourth of July holiday, and fireworks.
“Fourth of July when I was a kid was extremely important,” the country icon tells Warner Music Nashville in a recent press release.
He cites our country’s Independence Day as a “big deal” for patriotic reasons, sure. But for Blake Shelton, childhood Fourths meant “the fireworks stands, or we called them ‘firecracker,’ they always opened about four or five days before my birthday,” he offers.
Shelton’s birthday, as he reminds us, is coming up – “June the 18th,” to be precise. And a few days before each June 18th, his home state of Oklahoma “always opened a few days before that so I got tons of fireworks for my birthday which I loved and I would save.”
The country crooner had a game plan too.
“I would try to save the cool ones until the Fourth of July,” he recalls. Which fireworks made childhood Blake Shelton’s “cool” list? “The fountains,” he says, or “some of the bigger ones,” to be sure.
Like a kid on Christmas Eve, however, a young Shelton could rarely wait until the big holiday to blow off some “firecracker.”
“By the time the fourth got there I’d be down to almost nothing,” he cites. “But, I was just obsessed with them.”
Blake Shelton: An Outsider to the Core
To the masses, the man is: Blake Shelton, Country Music Superstar and Coach on The Voice. But back home in Oklahoma, he’s the board director for his home state’s Wildlife Conservation Foundation.
For Shelton, it’s the opposite of an honorary title. In fact, it’s one he takes full, regular responsibility for. Whether he’s teaching local kids how to fish in his own pond – or helping researchers study their recovering black bear population – Shelton is as hands-on a director as any conservation foundation could ask for.
“It doesn’t matter if you come from the perfect family or you come from where things aren’t perfect,” Blake Shelton began in late 2020. “No matter what the situation is, the outdoors are out there and it’s for everybody to experience and everyone is equal when it comes to the outdoors and their connection with it.”
In short: that little boy obsessed with fireworks and the outdoors grew up into one hell of a role model. This is a motto and creed he lives by. Through it, he’s able to do things like take local boys fishing. Boys that don’t have fathers of their own to show them the angling lines.
“If you ever get a chance to take a kid fishing you gotta do it. This was an absolutely amazing day,” he said that same month.
Keep on being you, Blake Shelton. Your fellow Outsiders wouldn’t have it any other way!
