Blake Shelton Nearly Quit Singing After His Mother Put Him in Pageants as a Child

Before creating a career in country music that lasted over two decades and produced several hit songs, Blake Shelton was just another fan with a dream of performing. Wanting to explore a career in country music, Shelton’s love for the genre was shared with his mother, Dorothy. Wanting to help her son’s dream become a reality, Dorothy decided to focus on beauty pageants. But while her heart was in the right place, apparently, the pageants almost led to Shelton completely giving up on performing. 

Sitting down to discuss his legacy in country music on Q with Tom Power, Shelton recalled how his mother somewhat forced him into the world of beauty pageants. Although the idea of the country singer strutting across the stage sounded odd, he insisted, “Can’t you tell by looking at me that I’m pageant material?”

Considering the pageants an “embarrassing” time in his life, Shelton walked away from performing entirely. “I was so embarrassed and humiliated by being in those pageants…I told her, I said, ‘Mom, I don’t want to sing anymore because it’s just embarrassing. And my friends are going to find out.’” Thankfully, Shelton found his way back to the stage only a few years later. “I quit after that because it was just embarrassing. And it wasn’t until I was probably 13, I guess, 12 or 13 that I started wanting to perform again.”

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Blake Shelton Recalled Performing “Cat Scratch Fever”

When Shelton decided to give performing another try, his mother was, once again, right beside him. But this time, they took a different approach. “My mom found a little Opry-type hometown shows around Ada, Oklahoma. There was a couple of them, and she would go beg ’em to let me be on, and it kind of started again. And that’s when I was finally getting to do back then Kentucky Head Hunters and Travis Tritt and Paul Overstreet and Mark Collie, these artists that I loved.” 

With Shelton able to perform the songs he loved, he still never forgot his pageant routine that included “Cat Scratch Fever.” “I had two signature songs back then… the only boy in the entire pageant,’ he recalled. “My two songs were ‘Old Time Rock and Roll’ and ‘Cat Scratch Fever’ by Ted Nugent, which by the way, I had no clue and neither did my mom apparently what that song was even about…I think we literally thought it was about somebody’s house cat scratching them and making them sick or something.”

Centered around having an obsession for lust, “Cat Scratch Fever” wasn’t the best song for Shelton to perform as a child. And while embarrassed at the time, the country singer couldn’t help but laugh at the memory. 

(Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)