“Well, I can’t see you, but if this is Austin, I still love you,” said Blake Shelton, giving a nod to his debut single “Austin,” as he opened the 2023 CMT Music Awards at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas. He then segued into his honky tonk song, “No Body.”
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Following an emotional opening by co-host Kelsea Ballerini, who shared a call for action for increased gun control laws and safety in the U.S., Shelton broke into his 2022 single and turned the Moody Center into a full-on honky tonk with dancers at every corner of the stage.
With lyrics Don’t wanna scoot the boots with no body / Get straight tequila drunk on no body / Wrap these arms around no body / No body but yours, the honky tonk-soaked “No Body” is drenched in ’90s country nostalgia.
Shelton’s CMT performance mirrored his music video, directed by Adam Rothlein, which features him performing inside a retro honky tonk sporting his ’90s-era mullet and cowboy hat.
The song, written by Rodney Clawson, Chris Tompkins and Josh Kear, is a revival of the country music Shelton started on when he first made his way to Nashville in the 1990s as a teen. “Nobody” also includes a nod to one of his country musical heroes, Conway Twitty.
A longtime fan of Twitty’s, in 2004, Shelton covered Twitty’s 1988 hit “Goodbye Time” on his third album Blake Shelton’s Barn & Grill.
“All I ever considered myself was a country singer,” said Shelton in a previous statement on the song. “I love country music and that’s on my horizon – from a career standpoint – just keeping that thing going and having songs on the radio and being able to go out and tour and play.”
He continued, “That’s what I do. I am a country singer.”
Shelton released his 12th album Body Language in 2021, featuring singles “Happy Anywhere,” a duet with wife Gwen Stefani, along with “Come Back as a Country Boy” and “Minimum Wage.”
Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for CMT
