Blake Shelton was born and raised in Ada, Oklahoma, on June 18, 1976, spending his early years around his mother Dorothy's beauty parlor and his father Dick's auto company. Endy, his older sister, became a jewelry designer. The country singer tragically lost his older brother, Richie, in a vehicle accident when he was 14 years old.
Shelton's musical career began when he was about eight years old, thanks to his mother. When he was younger, she entered him in singing contests, and Entertainment Tonight unearthed an old video of him performing at a pageant to a Bob Seger song. The contest included a talent segment, and according to Shelton, he had to do the evening dress and all that garbage stuff in order to perform in the pageant, like his mom wanted him to do.
When Shelton was a teenager, his passion for music persisted through high school. Shelton carried on Richie's love of country music by continuing to sing and picking up the guitar. He once attracted the notice of the late Mae Boren Axton, who advised him to follow his dreams.
But before he could do that, Blake Shelton spent two summers working as a roofer in his hometown. He said, 'It made me want to be a country singer.' Shelton began performing in clubs when he was merely 16 years old, and after winning the Denbo Diamond Award, he gained national attention in Oklahoma, according to his Biography. Two weeks after getting his high school diploma, he relocated to Nashville to begin his songwriting career.
In the state capital of Tennessee, Mae Boren Axton served as something of a mentor, introducing him to numerous influential figures. She had gotten him a job painting homes, including her own, prior to this. He had another job producing cassette copies for a publishing company in the city, but he lost it because he talked to songwriters instead of performing the tasks for which he was being paid. He really liked the painting job.