Billboard Cover: Blake Shelton on Heartache, Falling In Love Again and Starting Over After Being in the 'Middle of Hell'

Shelton and Stefani had met two years prior, when she joined The Voice as a coach in season seven. But she recently had given birth to her son Apollo, and Shelton "never really got to know her, other than small talk." When Stefani didn't return for season eight, Shelton assumed he would never see her again. So the way she reacted to his news was surprising and memorable. "I won't forget that day," he says. "I looked over at Gwen -- who I didn't really know -- and she had these huge tears in her eyes. I thought, 'Wow, she feels super bad for me!' "



It wasn't only empathy. Though she, too, hadn't announced it, Stefani was in the process of separating from her husband, Bush singer Gavin Rossdale, after 20 years together and three kids. Later that day, she asked to talk with Shelton, alone.

"I thought it was going to be another one of those things-are-going-to-be-OK talks," he recalls. "She didn't tell me much, because we didn't know each other at the time, but she said, 'I'm going through something very similar to what you're going through. I understand. And I hate it.' That's kind of how our friendship and bond started, that day. It went from that, to checking in on each other once a week through email -- 'This **** happened to me, what happened to you?' -- to maybe three times a week, then every day, to 'Hey, here's my phone number if you ever want to text.' Next thing I know, I wake up and she's all I care about, and I'm *wondering if she feels the same about me.



"Gwen saved my life. Who else on earth could understand going through a high-profile divorce from another musician? You can't even imagine the similarities in our divorces."

After lingering in misery for a while, If I'm Honest starts to lift and turn, most *notably with "Go Ahead and Break My Heart," an unlikely duet between Shelton and Stefani. Shelton, who isn't prolific, began to write about his new relationship to woo Stefani. He sent the incomplete song to her as a voice memo and invited her to help write it; she twisted it in a *different direction, from his *tentative *optimism to something more blunt ("Thought I was using you just to get me through") and scarred. "She wrote a verse that was brutally honest and didn't really go with my verse. I was writing about her, and she made it about us. I was so taken aback by it. F--, she's awesome." They debuted the song, a week before Shelton's album release, live on The Voice while "making bedroom eyes at each other," as one newspaper described it.

As Shelton has acknowledged, the couple "could not be, on paper, any more different" -- a country singer who plants corn on his Oklahoma farm and bow-hunts white-tailed deer, and a glam-packed California vegan who started her career in a ska band and has her own fashion empire. She's Vogue, he's Field & Stream; he's a tractor, she's a Porsche.

Originally posted by Nebula Aw, poor guy! Two highly successful millionaire getting divorces, the tragedy! He was GOING THROUGH HELL! I can't even imagine the mental anguish of those heated conversations over four course meals and wine pairings in the Calabasas hills. I'm so sorry for them--but so happy they managed to came through all this.

Originally posted by Nebula Aw, poor guy! Two highly successful millionaire getting divorces, the tragedy! He was GOING THROUGH HELL! I can't even imagine the mental anguish of those heated conversations over four course meals and wine pairings in the Calabasas hills. I'm so sorry for them--but so happy they managed to came through all this.

Originally posted by LeMésTragique She'd better save her carriera....

Originally posted by J-esper So material things should make all their heartache go away? It doesn't matter if they are celebs, they are human, they have feelings. I mean you can have millions on the bank, but that doesn't mean happiness. Love is basically the basis of happiness and both Gwen and Blake had their hearts crushed. How corny as it may be, money can't buy you happiness. It can make some things easier in life, but it's no replacement to actual feelings.

Originally posted by cybiko he looks like halsey