Blake Shelton Admits That He’s Still ‘Playing Catch-Up On Gwen Stefani’

Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani like to joke around about their much different musical backgrounds on The Voice. Gwen will playfully poke fun at her boyfriend for failing to recognize some of the pop songs that contestants on the singing competition choose to perform, and Blake will occasionally give Gwen grief over her lack of experience with the country music genre.

However, according to People, Blake recently revealed that Gwen has gone more than a little bit country since the couple began dating four years ago. While talking with fellow country star Martina McBride on her Vocal Point podcast, Blake said that Gwen has totally immersed herself in his musical world, so much so that the majority of songs that she listens to now are country tunes.

“She knows so many songs now. And in fact, I would say that Gwen, I don’t know how she’d feel about me saying this, but I’m going to say it,” Blake said. “I bet she listens to probably 75 percent country music now.”

Blake even stated that Gwen plays country music for her kids when they’re going to bed at night. However, while Gwen can now sing along to numerous country songs, Blake is still trying to familiarize himself with his 50-year-old girlfriend’s extensive music catalog. He admitted that one way he’s been learning her impressive discography that’s been decades in the making is by attending Gwen’s “Just a Girl” shows in Las Vegas.

“I’ll go watch her show in Vegas because you got to remember I’m playing catch-up on Gwen Stefani,” Blake confessed. “I knew who No Doubt was, and Gwen Stefani, but only the big hits, and then you go see her show in Las Vegas and you start going, ‘Oh my God, that one too, that song. Oh that’s you.’ You know?”

Blake basically said that it now blows his mind when he thinks about just how influential Gwen has been, but he really was clueless about her musical legacy before they coupled up. As reported by Us Weekly, he failed to recognize one of the No Doubt frontwoman’s most famous solo hits, “Hollaback Girl,” when he played a game called the “Name That Song Challenge” during an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Blake joked that his failure would lead to him “losing everything,” but Gwen wasn’t bothered by her boyfriend’s lack of familiarity with the 2004 tune. She later told Jimmy Fallon that Blake simply doesn’t listen to pop music.

Perhaps Blake Shelton shouldn’t feel too bad about not listening to Gwen’s hit songs often enough to recognize them — before she worked with Blake on The Voice, Gwen confessed that she “didn’t even know that he was a human being on this planet.”

Luckily for Blake, his name recognition got a big boost when he was named People‘s Sexiest Man Alive in 2017. It’s an honor that he still likes to joke about.

“If you thought the People magazine cover was shocking, mine and Gwen’s relationship is probably the biggest head-scratcher,” he quipped during his interview with McBride.

On a recent episode of The Voice, Gwen Stefani brought up their unlikely attraction to one another while trying to explain why two competitors with very different singing styles made the perfect team for a Battles duet.

“There’s a chemistry. It’s like me and Blake. We do not seem like we would be together, but yet we go together perfectly,” Stefani said. “It’s like this weird contrast.”