Before Blake Shelton became one of country music’s biggest stars with a career spanning over two decades, he was just a kid trying to find his way on stage—sometimes with some hilariously awkward song choices.
In a candid conversation on Q with Tom Power, Shelton opened up about his early years and how his mother, Dorothy, played a key role in shaping his musical journey. Eager to help her son pursue his dreams, Dorothy pushed Shelton into participating in beauty pageants. But rather than inspiring confidence, those pageants nearly made Shelton quit performing altogether.
“Can’t you tell by looking at me that I’m pageant material?” Shelton joked, recalling the embarrassing experience. The reality was far from glamorous for him. “I was so embarrassed and humiliated by being in those pageants… I told her, ‘Mom, I don’t want to sing anymore because it’s just embarrassing. And my friends are going to find out.’” For a time, Shelton stepped away from music, only to rediscover his passion around age 12 or 13.
When he returned to performing, Dorothy once again supported him—but this time through local Opry-style shows in their hometown of Ada, Oklahoma. Shelton began sharing the stage with the country artists he admired, like Kentucky Head Hunters, Travis Tritt, and Paul Overstreet.
Yet, Shelton never forgot the peculiar songs from his pageant days, especially Cat Scratch Fever by Ted Nugent. “I had two signature songs back then… the only boy in the entire pageant,” Shelton recalled. “My two songs were ‘Old Time Rock and Roll’ and ‘Cat Scratch Fever,’ which, by the way, I had no clue—and neither did my mom—what that song was even about.”
The classic rock anthem, which is actually about a lustful obsession, was far from the innocent tune Shelton and his mom assumed it to be. “I think we literally thought it was about somebody’s house cat scratching them and making them sick or something,” he laughed.
Though the pageants were an awkward chapter, Shelton’s early missteps are now a funny footnote in a remarkable career. From a 10-year-old belting out misunderstood rock songs to becoming a country music icon, Blake Shelton’s journey proves that sometimes, the path to stardom is full of surprising—and hilarious—twists.