As the only coach to have appeared on every single season of The Voice since it first began in 2011, there’s no doubt Blake Shelton is a big fan of the show. However, the country star recently revealed that there is one thing he actually “despises” when it comes to his role as a coach on the singing competition.
Blake made the confession during a recent event at his Ole Red restaurant in Nashville to promote The Voice . He admitted that, despite doing it for the past 17 seasons, he still can’t stand when he has to send contestants home.
“Eliminating people from the show. … I literally despise it,” Blake said when asked about his least favorite part of being a coach, per People .
“I don’t want it to be in my hands. And so when we finally get to the [live shows], it still hurts as bad to see somebody go home, but at least you don’t feel directly responsible for it.”
The “Dive Bar” singer also shared why he’s not missing former longtime co-coach Adam Levine after he left the show earlier this year. The two famously had some serious banter on the NBC singing competition.
Though the currently airing Season 17 is the first in the show’s history not to feature the Maroon 5 singer on the coaching panel, Blake confessed that Adam’s void has actually been filled by another coach.
The star joked that Kelly Clarkson has been “doing a great job filling the Adam a**hat void.” He also admitted that he once told her that to her face and quipped that she didn’t take his comments too kindly.
In the same The Voice question-and-answer session, Blake opened up about having Nick Jonas join the team for Season 18 after he previously joked that he thought it was “unacceptable” that the singer will replace his girlfriend Gwen Stefani as a coach next year.
Despite having previously admitted that he’s ready to take him down, the country star actually called Nick a “super-nice guy” as they’ve already started filming the infamous Blind Audition rounds for the new season, which is set to debut in February.
“I’m starting to hate the guy because I’m competing with him now,” he said of Nick, adding that he’s a “tough guy” to compete against.
“When you turn your chair around and there’s a young person up there, and they’re trying to choose between me and then Nick Jonas sitting down there, I’m screwed almost every time,” the longtime coach continued and added that the “Sucker” singer “can kiss my a** till the season’s over.”
Blake’s latest comments about The Voice come shortly after he recently confessed that the show is just “not the same” since Gwen replaced Adam for the current season.