Country music artist Blake Shelton has been successful from the beginning. With almost 30 years in the industry, he’s had many accolades that have given him a reason to be one of the best. While his resume is filled to the brim with American Music and Billboard Awards, it’s the impact he left on a younger talent that has him worthy of dedication.
HARDY talked about the impact Shelton has on him.
Shelton received a song from a writer and immediately recognized the voice on the demo when he heard “Let Him In Anyway.”
“That sounds like HARDY on that demo,” Shelton told Country Now back in May.
Blake Shelton said ‘Let Him In Anyway’ Floored Him in the Way it Portrays Grief
Shelton admits he was “floored” after hearing the song, and it was more than the way it sounded. He says there was a deeper dive into grief, keeping faith and hope during the aftereffects of losing someone you love.
The song itself has the “narrator” pleading and asking to let his friend into heaven even after making some mistakes in his life.
“I love to be able to record a song that’s kind of an area, a subject that I haven’t covered yet. I mean, when you’ve been doing this a hundred years as I have, it’s hard to find something you haven’t said before, and so this is definitely something that hasn’t been said,” the “Austin” singer said. “I don’t know that it’s ever been said in any song that I’ve ever heard before.”
GettyHARDY was in a bit of disbelief when he heard that Shelton was truly interested in singing the song.
“It wasn’t presented to me as HARDY and once I heard it, I immediately said, ‘If I can, I’d like to record that song.’ And then a month or two went by before the session came up and HARDY texted me a day or two before we went into the recording session and said, ‘Man, are they messing with me? Are you really going to record this song?’ I go, ‘Man, I’m absolutely going to record that song,’” Shelton recalled.
It was extra special because HARDY had explained how much that song meant to him, but Shelton was surprised that the “TRUCK BED” singer had doubts. The two had worked on some songs before. HARDY co-wrote “God’s Country,” “Hell Right,” and “Come Back As A Country Boy.” They weren’t exactly strangers.
For Hardy, the Song Was Special in a Way That Would Resonate with Listeners
HARDY said the reason why it was an important song to him was the fact that it could resonate with fans.
Getty“It’s a very polarizing song. And to be honest, when I sent that to Blake, I didn’t know about his story about his brother and all of that,” he explained to “Country Now.” “It’s just a very polarizing song, but it’s a message that I think a lot of people deal with when they lose somebody that’s too early or maybe not, but that was a little bit wild and you kind of, I mean the first lines of the song are crazy thing, when somebody goes wondering where their soul went, and there’s a lot of wonder when it comes to that kind of thing.
I think more than anything, it speaks to, like, if you have a message that you want to tell, convey to one of your friends, whether that’s witnessing to them or even just telling them to calm down a little bit or whatever it may be, I think it’s just a good message to send out to the world.”
And who better to sing these songs than Blake Shelton?
“Blake has blown me away at how he’s just taken to my songs and my music, HARDY said “…I moved to town to write; I wanted to write a song for Blake Shelton … so I love Blake. I love him.”
