Blake Shelton did 2 songs with Gwen Stefani and goofed on Luke Bryan when tour hit Phoenix
A Blake Shelton concert is always a good time, and the country star’s concert in metro Phoenix on Saturday, March 23, was no exception.
The Back to the Honky Tonk Tour at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, may not have fooled you into thinking the venue was an actual honky tonk, but Shelton did his best to make it feel like one, from all that neon signage in the videos behind him to his playful rapport and the boozy good-old-boy-next-door charisma that makes his such an entertaining presence, both on stage and in his starring role on NBC’s “The Voice” as the leader of Team Blake for 23 seasons.
Blake Shelton setlist 2024: Everything he - and Gwen Stefani! - sang in Phoenix
When Gwen Stefani crashed the stage at the Blake Shelton concert
Of course, it didn’t hurt that he was joined on two duets by Gwen Stefani, who strolled onstage after her husband sang another of their hit duets without her, introducing “Happy Anywhere” with, “While you’re in the singing mood, it’s just me and y'all tonight. I've got a couple duets I can do if you guys will sing along with me. It's just me here. I hope you're not disappointed, but y’all got to be my Gwen Stefani for me tonight.”
After that song, Stefani hit the stage for “Nobody But You,” another of their hit duets.
Shelton took great joy in having tricked the crowd into thinking Glendale wasn’t getting a Stefani walk-on.
“Oh my God! I’ve been so excited about that all day,” he said with a grin. “This is Gwen Stefani, by the way, everybody.”
They sounded great together, and Stefani, who looked amazing his shiny knee-high boots and a white fur coats over a shimmering mini-dress, stuck around for one more song, their latest single, “Purple Irises.”
'We're here for two reasons, to drink and celebrate country music'
Stefani’s guest appearance may have been the highlight of a night that felt like everything a reasonable person could’ve hoped for in a Shelton concert circa 2024, from the self-effacing humor he brings to interacting with the audience to a setlist packed with singalongs, dusting off early hit singles as timeless as “Austin” and “Ol’ Red” after getting the party started with the far more recent “Come Back as a Country Boy.”
It was after that opening song that Shelton told the crowd, “We’re here for two reasons tonight, to drink and celebrate country music. And let me tell you what we’re not here to do tonight, by the way. We are not here to vomit, no peeing in the aisles, no bull (expletive), no offended crybabies are allowed in here, and absolutely no talking about politics in here.”
Why Blake Shelton likes to think of Phoenix and Arizona as 'my favorite'
There was plenty of talk about his love of Arizona – “my favorite!” as he called it.
“This is my place, man,” Shelton said. “I’ve said it all along, man. Arizona is like my second home. I love it here, coming out here, doing concerts, seeing how you all get dressed up to come out to the country concert. Got your new cowboy hat on.”
Then, he noticed a guy whose hat was maybe not so new.
“You haven’t worn that one for a while, have you, man?” he asked. “That’s been on the scarecrow for a while, hasn’t it? It looks good on you, but it’s weathered. It’s weathered. Now look at hers, though. See her cowboy hat? Shaped perfectly. She’s perfect. And then you wore the scarecrow hat out here, man.”
It was all in good fun, and Shelton eventually dedicated his next song to scarecrow hat man.
“I want to play a song for this guy right here, man,” he said. “I like this guy right here.”
He returned to the Arizona theme a few songs later.
“Let’s just get this out of the way, man,” Shelton said. “Y’all may know that I’m a big Arizona Cardinals fan.”
That’s where his relationship with Arizona began, he said.
“Because I grew up in Oklahoma and we didn’t have an NFL team out there, so the Cardinals became my team. Since I’ve been coming out here, what I really have fallen in love with…,” Shelton said.
“And I’m not just saying this like other douchebag country singers who come out here and they’ll sing for y’all and they go, ‘Man, I love y’all.’ And you know they’re lying. They don’t care about y’all.”
Goofing on Luke Bryan and other country singers
That led into a funny bit about country stars making the audience sing.
“Luke Bryan does that (expletive),” he said, as the audience laughed. “Because he’s so high, he can’t remember the words to his own songs. He has to do those poses, too. With his hat on backwards. You don’t pay money to come hear yourself sing.”
There’s always been a heavy dose of standup comedy in Shelton’s concerts, which is fine because he’s genuinely funny.
Blake Shelton's set included 19 songs that topped the country charts
And it’s doubtful anyone felt shortchanged by the 26 songs Shelton packed into his nearly two-hour performance between the punchlines.
That included such chart-topping highlights as “Austin,” “Some Beach,” “Home,” “Hillbilly Bone,” “Honey Bee,” “Sure Be Cool If You Did,” “Boys ‘Round Here,” “Mine Would Be You,” “Doin’ What She Likes,” “Neon Light,” “Sangria,” “Gonna,” “A Guy With A Girl,” “Every Time I Hear That Song,” “I’ll Name the Dogs,” “Nobody But You,” “Happy Anywhere,” a set-closing “God’s Country” and an encore performance of “God Gave Me You.”
Squeezing 19 songs that topped the country charts into a 26-song set is one surefire path to a crowd-pleasing concert.
But it wouldn’t have been nearly as effective if Shelton didn’t give those songs exactly what they needed as a singer, from moments as heartfelt as “Austin” and “Mine Would Be You” to his playful delivery of “Boys ‘Round Here,” “I’ll Name the Dogs” and “Some Beach.”
At 46 years of age, Shelton is still sounding great.
And the members of his touring band are versatile enough to underscore those vocals with the perfect part, including some show-stopping leads by guitarist Beau Tackett.
Dustin Lynch proved a perfect opener for a Blake Shelton tour
The night began with a crowd-pleasing set by Emily Ann Roberts, a former member of Team Blake on NBC’s “The Voice.”
Then Dustin Lynch hit the stage in his cowboy hat to greet the crowd with an upbeat performance of “Stars Like Confetti.”
“It’s our job to get you warmed up for the boss man, Mr. Blake Shelton,” he said.
And that’s exactly what he and his backing band did in the course of a hit-filled set that included a handful of his own chart-topping country singles, from “Where It’s At” and “Ridin’ Roads” to “Good Girl,” “Thinking ‘Bout You” and the set-closing “Small Town Boy.”
He had the audience shouting “Tequila” after slipping a bit of the Champs’ classic surf instrumental “Tequila” into his own “Tequila On a Boat” and threw it back to the ‘90s with Joe Diffie’s "Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die)."
The only downside of his set was a rewrite of the Dobie Gray hit “Drift Away” as “Chevrolet.” He and Jelly Roll rewrote it with a chorus that felt it was written for a truck commercial and trust me, they have both done better work.
“She said, ‘Gimme a dirt road, the windows down / Wanna get lost on the edge of town / In your Chevrolet.’ She said, ‘Gimme a six pack, some Brooks and Dunn / If you want a country girl, you just found one / Let's step away, yeah / In your Chevrolet.’”
Nah, man. That ain’t it.
He also earned big laughs for bringing out one of those hats with beer cans on the sides and presenting it to a fan down front named Greg, who was happy to oblige and drink beer from that hat as the audience chanted “Chug!”
“I’ve never seen someone so excited to drink beer,” Lynch said. “This man was made to drink beer.”
It was a fun set and a fitting way to warm the crowd up for “the boss man.”
Blake Shelton setlist 2024: Every song he played in Phoenix
Here’s every song Blake Shelton played at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, on Saturday, March 23:
“Come Back as a Country Boy”
“A Guy With a Girl”
“Every Time I Hear That Song”
“Doin' What She Likes”
“Neon Light”
“Sangria”
“Gonna”
“I'll Name the Dogs”
“Mine Would Be You”
“Happy Anywhere”
“Nobody But You”
"Purple Irises"
“Drink on It”
“Some Beach”
“Who Are You When I'm Not Looking”
“The More I Drink”
“Home”
“Ol' Red”
“Austin”
“Hell Right”
“Sure Be Cool If You Did”
“Honey Bee”
“Hillbilly Bone”
“Boys 'Round Here”
“God's Country”
Encore:
“God Gave Me You”
Dustin Lynch setlist 2024: Every song he played in Phoenix
Here's every song Dustin Lynch played in Glendale, Arizona, when he opened for Blake Shelton's Back to the Honky Tonk Tour.
“Stars Like Confetti”
“Where It’s At”
“Ridin’ Roads”
“Tequila on a Boat” (with a snippet of “Tequila” by the Champs)
“Honky Tonk Heartbreaker”
“Cowboys and Angels”
“Good Girl”
“Chevrolet”
“Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox (If I Die)”
“Thinking ‘Bout You”
“Small Town Boy”
Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-4495. Follow him on X @EdMasley.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Blake Shelton tour brought Gwen Stefani and hit songs to metro Phoenix
