Trace Adkins was not invited to Blake Shelton‘s recent wedding to Gwen Stefani, but in a humorous new interview, the country singer says he wouldn’t have wanted to attend.
After much public back-and-forth about which of their circle of famous friends might perform at the wedding, Shelton and Stefani ultimately opted to keep their ceremony on July 3, 2021, as private as possible to avoid a celebrity circus. They wed in a small ceremony in a private chapel on Shelton’s ranch in Oklahoma, and the only other celebrity in attendance besides the bride and groom was The Voice host Carson Daly, who officiated the ceremony.
Unlike some of Shelton’s friends, Adkins tells Taste of Country that he knew about the wedding in advance.
“Oh, yeah. He told me,” he says in a phone interview. “I mean, he didn’t invite anybody to the wedding.”
“I probably wouldn’t want to come, anyway, because I didn’t want to witness that woman throw her life away like that,” Adkins adds in a comical deadpan. “So, I didn’t wanna go, anyway.”
Shelton says he’s had some uncomfortable moments with certain friends since the news of the wedding broke.
“So I’ve had awkward conversations with so many of my friends since,” he told Storme Warren during an interview on SiriusXM’s the Highway. “It’s, ‘Oh, oh yeah. I read, y’all. Yeah, I read about that. How was that?’”
“Listen, you know, we kept it small, get over it,” Shelton added. “You know, it’s not about you. So, a lot of them.”
“Yeah, I’m sure a lot of people had some choice words for him,” Adkins says with a chuckle, taking one more good-natured jab at his friend by adding, “I did.”
The longtime friends and frequent collaborators pair up again for a track on Adkins’ upcoming album, The Way I Wanna Go, which is set for release on Aug. 27. They recorded a track together titled “If I Was a Woman,” and Adkins will join Shelton on his 2021 Friends and Heroes Tour alongside Martina McBride, Tracy Byrd and Lindsay Ell. The tour will begin in Omaha, Neb., on Aug. 18, and run through Oct. 2.
Adkins also launched his solo The Way I Wanna Go Tour in April, with dates running through November.
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