Blake Shelton Reveals He Originally Recorded Toby Keith’s Country Rap Hit ‘I Wanna Talk About Me’

Shelton is happy the song “found its right home”

Blake Shelton, Toby Keith

Blake Shelton in January 2024; Toby Keith in December 2018.Credit : 

Jason Davis/Getty (2)

Blake Shelton is reflecting on a road not taken.

During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, days after the release of his new album For Recreational Use Only, Shelton admitted he actually recorded and almost released “I Wanna Talk About Me” — Toby Keith’s 2001 country rap hit — before the other artist.

“So listen to this: my producer at the time was a guy named Bobby Braddock, and he wrote me this song because I used to have these stupid raps,” Shelton, 48, shared. “I would come into the studio singing every day about, you know, doo-doo and things like that. You know. Fun things.”

Toby Keith (L) and Blake Shelton attend SiriusXM's The Highway channel broadcast backstage at the Academy of Country Music Awards on April 14, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Toby Keith and Blake Shelton in 2018.Isaac Brekken/Getty

So Braddock whipped up the song — what would later be “I Wanna Talk About Me” — and they recorded it, just for Shelton’s label during that time to promptly shoot it down.

“We don’t want any part of that song,” Shelton recalled the label saying.

Not wanting his hard work to go to waste, Braddock then pitched the song to other artists — bringing the tune first to Keith, who gladly accepted it. The song became one of Keith’s biggest No. 1 hits, Shelton reflected. There were no hard feelings, of course — Shelton is happy the song “found its right home,” he told Jimmy Fallon.

THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON -- Episode 2134 -- Pictured: (l-r) Singer-songwriter Blake Shelton during an interview with host Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Blake Shelton on ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.’.Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty

Elsewhere during the conversation, Shelton shared that Post Malone inspired him to release this latest album. After four years without releasing new music, Shelton said Malone, 29, had “a fire lit under me.” (The duo released “Somebody Pour Me a Drink” together in the summer of 2024.)

“You’ve been around him,” Shelton said. “I mean, you can’t be around that guy without having a good time, and he’s just so excited about everything.”

“I was like, “Man, what am I doing? I need to make a record,’” he continued. “Like, he had me fired up again from that song.”