Blake Shelton Reveals a Secret About His Toby Keith Tribute

Did the guitar Blake Shelton brought to pay tribute to Toby Keith at the Country Music Hall of Fame look familiar?

There’s a reason for that.

Talking to Taste of Country, Shelton revealed what it took to get that red, white and blue acoustic to the Medallion ceremony.

Keith was inducted alongside John Anderson and James Burton on Sunday (Oct. 20). The “Austin” singer played “I Love This Bar” to close a three-song tribute.

It’s the same guitar that Keith played during his “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” era, and it was his guitar, but he didn’t know it.

Shelton explains it best — here’s what he told Evan Paul from Taste of Country Nights:

“When they made those red, white and blue guitars for Toby, they made four of them and they gave Toby three of them. And my friend David Vincent at Takamine — I reached out to him and said, ‘I’m doing this induction thing for Toby at the Hall of Fame and his family is gonna be there and I want it to be … I really wanna honor Toby. I wanna buy one of those red, white and blue guitars.'”

Vincent told Shelton about the fourth guitar, which — as fate would have it — was still in his possession. He’d secretly kept one just in case Keith needed one shipped to him on the road in an emergency.

“We’re always tearing up our stuff on the road, you know?” Shelton says.

“And so that actually was the other one that Toby — he never got it, he probably never even knew it was made. I was able to get that and they went ahead and gave it to me, which is gonna be a prized possession for me for the rest of my life.”

Offstage, the two country stars were very close. In fact, Shelton credits Keith for turning his career around.

“For almost two years I opened for Toby,” he shares. “It was a big deal for me, and he gave me that shot. I was kind of in a low spot as far as having any success at radio and stuff and Toby kept keeping me out there. I think he knew it was helping me out, and it was.”

Toward the end of the run, Keith was shut out once again by voters at a major awards show. This bothered the new Hall of Famer, but Shelton — known even then as something of a smart aleck — thought he’d cut through the pain with jabbing humor.

“I said, ‘Hey, man … if I ever do get nominated for a CMA, I hope it’s against you because I know damn good and well that you’re not gonna beat anybody,” Shelton recalls.

“He sat there a minute and he goes, ‘You know why I keep you out on tour with me? Because I wanna prove to everybody that I don’t actually need an opening act.'”

“Toby was quick like that. You could never get one on him, because he was ready every time.”