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If you happen to follow country star Blake Shelton on Twitter, you may have noticed that drinking is among his favorite hobbies. But Shelton urges fans not to take his "I'm so drunk" tweets (like this one, or this one) too seriously.
"It's just a way to say something ridiculous," Shelton, 35, says in the Sunday issue of Parade. "Yeah, I drink a lot, but I'm not drunk every night."
His tweets may be all in good fun, but Shelton knows he's been under scrutiny since becoming a popular judge on NBC's The Voice. In May, he was accused of tweeting a homophobic joke -- a big misunderstanding that snowballed into controversy.
"Shoot, man, I love everybody! I don't have time to hate," says Shelton, who is pro-marriage equality.
At one point, says the singer, his producers tried to get him to quit Twitter. But Shelton stuck to his guns, arguing that his irreverent jokes were part of a long country tradition.
"If Hank Williams Sr. would have had a Twitter account, can you imagine the s*** he would have said?" muses Shelton. "Or George Jones?"
Shelton's generous, unapologetic personality is one reason he's been embraced by fans of The Voice. As mentor to up-and-coming talents Dia Frampton and Xenia, he showed a willingness to break out of the expected country-singer mold. And he says that he's proud of it, too.
"If there's anything that I hope that I have contributed to country music, it's probably not going to be song of the year, or to sing some amazing note people will talk about forever," Shelton tells the New York Times. "I hope that people learn from me, it's OK to be yourself. It's OK to offend somebody, and as a matter of fact, please be polarizing. If you're not polarizing, you failed in my opinion. If you don't stand for something, how can anyone respect what you do?"
The "Honey Bee" singer will be returning for season 2 of The Voice in February 2012.
