Blake Shelton Pays Tribute to "Hero" Brother Richie on 25th Anniversary of His Death

Miranda Lambert's 2011 single, "Over You," was inspired by Richie. Lambert won the 2012 CMA Award for Song of the Year for it.

Blake Shelton shared a touching tribute on Friday to his late older brother Richie Shelton, who died 25 years ago.

Richie died at age 24 in a car crash 1990. Blake was 14 years old at the time of his brother's death.

"Wow...25 years ago today we lost my brother Richie Shelton," the country star and The Voice coach said on Twitter. "He's still my hero going strong. Wish everyone could've known him."

Blake's ex Miranda Lambert's 2011 single "Over You" was inspired by Richie. She and Blake wrote the ballad together. Lambert won the 2012 CMA Award for Song of the Year for it.

Backstage at the award show, Blake revealed that they were inspired to write the track while on a tour bus, after they turned on the TV and saw that Backstory: Blake Shelton, which features his dad talking about Richie, was on GAC TV.

"We turned the TV off and we started talking about my brother," he said. "She never met my brother. We started talking and the next thing you know, we started playing, the next thing you know, we started writing and we wrote the song that night."

"I said, 'I want you to record it because I don't want to go there every night with my show, I want to be proud of that creation and stand back and smile but I don't want to be in it again every night,'" he said.

In 2014, Blake opened up about his brother's death in an interview on 60 Minutes.

"I remember picking up the phone to call him a week after he was dead to tell him something, and it was like...constantly a shock to me that he was dead," he said. "No, that's what my dad told me, too. He said, ‘Look, you will never ever get over this happening, you're just gonna have to learn to get used to it,' and he was absolutely right."

Also in 2014, Blake talked to Country Weekly about growing up in his native Oklahoma with Richie and the rest of their family, including older sister Endy Intrieri.

"His room was straight across the hallway from mine," he said about his brother. "He'd be in there cranking up anything from Ted Nugent all the way to Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams Jr., Garth Brooks, Joan Jett. He loved 'U Can't Touch This' by MC Hammer. I can't tell you how many times I heard that damn song coming out of his room!"

"He was my hero," Blake said. "I thought, ‘If he loves music that much, that's what I want to do.'"