Blake Shelton on Getting Together With Gwen Stefani: "It Took a While, Because It's Chaos"

Country crooner opens up about the slow process of their budding relationship

Love certainly doesn't come easily...or quickly.

By now fans know Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani wrote "Go Ahead and Break My Heart" by voice memo, and by now they know the two singers bonded because they were both going through divorces. What they don't know, however, is how they each found out about their respective marital status.

"We were starting The Voice last year, and I had to sit down and go, 'Look, by the time this thing airs, my life will have completely changed, and we need to talk about this now because it may affect what we talk about on the show'," he tells Rolling Stone. "I just felt like there doesn't need to be secrets. And then the same thing [happened] with Gwen. It was like, 'Here's what's going on, this show ain't gonna air until three months from now, so let's get this talked about right now'."

When Gwen and Blake both found out that their marriages were falling apart, they turned to each other. Of course, their relationship didn't sprout overnight. "...we just started to develop a friendship after that," he continues. "And it took awhile, because it's chaos. But just over time, seeing each other a lot at work, it just kind of developed into that."

Blake's latest album, If I'm Honest, started as a way to help him "get [my divorce] out my system," but then it turned into something more. "But as I was making the record, other developments were happening. I was spending some time with Gwen all of a sudden, and she became my closest ally, my friend, my person in my life who had my back, and I had hers," he shares. 

"And created this bond with somebody that I never would have thought in a million years."

Ever since Blake and Miranda Lambert split, as well as Gwen and Gavin Rossdale, Gwen and Blake's relationship has dominated the media. At first, it bothered the country crooner, but now he tells the magazine that he's learning to appreciate it.

"It used to upset me, but it turns out it just pays really well. They can't let go of anything I do. I literally was followed to work today," he explains. "It must mean my career is doing pretty well, because my personal life's not that exciting. I'm almost 40 years old. I don't do that much. I'm kind of a slug. But they damn sure want pictures of it."