New Fox series Monarch — which stars Trace Adkins opposite Susan Sarandon — already features a number of high profile country cameos, with the likes of Shania Twain, Little Big Town, Tanya Tucker and Martina McBride all making appearances in the first season. Plus, the show’s theme song, “The Card You Gamble,” was recorded by country-leaning singer-songwriter Caitlyn Smith.
But if Adkins made the casting decisions, the singer says there’s one more familiar country face he would add to the lineup. “I think we should bring Blake Shelton, let him play my stupid younger brother. That’s kind of what he is anyway,” the singer tells Fox News Digital.
Of course, Adkins and Shelton are longtime pals and frequent musical partners, too: Shelton lent vocals to a song on Adkins’ The Way I Wanna Go album in 2021, called “If I Was a Woman,” and Shelton invited Adkins to join his Friends and Heroes Tour that same year.
As for the “stupid younger brother” comment, don’t take that to mean that there’s any animosity between Shelton and Adkins — the pair frequently bust each other’s chops, and it’s all in good fun. When Shelton married pop superstar Gwen Stefani in July 2021, they kept the wedding small, meaning that many of their friends — Adkins included — didn’t get an invite. After the fact, Adkins deadpanned to Taste of Country that he “didn’t wanna go anyway,” mostly because he “didn’t wanna witness that woman [Stefani] throw her life away like that.”
Shelton’s already got some television experience on his resume: He’s been a coach on The Voice ever since the show launched. But Adkins says that the skills his friend picked up on The Voice wouldn’t necessarily apply for scripted television, which is why he didn’t go to Shelton for advice after he got cast on Monarch.
“Blake’s thing is a completely different animal. You can’t compare that stuff,” he clarified.
Episode 3 of Monarch airs on Tuesday night (Sept. 27) on Fox.