Blake Shelton gives God the credit for his relationship with Gwen Stefani
Country singer Blake Shelton says his relationship with Gwen Stefani has strengthened his faith.
Shelton said that if he tried to take God out of his relationship with the singer and fellow Voice judge, then it "doesn't make sense".
"I believe in God now more than I ever have in my life," Shelton told The Tennessean.
"The biggest part of that is just how [Gwen] came into my life and now our relationship. It's just too weird. If you take God out of it, it doesn't make sense. If you put God into it, everything that's happened with us makes sense."
The couple met while co-hosting The Voice but became an item four years ago, not long after both of their marriages ended.
God isn't just in Shelton's love life, though. He's in his music, too, as faith features prominently in his upcoming album Fully Loaded: God's Country.
The album is out on December 13, with "God's Country" as the lead track. It's a celebration of God's presence in the open countryside and doing an honest day's work on the land.
Right outside of this one church town
There's a gold dirt road to a whole lot of nothin'
Got a deed to the land, but it ain't my ground
This is God's country
We pray for rain, and thank Him when it's fallen
'Cause it brings a grain and a little bit of money
We put it back in the plate
I guess that's why they call it God's country
Speaking about how much the track means to him and the moment he knew he wanted to record it, he told The Tennessean: "It was the most shocking moment I've had in my 20 years of doing this. I was in a place that I consider to be God's country doing the thing that makes me feel the most connected to God, which is working on the land.
"I heard that song, and I had one of those moments that you hear people talk about ... where they say they pulled over on the side of the highway and listened. I literally had that moment."
Another faith-inspired track off the album is "Jesus Got a Tight Grip", in which he sings about how the Devil can't win because Jesus is holding onto him.
The devil reaches out but he can't grab hold
because Jesus got a tight grip on my soul
Might have a little rust on my halo
But when I'm gone I know where I'll go.