Blake Shelton has officially put his stamp on Las Vegas.
The country music superstar took the stage at his Ole Red bar on the famed Las Vegas Strip on Tuesday night, and he declared it a “destination for absolute redneck hillbillies.” “Welcome the grand opening, the official grand opening of Ole Red Las Vegas, y’all,” he happily shouted. “I’ve been waiting a long time to say that. I’ve been waiting years to say that.”
In his element, Shelton, 47, often toasted the crowd with his vodka and Sprite Zero beverage and bantered with the fans. He even jokingly razzed a fan who wasn’t drinking.
“This is what we do here. We get on stage and yell at the audience,” he said.
During the one-hour concert, Shelton belted out his most popular songs, such as “God’s Country,” “Sangria” and “Honey Bee.” He even busted out “Austin,” the first single he ever released in 2001. But, he also had a surprise up his rolled up sleeves, as he brought out his wife Gwen Stefani to join him on stage just days after her highly acclaimed Coachella performance with No Doubt.
“Gwen Stefani, everybody!” he told the deafening crowd. “I don’t know if you all heard it but there’s a thing called Coachella last weekend. Gwen was over at Coachella last weekend, Saturday, flew to Nashville for a wedding, and she’s been a trouper and now she wanted to be here tonight.”
The couple then duetted “Happy Anywhere” and “Nobody But You” before embracing on stage.
While Shelton has little trouble selling out arenas, Tuesday night’s performance was much more intimate, as it occurred in front of just 500 invited VIP guests, including PEOPLE.
“We finally have a true connection to Nashville, Tennessee, right here in Las Vegas,” Shelton said. Upon exiting the stage, he noted, “I’ll never forget this night.”
In a November 2023 interview with PEOPLE, Shelton said he wanted to be the first person to play at Ole Red. That didn’t happen, but the Ole Red stage isn’t foreign to Shelton either, as he made an unannounced appearance there on Super Bowl weekend just a month after the bar opened. During that impromptu concert, he performed one song solo before welcoming Stefani out to collaborate on “Happy Anywhere.”
Although the bar unofficially bears Shelton’s name, Stefani, 54, has a large presence there, too, as the walls are littered with images of the No Doubt singer. A tiered red lace dress she wore on 2017’s You Make It Feel Like Christmas NBC special hangs on the wall in a glass case, too.
Ole Red Las Vegas is located in front of the Horseshoe and on the corner of one of the city’s busiest intersections. The $30 million development sits at 27,000-square-feet and includes four stories of food and entertainment. A 4,500 square-foot rooftop bar offers views of the Las Vegas skyline and allows guests to have a bird’s eye view of the famous Bellagio water fountains. It’s by far Shelton’s largest Ole Red bar, something he dubbed on Tuesday night a “work of art,” Of the venue, he added, “I’ve never seen anything quite like this.”
