Blake Shelton returns to Ada High School for Music Will instrument donations (2025)

ADA — Can you keep a secret?

A plan was formulated for Ada High School graduate Blake Shelton to come back to his alma mater for a special event. The words “highly confidential” accompanied an advisory sent to media members who might be interested in covering the country music superstar’s return to campus.

The return took place noon Monday at the Ada Cougar Activity Center and, for the most part, the secret remained a secret until Shelton walked on stage.

“I found out this morning at band practice and I was kind of skeptical,” Ada senior Addison Perez said. “I was out in my car waiting and I saw him walk up, so I was really excited.”

Perez was one of three students chosen to ask Shelton questions during an assembly that was arranged to unveil a donation of instruments to the school’s music programs on behalf of Music Will, the largest nonprofit music education program for schools in the U.S. One of the instruments was a signature guitar from Shelton, according to Bryan Powell, Music Will’s chief program officer.

“Do you guys know who Blake Shelton is?” Powell told the crowd of students before the surprise guest appeared.

“Wouldn’t it be cool if I invited Blake Shelton to join me on stage? Let’s do it. Give it up for Blake Shelton.”

Cheers followed. Shelton walked on stage and spoke briefly, telling students he graduated in 1994 (“I know you guys have never even heard of that time period”) and saying it was “pretty cool” to be back.

“When I heard about this thing that we are doing here today — and it’s for you guys — I wanted to just come up and put my head in and be a part of this because I think this is a really cool opportunity for any of you students out here who are interested in music, whether it’s a career path for you and something you want to pursue or you just want to learn how to play the guitar and sit around,” Shelton said.

“Some day when you are older, coming home from work, you are going to love the idea of walking into your house and just grabbing an acoustic guitar and sitting around and playing. It’s the coolest thing in the world. It really is. Thank you to Music Will for what we are doing here today. It’s good to see you all.”

A brief Q&A with students followed. Perez, Kellen Stuart and Logan Briscoe were chosen to go on stage and pitch questions to the local boy who chased — and realized — his dreams.

“I was shaking so bad,” Perez said. “I was genuinely scared my teeth were going to chatter. I was trying to stay as calm as possible.”

The first three questions:

What inspired you to pursue music and what has driven you — how did you get here?

“I don’t know what inspired me. I had an interest in music as long as I can remember. Even when I was just a little kid, I am in my bedroom singing in front of the mirror or whatever. My entire life, I was interested in it. The older I got, the more I wanted to learn how to play guitar or maybe write a song and things like that. I was just born with the interest, you know? There are probably students in here right now that have that. They don’t know why. They just have it. They don’t know how to pursue it. It’s a tough thing to figure out. There’s a lot of luck involved. But, luckily for me, I had no idea how hard it was to make it, so I just went for it. My inspiration, though, was probably just here, driving back roads and growing up hunting and fishing every day. It truly was this area and my friends and family that encouraged me and those were the people back then that I was trying to impress and win over.”

Why is music education so important?

“I have said it before, but whether you want to pursue music or you just love it and you would like to sit around your house and play the guitar or goof around on the drums or whatever, it’s a great therapy. It truly is. It takes a lot of discipline to sit down and learn how to do it, but music is one of those things that when you finally get over the hump of the challenge of learning to play it, one day you will wake up and it just clicks and you will go ‘Oh, I get it now.’ It’s a hard thing to explain, but once kind of get over that hump — and it doesn’t take long. For some people it’s three months. For some people it’s six months. And, the next thing you know, they can hear a song on the radio and sit down and blow their friends’ minds by playing them the song. It’s just a great confidence builder.”

How do you think growing up in Oklahoma impacted your music?

“I have pretty much been everywhere by now. I lived in Nashville for 12 years and once I felt like I had my foot in the door and I was established enough, the first thing I did was move back to Oklahoma because of the people here and the lifestyle here and the state of mind. This is just one of those places, and now you are starting to see people from all over the country and trying to get a piece of this and move here, and it’s because of the people, I think.”

Briscoe, who didn’t know who the surprise guest was going to be until minutes before the event, said the questioners went through all the questions to figure out which student would asked which question.

“I was very curious to see what his answer would be to how living in Oklahoma would have influenced his music, because bands like the Turnpike Troubadours came out of here and bluegrass red dirt music has come out Oklahoma, so I wondered how much of that influenced his music,” Briscoe said.

Briscoe got more than a response. He got a compliment. His hair earned praise from Shelton before and during the assembly. Shelton, who rocked a flowing mullet in his senior class photo, said Briscoe has “one of the greatest mullets I have ever seen.” Briscoe said he intends to hold Shelton’s compliment “over” a twin brother forever since the bro gives him a hard time about the mullet.

But there’s a bigger picture in play than Shelton’s class photo, that being a Music Will group photo Shelton took alongside students and school officials at the end of the assembly. They posed in front of the array of instruments that were donated to the school.

Briscoe, who wouldn’t mind becoming a professional musician, hopes the donations inspire more people to join the school’s jazz band. He said he is one of two students in the jazz band.

Powell said Music Will supports teachers with professional development, curriculum and the donation of instruments, all with the goal of expanding music education for more students.

“We think music education is very important because there are a lot of benefit that comes from participating in school music and what the data shows is not all students are getting access to that benefit,” Powell said. “There are a lot of great marching band programs, so this is in addition to those, of maybe offering something for, like, the future Blake Shelton, who wants to be a songwriter, who wants to play in a band, and providing opportunities for those students as well.”

Powell said one of Music Will’s initiatives is connecting artists with their former schools in order to support those schools.

“Just Blake being here in general, it’s a message to the students that artists support music education,” Powell said. “They value what’s going on here. The next generation of songwriters might be in this audience today.”

And there was a fringe benefit. Briscoe said he will someday be able to tell his kids he met Blake Shelton. If anyone else asks if he ever met a celebrity, the answer is “yes.”

The coolest thing about Monday? Said Perez: “He touched my shoulder.”

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