Some of the best moments in recent years on The Voice --or on talk shows, for that matter-- played off the ongoing war of words between Kelly Clarkson and Blake Shelton. It's all in good nature, of course, with both singers' "I tease because I love" motive always shining through. On a January episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, its namesake reminded us that she's a secret member of Shelton's fan club with a true-to-the-original Kellyoke cover of "Honey Bee."
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Aside from some pronoun changes to the lyrics, Clarkson and her band never stray too far from what made Shelton's 2011 single a country chart topper and Top 15 pop hit. Its sweet, romantic sentiments were penned by two members of the Peach Pickers songwriting team: frequent Shelton collaborator Ben Hayslip and Thomas Rhett's dad, Rhett Akins.
Clarkson's song choice might have been a nod to Shelton's recent tongue-in-cheek admission that he "stole" the Kellyoke concept for his own use.
"I like to steal from people," Shelton told Access. "I watch Kelly Clarkson's talk show every day. I never miss it. She opens every one of her episodes with a song, and I thought, 'You know, I'm going to do that. I'm going to do what Kelly does, but do it better than Kelly.' So I decided that I'm going to do a classic, like, bar karaoke theme song every episode of Barmageddon."
Another friend constantly drawn into Shelton jokes, Barmageddon co-host Carson Daly chimed in on this supposed heist.
"He came to me and he pitched this idea and he goes, 'What do you think about me opening up with a cover? We'll call it a Blakeoke," Daly said. "I say, 'Kelly has the Kellyoke. You can't call it Blakeoke."