Blake Shelton on his 10th album’s somber sound: ‘Life was heavier and darker’

Blake Shelton‘s personal life has had its ups and downs this year, and his new music reflects that.

Appearing on 1 on 1 with Larry Flick on Friday, the country crooner agreed that his soulful 10th album, If I’m Honest, is a “heavier and darker” departure from his past records.

“I think ’cause life was a bit heavier and darker there for a while, and then it came out of it. That’s the cool thing as far as the sequencing of the album, I think that’s a cool thing that we did. We stuck with pretty much the timeline of how last year into the beginning of this year went for me,” he said. “I’m a country singer, and I try to dump as much of my own personal experiences into my music as I humanly can and still have people somewhat be able to relate to it.”

He added: “I wanted to stick with the timeline of how things went for me, starting with pretty good to bottom falls out and climbing back out of that hole, and that’s kind of how the second half of the album is, is things are turning around and getting better until they’re happy again.”

Shelton, 40, divorced Miranda Lambert in July 2015 and is now dating fellow The Voice coach Gwen Stefani, who recently opened up to Howard Stern about finding love after both their marriages fell apart.

“We just started this friendship, which was just unbelievable that God would put us in the position to have each other in that moment, in the same exact moment,” she said.

Hear Shelton discuss dreaming up his single Save Your Shadow and the pressures of going from musician to tabloid-favorite celebrity in the clip below.

1 on 1 with Larry Flick airs weekdays from 3-4 pm ET on SiriusXM Entertainment Weekly Radio (Ch. 105). If I’m Honest is available for 99 cents for a limited time on Google Play.

For a free 30-day trial, check out http://www.siriusxm.com/freetrial/blog.