Not long after he signed with Cleveland-based Blaster Records, veteran country singer Neal McCoy was tossing about ideas for his label debut.
At one point, he suggested tapping his longtime friend Blake Shelton to produce the album.
"We all thought that would be a great hoot and a lot of fun and get (the album) a lot of exposure," he recently recalled. "So I texted Blake, and he uses real bad cuss words; he's crazy. But I said, 'Would you be interested in producing a new album on me if I had a chance?' And he wrote back cuss words. So I wasn't sure what kind of answer that was so I wrote him back. More cuss words. I called him and he said, 'Man I know you're just messing with me.' 'No, I'm not messing with you. I'm serious.' "
Shelton jumped at the offer. A month later, he called McCoy back. Shelton's wife, country superstar Miranda Lambert, wanted to be involved as well. Would it be OK?
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"I said, 'Nah, tell her that's OK. We don't need her,' " McCoy said in his fast-clipped Texas twang, then chuckled. "He knew I was just joking."
"To have both of them involved in the project is a big deal," McCoy added during a phone interview late last month. "They just want to see what they can do to help me get going again. It's a pretty nice gesture from kids that have a lot going on. They didn't need to take time to mess with me."
On March 6, Blaster released "XII," the 11th studio album of McCoy's 21-year career. It comes seven years after his last studio album, 2005's "That's Life," released on McCoy's short-lived 903 Music label.
"We think the album is really good and lets folks know that hey, Neal McCoy can still do it," said McCoy, who returns to Country Thunder next weekend for an early evening show on the night Shelton headlines. "I just hope it will kind of reboost our little career."
McCoy admitted he wasn't sure just how involved Nashville's supercouple would get in the project.
But the pair jumped in from the beginning, sending McCoy songs and working with him in the studio. The couple sang backup on the album's first single, "A-OK," and Shelton contributed acoustic guitar on several tracks. Lambert also sang harmony on the ballad "Every Fire."
"They really rolled their sleeves up and got involved," McCoy said. "It made me feel good that they took the time and got involved the way they were."
The album stylistically is almost a rewind of McCoy's career, from romantic crooner of "Every Fire" to honky-tonk kicker on "Shotgun Rider," which will be released as the album's second single later this month. There's a toe-tapping wink-wink on "That's Just How She Gets" when he drinks, and rich mariachi accents with wonderful horns blasting on "Borderline Crazy."
His Texas roots come into focus on the Western swing ditty "Mouth" before McCoy slips into the quiet of "Van Gogh," which doubles as a nod to the famous artist and a testament to McCoy himself.
The chorus - "You offer up your best and it don't sell / It cuts you to the bone and hurts like hell" - seems to sum up the latter part of McCoy's career. Although his live shows are still hits with fans, his last few albums have sold modestly at best. His most recent radio hit was 2005's "Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On," his first Top 10 hit since "The Shake" went to No. 5 in 1997.
McCoy said he hopes "XII" will "kind of reboost our little career and maybe we'll have a hit or two and just keep working."
"We're not getting rich, but they're not repossessing anything on us yet," McCoy added with a laugh. "We're somewhere in the middle of good working-class entertainers, and that's OK. I enjoy it. Sure I'd like to have a couple hits and get our fee back up, but we'll see. We know the goods are still there. We just got to have an opportunity to show it."
