Blake Shelton Once Hinted At Who He Thought Was The Voice's Worst Coach

If you've ever seen "The Voice," you'll probably already know that Blake Shelton doesn't hold back. The country music star can be somewhat blunt at times when it comes to giving his opinion — particularly when it comes to his co-coaches on the show.

Time and time again, the "God's Country" star has thrown some (playful!) shade at "The Voice"'s many coaches, with his fellow OG co-coach Adam Levine usually serving as his punching bag before he left the series in 2019. The two regularly traded shade on the NBC singing competition, with one of Shelton's most hilarious jibes coming after he watched contestant Hailey Green perform in 2021. Green hit the stage sporting a sheer top with shapes across her chest and arms and Shelton poked fun at Levine's love of tattoos, as he quipped, "At first, I thought when you came out here that since rehearsal you've been to Adam Levine's tattoo artist. I was like, 'Oh my god. What has she done? Please, God.'"

But that's hardly the only time Shelton's hilariously cutting sense of humor has shone through, to the point he's even gotten candid before about who he thinks is the worst coach the show has ever seen.

Sorry, Adam Levine, but it looks like you may have landed Blake Shelton's title of "The Voice"'s worst coach. Shelton didn't exactly hold back when it came to revealing who he thought didn't quite have the optimal skills to coach, first jokingly throwing shade at his longtime friend Kelly Clarkson's talents. It all went down on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" in December 2021, when Fallon admitted he thought Clarkson would win Season 21 of the competition. That's when Shelton hit back with a little sass, joking, "While Kelly is a great person and an incredible artist and a great talk show host, she is hands down the worst coach we've ever had on 'The Voice.'" Fallon then asked if he really thought Clarkson was even worse than Adam Levine, to which Shelton responded, "She is the second worst coach that we've ever had on this show for sure, without question."

But don't think Levine didn't get his own jibes in during his time with the show. In fact, the Maroon 5 singer was probably even harsher at times. Case and point? Levine's 2014 appearance on "Today" when he had nothing nice to say about Shelton. Like, nothing nice at all. "Blake's a terrible person, like, down to his core," he joked. "I don't really take him seriously as a human being ... I can't think of one thing that I like about him. It's really hard."

After Adam Levine stepped back from "The Voice," Blake Shelton needed someone new to turn his jokey jibes towards — and Kelly Clarkson fit that bill perfectly. Just like Shelton and Levine, Shelton and Clarkson had a whole lot of fun poking fun at one another after she joined the NBC series in 2017, including Shelton teasing Clarkson for her love for chatter when she replaced Miley Cyrus. "Now that they brought in Kelly Clarkson. Oh my God. Thank God they're at least on different seasons, because my ears would fall off of my head," he told ET on the red carpet. "There would be no oxygen left in the room. Neither one of them could stop talking."

Clarkson has gotten her own jabs in over the years, though, too. After Shelton was referred to as "The King of Country" in a tweet from "The Voice" in September 2020, she jokingly wrote on the social media site, "I must have missed George Strait in this video." Shade!

The country star's trading jabs with his co-coaches won't be lasting much longer, though. Shelton confirmed in December 2022 that he'd be leaving "The Voice" after Season 23, saying in a statement (via NBC Insider), "This show has changed my life in every way for the better, and it will always feel like home to me. It's been a hell of a ride over these 12 years of chair turns." That it has.