While Ole Red Tishomingo may be doing thriving now after opening in September 2017, the road to success was not an easy one. In a 2018 interview with PEOPLE magazine, Blake Shelton opened up on the early days of the restaurant.
“We went upstairs to the rooftop and Gwen’s heel goes through the roof,” Shelton recalls of the venue’s rough beginnings. “And I’m trying to get her leg back out and free and I’m like, ‘What the f— is that?”’
Fast forward to present day and Ole Red is buzzing – in several different locations – with live music and the restaurant’s signature drinks never stop flowing. The country singer went on to say he is surprised it took so long for artists to think of opening a music-focused restaurant like Ole Red.
“It’s funny how it’s taken all this time for us artists to figure out we ought to stake a claim downtown and remind people this is still a music-based community,” Shelton says.
In addition to the Ole Red residing in his hometown of Tishomingo, Oklahoma, Shelton opened a second branch in Nashville, Tennessee, and a third in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.