Based on a True Story… is the eighth studio album by country music artist Blake Shelton. It was released on March 26, 2013, through Warner Bros. Records, and debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200. In a career best for Shelton at the time, nearly 200,000 copies of the album were sold in its first week. Based on a True Story… became the ninth best-selling album of 2013 in the US, earning Shelton a Platinum certification by the RIAA on September 30, 2013. In 2016, Based on a True Story… was certified double-platinum by the RIAA.
Five singles were released from Based on a True Story… The lead single, "Sure Be Cool If You Did", peaked at #1 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, while the subsequent two singles, "Boys 'Round Here" and "Mine Would Be You", peaked at #2 on that chart. The final two singles, "Doin' What She Likes", and "My Eyes", peaked at #3 and #4 respectively on that chart. All five singles peaked at #1 on the Billboard's Country Airplay chart.
Shelton's vocals on the album were praised, and some of the songs were well-received for highlighting Shelton's personality. The album earned Shelton his second Grammy Award nomination for Best Country Album. The song "Mine Would Be You" earned Shelton his third Grammy Award nomination for Best Country Solo Performance.
Explaining the title of Based on a True Story… Shelton said, "I just think that every song on the album, I've either been in those situations before or I'm going through 'em right now. There’s songs like 'Doing What She Likes' and 'Ten Times Crazier' that are kind of where I’m at right now…I always feel like I cop out whenever I name an album after a song on the album. I always end up looking back going, 'Man, you wimped out there.' And so I listened to it and finally thought, 'Man, it kind of is my life, from start to finish.' I thought, 'That's just what we'll call it—we'll just say it's based on a true story.' And normally my ideas like that don't stick, but somehow that one got through."
The album mostly features upbeat songs, which Shelton acknowledged by saying, "Outside of a couple of ballads, it's a pretty light album…all these songs are kind of about this guy that's whipped. I really am happy, and it's coming through on the album." He contrasted this with his previous releases, saying, "I think that I’ve had those years where I made those type of records, and I don’t want to now. Something will happen one of these days and it will be a part of my music again. But right now, everything’s pretty awesome."
The album's lead single, "Sure Be Cool If You Did", reached the top of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart faster than any of Shelton’s previous singles. Shelton described the song as indicative of where he wanted to be "going musically" and compared its production to that of songs by artists like Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, and Carrie Underwood.
The album's second single and opening track, "Boys 'Round Here", features Shelton's then wife, Miranda Lambert, as part of her musical group Pistol Annies. The song's vocals are credited to Shelton along with "Pistol Annies & Friends". Additional vocals on the track are by RaeLynn, who had been a contestant on The Voice, Scott Hendricks, who produced Based on a True Story, and the writers of "Boys 'Round Here", Rhett Akins, Dallas Davidson, and Craig Wiseman. Hendricks identified "Boys 'Round Here" as "probably favorite song on the record."
Shelton described the album's third single, "Mine Would Be You", as "one of the best songs" he ever recorded and said at the time of Based on a True Story…'s release that he associated the album's fourth single, "Doin' What She Likes", with his then-marriage to Lambert. The album's fifth single, "My Eyes", features Gwen Sebastian, who was mentored by Shelton on season two of The Voice. Before recording "My Eyes" with Shelton, Sebastian had toured with him as a background singer.
Shelton described "Still Got a Finger" as "like a new version of 'Take This Job And Shove It' and said, "It’s just a little edgier with the language, probably, and that’s the only difference…it’s fun to sing about stuff like that when you’re mad and in that mood." He felt that the song acted as a type of wish fulfillment, saying of the song's narrative, "nobody ever really does that, but we all wish we could."
"Grandaddy's Gun" was previously recorded by Rhett Akins on the 2010 album, Michael Waddell's Bone Collector: The Brotherhood Album and by Staind singer Aaron Lewis on his 2012 debut country album, The Road. Lewis's version was released as a single to country radio in 2013 and peaked at No. 46 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart.
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