Blake Shelton has one big request when it comes to his festival time slot.

As the 2025 CMA Fest begins, Blake Shelton gave a recent interview that covered his history with the festival and his one big performance preference.

While Blake got the 9:10 p.m. slot on Saturday June 7, the country singer actually has a strong preference for performing much earlier in the evening.

“When they asked if I would do it this year, I said yes I’ll do it, but listen, I’ve learned now: I want to go on early,” he said in an interview with Kelleigh Bannen. “I will open. Put me on early. I don’t want to be the guy at midnight.”

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Blake’s reasoning is super considerate of his fans!

“These people have been out there since 10 a.m. standing in fan club party lines,” he continued. “Whatever the earliest you can put me on, I am proud to go on first. And they go, ‘Well, we want to wait until it’s dark.’ And I go, ‘First dark performance is me and I’m gonna sing and I’m leaving.'”

Fans in the comments of the clip on Instagram laud Blake for being “so real” and “relatable.”

The country singer also reminisced about working at CMA Fest (then known as Fan Fair) back when he worked at American Songwriter Magazine.

“I’d get a press pass and work the booth,” he said. “So I would just wander around in there. Of course, I had my cowboy hat on and my mullet. People thought I was an artist so I’d sign stuff and be like, ‘Oh yeah, I got a record coming out.'”

And he did, just about seven years later.