Blake Shelton "knew it was time" to quit 'The Voice.'

The 46-year-old musician is due to step down from his longstanding role as a judge on NBC talent show 'The Voice' after more than a decade when its current season comes to a close and explained that he initially made the decision to leave some years ago because the role had "taken over [his] life."

He said: "I made the decision to leave ‘The Voice’ probably a couple of years ago. Then it was just actually doing it. I knew it was time. I knew that I needed to take a step back. It had completely taken over my life."

The 'Austin' singer - who is married to fellow judge Gwen Stefani and also serves on the panel alongside John Legend and Camila Cabello - went on to add that his long stint on the reality show has been the "greatest thing" for his career, noting that he just wanted to make sure he said goodbye at the "right time."

He told ExtraTV: "It’s been the greatest thing for my career ever. It’s been a blessing, but it was just time. The trouble with it is just walking away from this team that has counted on me for all these years to be there. So I just wanted to make sure I did it at the right time, and didn’t leave people hanging, and then COVID happened. That would have been a bad time to walk away.

"Gwen knew before anybody. Listen, I had to clear it through Gwen. I didn’t tell Gwen."