Gwen Stefani highlights Blake Shelton’s bond with son Zuma early in their relationship — how he influenced him

It is an extra special, celebratory week for Gwen Stefani and her family.

On Wednesday, August 22, the “Underneath It All” singer marked her son Zuma’s milestone 16th trip around the sun.

And in sharing a touching tribute in his honor, she highlighted his bond with his stepdad, her husband Blake Shelton.

Gwen took to Instagram on Zuma’s special day and shared a video montage featuring photos of him through the years, starting off with adorable baby photos. Zuma is Gwen’s second child with ex-husband Gavin Rossdale, to whom she was married from 2002 to 2016; they also share Kingston, 18, and Apollo, ten.

The photos included some of him with his siblings, as a baby already playing with a guitar, selfies with his mom, plus now all grown up, exploring his love for country music.

Gwen also included special moments of Zuma and Blake through the years. Gwen and Blake met when she started filming her first season on The Voice in April of 2013, two months after she had given birth to son Apollo, and started dating in 2015, when Zuma was seven years old.

“Happy Sweet 16, Zuma!! We love [you] SO much!!” Gwen wrote in her caption, and fans were quick to take to the comments section under the post and further wish him a happy birthday.

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“Gwen’s got a little country boy & I’m loving it! Happy Birthday Zuma!” one wrote, as others followed suit with: “Happy Birthday. I feel your children love Blake and Oklahoma’s life and experience. Can’t believe your boys are so grown already,” and: “Aweee happy birthday. You’d think that was Blake’s son, he sure is taking after him,” as well as: “Incredible !!! Happy birthday.”

Zuma certainly is taking after his stepdad Blake, and recently made his country music debut performing at the former The Voice judge’s honky-tonk bar, Ole Red, in Oklahoma, where the family has a ranch.

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His dad Gavin, himself a rockstar and the frontman of Bush, has opened up about his son’s musical inclinations. Speaking with Us Weekly while promoting his band Bush’s new album, Loaded: The Greatest Hits 1994-2023 some weeks before Zuma’s big debut, he revealed: “One son loves the Pumpkins and … Zuma, he’s got the country bug,” and cheekily noted: “I have no idea where he gets that from, but he’s got it.”

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He went on to comment that while he certainly does “support him playing blues scales,” he did admit it’s not the easiest.  “[It] is the last thing I want to hear in my house, really, to be honest,” Gavin confessed, explaining: “Blues scales — there’s a specific pentatonic scale that rock and roll uses that we’ve never used in Bush. We don’t use that. …  So he comes in and shows the pentatonic scale. I’m like, ‘Oh God.'”

“That’s how much I love him. I will support him making any music. Even the blues,” he further joked.