Blake Shelton stopped by Ellen on Monday (May 23) following the previous night’s performance at the Billboard Music Awards with girlfriend Gwen Stefani, and he dished that he really only started writing their duet as a way to impress Stefani.

Host Ellen DeGeneres asked if it was strange to be performing the song together, considering its title, “Go Ahead and Break My Heart," sort of lends to a breakup story.

"When we wrote the song, we never saw it going there. I don't know that we ever really saw it going anywhere," he explains. "I only started the song to impress her; to be like, 'Hey, I’m writing a song about you.'"

The lyrics imply the song was written when their relationship was still new, and both were recovering from heartbreaks — him from his split with Miranda Lambert, and hers with Gavin Rossdale — and nervous to fall in love again. Both artist have poured their emotions from the hardship into their music, with Stefani’s new record This Is What the Truth Feels Like and Shelton’s new album, If I’m Honest. The duet with Stefani appears on Shelton’s record, which dropped May 20.

"I sent it to her, and then she wrote the other half of the song. I was like, 'Oh, she just one upped me,'" he adds.

The two gave an adorable performance of the song together on the awards show, with Stefani beaming for much of the song and both of them even breaking into laughter at times, according to Shelton.

"We kind of did laugh a few times," he admits. "There's moments where it's like, 'wow we're singing this song like we're going to break up, and we're not breaking up right now, so it seems kind of weird.'"

Earlier this month, the couple debuted the duet on The Voice — the show where they met last fall as celebrity coaches. Though Stefani is not in the red chair this season, she was tapped to be one of Shelton’s guest advisors for his team.

While on Ellen on Monday, Shelton sampled another new song from his album for viewers: the angry breakup song "She's Got a Way With Words."

Watch Blake Shelton Sing 'She's Got a Way With Words'

More on Blake's Angry 'She's Got a Way With Words'

Every Blake Shelton Single Ranked

 

More From 106.5 WYRK