See The Voice Stars Before the Fame!

The coaches on NBC's new hit reality singing competition The Voice certainly have the chops needed to not only inspire but also impart wisdom upon today's aspiring musical artists. After all, between the four of them they have decades of experience under their belt, both in the studio and onstage. Of course, just because they've had the talent bubbling up inside of them for years doesn't mean fame and success fell into place overnight. But now that they're sitting pretty on a national television show every week, any struggles or early missteps in song choices seem but a distant memory. Until now. Check out these Before They Were Stars photos and videos of The Voice coaches that Snakkle uncovered!

Gwen Stefani was born in Fullerton, CA and raised there. She attended Loara High School in Anaheim where she had an early interest in music stemming from musicals like Sound of Music and Evita.

Gwen Stefani joins season seven of The Voice as a judge alongside Pharrell Williams.

Pharrell Williams grew up in Virginia Beach, VA and actually met N.E.R.D. partner Chad Hugo in seventh grade summer band camp.

Pharrell Williams joins season seven of The Voice as a judge alongside Gwen Stefani.

At a young age (11 to be exact) Usher joined an R&B group, NuBeginnings and by 13 competed on Star Search.Before he even graduated from high school, he had released an album and had multiple singles on movie soundtracks. It's really no surprise when My Way was released in 1997 that he was destined for mega-stardom.

Usher joined Season 4 of The Voice taking over for Cee-Lo. He's back for Season 6 and he's clearly in it to win it--he even brought his Grammy as proof!

International treasure Shakira learned that she wanted to be a performer when she was four. Between the ages of 10-13, she performed around her hometown in Colombia. Sony Colombia took notice and Shakira went in for an audition. And the rest is international pop history!

Since the release of her first album in 1996, Shakira has taken the international pop scene by storm with hits all over the world. She joined The Voice during Season 4 and is returning with her spot-on advice for Season 6.

Adam Levine started his music and entrepreneurial ambitions early on in life, during a childhood trip to a performing arts camp. There he met three other like-minded artistic young men who he would bring together to form his first official band, Kara's Flowers. Though the band did cut an album, their one single ("Soap Disco") really only achieved moderate success in the form of being featured on the '90s prime-time soap fave Beverly Hills, 90210. It is not a performance many remember, mostly because of how almost unrecognizable the guys look. Then again, it was filmed about a decade and a half ago! Check out Adam Levine and Kara's Flowers on Beverly Hills, 90210 in 1997.

Levine was just named People's Sexiest Man and he humbly responded about his newly minted position. "I was just amazed and stunned and it almost seemed like they were kidding, but they weren't, so that's cool." Snakkle Scoop: Levine's advice to up-and-coming artists? "Just play—a lot!" he tells Snakkle. "All the time, every night, if it's possible. It's the only way you'll get better."

Everyone remembers the sweet, petite, blonde little girl with the huge voice from The Mickey Mouse Club. Christina Aguilera started on the road to mainstream fame in 1993, though she had actually auditioned years prior but was denied because she was too young. She was already something of a seasoned performer by the time she even got to that step in the road, having appeared locally in her (then) neck of the woods' Wake Up with Larry Richert morning show. The talk show host may not have known her name back then (he even pronounced it wrong when introducing her), but he most certainly knows it now! Watch Christina wow the audience of Wake Up with Larry Richert here.

Snakkle Scoop: Between motherhood and working in the studio on her own music, Aguilera tells Snakkle she doesn't watch much television so she didn't know what to expect coming into the reality-TV world. "All I had to rely on was my meeting with Mark Burnett and the name of the show, The Voice," she said. "I hoped that the show lived up to what it was searching for—that [one] voice. And I couldn't be happier with what we have. I have enjoyed this process so much, working with the team and the other coaches. I just wish they could all win, as they are so special!" Aguilera contributed to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire soundtrack with the single "We Remain." She recently announced her engagement and second pregnancy!

Before Cee Lo Green (nee Thomas DeCarlo Callaway) was inspiring covers of "Forget You" by scorned girlfriends and boyfriends—heck, even before he was inspiring covers of his Gnarls Barkley hits by wannabe R&B bands—he was representing Atlanta as a member of the underground hip-hop group Goodie Mob. The '90s were a great time to be creating a sound in hip-hop and R&B, and Green certainly cultivated his there. Alongside Outkast, Goodie Mob influenced the style and sound of what is now known as the "dirty south." The group became known for hazy visuals, as if you were seeing everything through a cloud of smoke, but a smooth and crystal clear sound so that each lyric and each rhyme really hit home and resonated with their audience. Watch Cee Lo Green in Goodie Mob's 1995 music video for "Soul Food."

Green is already hard at work on another new album, and he has expressed interest in collaborating with, or at least pushing through projects by, a number of the contestants on The Voice, regardless of whose team they are actually on. Snakkle Scoop: Green's expectations for The Voice as a vehicle to fuel artistry and not just a popularity contest have been more than met. He tells Snakkle: "I had somewhat of a clue. I give myself a bit of credit by saying that just the premise of the show is very positive, and you know, the potential of the work was very high-end in my opinion. That's what made me come aboard, and I've been feeling right!"

Sadly, Cee Lo won't be returning to The Voice as a judge next season.

Some would argue that Blake Shelton really didn't achieve mainstream fame until he was in television homes across the country on a weekly basis, hitting his big red button and spinning around to create a team of up-and-coming artists on The Voice. But he had obviously achieved success in the country music world—after all, he was considered enough of an authority to be a coach. Before Shelton was even the slightest bit famous, though, he worked as a house painter—during a time in which camera phones and YouTube were things of crazy futuristic movies. That bums us out a bit, because we know he must have been humming little ditties on the job; he's been a performer since he was a teenager, writing his own music by age 15 and even winning his hometown's highest honor for young entertainers, the Denbo Diamond Award. He made his official debut with "Austin" in 2001 and has been steadily rising ever since. See Blake Shelton performing “Austin” acoustically for AOL's 2002 Music Session. And please, take a moment to pause the video so you can properly take in those lustrous locks.

Shelton (married to fellow country star Miranda Lambert) is released his latest album, Based on a True Story..., in March 2013. Shelton jokingly complained about his People's Sexiest Man loss to Levine. "This is why I drink so much. He stole my thunder." Snakkle Scoop: Shelton may just be the busiest judge on The Voice right now, flying back and forth to Nashville in between tapings and even performing on stages of his own. But he is also one who goes above and beyond to make his team feel like a family, indicative of the camaraderie in the country music world. Team Blake member and second runner up Dia Frampton told Snakkle about her mentor and coach: "I auditioned for The Voice not knowing what it was, so when they said we'd get time with our coaches, I thought, 'Okay, it's reality TV. It'll be 15 minutes for the cameras.' But Blake really took the time with us; he constantly e-mailed and consulted us about song choice. He even flew me and Xenia out to Nashville to see his concert!"

So Carson may not be a coach, but we couldn't resist posting The Voice host's yearbook photo from senior year. Ten years later, he'd ditch the Zach Morris 'do and shy smirk to become a VJ on MTV's TRL (1998) before becoming the host of Last Call with Carson Daly on NBC (2002).

Move over, Seacrest! With the success of The Voice—as well as Daly's solid run as host of Last Call with Carson Daly, NBC's New Year's Eve with Carson Daly, and a morning talk show on Radio AMP 97.1 in Los Angeles—Carson seems to be building a nice little entertainment empire of his own.