Blake Shelton Wants to Start a Band Called 'Different Directions' with Niall Horan, Their Fellow Voice Coaches

Blake Shelton is ready to expand his one-man band.

In this week's issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands now, the country star, 46, jokes that before he leaves The Voice, he wants to "create a band" with his fellow season 23 coaches Niall Horan, Kelly Clarkson and Chance the Rapper.

"[We'll] call it Different Directions," Shelton says, nodding at Horan's former band One Direction. "Take it, and run off the show."

Season 23 is the first for new coaches Horan and Chance, both 29.

"It feels like going to camp," Chance says of joining the show. "You get here the first day like, 'Oh, I don't know everybody.' Within a couple of days, you're all a big family."

Adds Horan: "I really enjoyed the blind audition experience. It was nerve-wracking at the start, but once you get into it, like Chance said, everyone around the show is great. It's good fun — apart from Blake."

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Like Clarkson with American Idol, Horan's career started on the U.K.'s The X-Factor in 2013. After he didn't make it through as a solo artist, he was grouped with Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson to compete as One Direction.

"We came in third. Kelly won it. But it definitely helped," Horan says.

"I wish I would've known that in the blinds — I thought they won!" Clarkson adds. "I totally would've used that, like, 'Well, if you want to win third place...' But I guess they still won at life."

Evans Vestal Ward/NBC Chance the Rapper, Niall Horan, Kelly Clarkson and Blake Shelton

This season marks the ninth for coach Clarkson, 40, who took last season off.

"I am so excited [to be back]," Clarkson says. "You forget how much you love helping people become the best version of themselves, musically. I missed it."

Shelton says — albeit with a hint of sarcasm — that he also missed Clarkson "so much."

"That's why I was constantly asking if I could be a guest on her talk show," he says, as Clarkson clarifies: "I've asked him to cohost stuff with me. He turns me down!"

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To that, Shelton quips, "Can a cohost really exist with Kelly?"

For more of the fun banter, catch the season 23 premiere of The Voice airing March 6 at 8 p.m. EST on NBC.

For all the details on the new Voice season, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.