{"id":16796,"date":"2019-07-19T06:51:51","date_gmt":"2019-07-19T12:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1809248"},"modified":"2019-07-19T06:51:51","modified_gmt":"2019-07-19T12:51:51","slug":"mark-chesnutt-90s-stardom-was-scaring-the-living-hell-out-of-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/music-news\/mark-chesnutt-90s-stardom-was-scaring-the-living-hell-out-of-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Chesnutt: \u201890s Stardom \u201cWas Scaring the Living Hell Out of Me\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:ao:image:cmt.com:678424?width=1200&amp;height=675&amp;.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"byline\">by <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/author\/cmtcomstaff\/\" title=\"Posts by CMT.com Staff\" rel=\"author\">CMT.com Staff<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"date\">22m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/artists\/mark-chesnutt\">Mark Chesnutt<\/a> entered the national country scene in 1990 with \u201cToo Cold at Home,\u201d although he\u2019d been gigging around his native Texas for years and years. Not long into his commercial streak, he claimed No. 1 singles with \u201cBrother Jukebox\u201d and \u201cI\u2019ll Think of Something,\u201d and continued to chart Top 10 hits right up until the end of the \u201890s.<\/p>\n<p>When things slowed down for him at country radio, Chesnutt kept on recording and touring. He caught up with <em>CMT Hot 20 Countdown<\/em> at Billy Bob\u2019s Texas in Fort Worth to reflect on that hectic decade.<\/p>\n<p><em>Editor\u2019s Note: Tune in to<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/shows\/hot-20-countdown\">CMT Hot 20 Countdown<\/a> <em>for our interview with Mark Chesnutt.<\/em> CMT Hot 20 Countdown <em>airs at 9\/8c Saturday and Sunday mornings.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/h-Cvinp1-jU?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/h-Cvinp1-jU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p><strong>CMT: Let\u2019s go back to your first single. I don\u2019t think it made it to No. 1 but\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Chesnutt: It was close enough to make a bunch of noise. It was close enough to make the next one go to No. 1. (laughs)<\/p>\n<p><strong>What was that life like for you? To see what you\u2019ve been dreaming about actually start to happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a lot of mixed feelings because you\u2019ve worked for so long. I was singing in the beer joints for 10 years at least trying to make things happen. I was playing six, seven nights a week in beer joints and going to Nashville trying to meet people and coming back to Texas.<\/p>\n<p>I never moved to Nashville. I always lived in Texas because I could make a damn good living in Texas playing music. I had bands that I worked with, I had my own band, and I would go to San Antonio and Houston. I would record whenever I got the opportunity. So when things really happened, it wasn\u2019t really a big surprise. It was more or less, \u201cWell, it\u2019s about damn time. Now what?\u201d That was the big question.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/h_uvBGrJSCE?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/h_uvBGrJSCE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p><strong>And how did you answer that, \u201cNow What?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I knew that I had a record deal and I had to follow it up and work harder than I ever worked in my life. I\u2019d been working my ass off for a lot of years. Getting started, getting that first initial success was just getting my feet wet, so I had to figure out what I\u2019m gonna do now. I\u2019m gonna have to find better songs, I\u2019m gonna have to sing better, have better shows. I\u2019m gonna have to figure out what in the world I\u2019m doing. It was real interesting and confusing and scary.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Was it a surprise to you that that\u2019s what it would be like?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oh yeah, exactly. I thought, \u201cMan, once you get a record deal\u2026.\u201d MCA was the biggest record company in the world at the time. George Strait was with MCA. And I was like, \u201cMan, if I can land a deal with MCA, I got it made.\u201d My hero was George Strait. I\u2019ve got it going on! Boy, I discovered real fast that ain\u2019t the way at all. It\u2019s nothing like that. It was kind of a letdown. At the same time it was scaring the living hell out of me, to be honest with you.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8mJJNSg7kAA?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8mJJNSg7kAA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p><strong>What part of it scared you the most?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That I had to go into a different way of life. I grew up in Beaumont, Texas, singing in the clubs and honky-tonks, and I was in my comfort zone. All of a sudden I was in Nashville, I was dealing with TV and people that I didn\u2019t know, and people that I knew weren\u2019t interested in me personally. \u2026 It\u2019s a money-making thing, that\u2019s what it is. It\u2019s a business. Now how much money can we make off of this guy out of Beaumont?<\/p>\n<p>It was different then \u2026 in a way it was, but in other ways it wasn\u2019t. When I got to meet people, the best thing that happened was that I got to be friends with my heroes like George Jones. But I was friends with George Jones even before I had a hit record so that\u2019s a whole different story. But George told me, \u201cYou ain\u2019t got no friends in the music business\u201d and he was right.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YVRWYGl4W7M?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YVRWYGl4W7M?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p><strong>You had a lot of No. 1\u2019s and hits. It\u2019s gotta be hard to sustain that.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re only as good as your last hit record. And hit records just don\u2019t last long. I wasn\u2019t like George Jones or Merle Haggard or Willie Nelson, I didn\u2019t have 50 No. 1\u2019s, 30 No. 1\u2019s\u2026 It\u2019s hard to describe. It\u2019s like I\u2019ve never reached my goal. I\u2019m still trying. I\u2019m still playing music for a living, which my daddy told me I would always be doing. He said, \u201cYou will always be playing music for a living. You might not be at the top. You might end up in the bottom, [or] you could find a place in the middle where you can be comfortable and make a good living.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And once I got to hang around my buddies like George Jones and Waylon Jennings and even Merle Haggard, they all told me the same thing. They didn\u2019t say \u2018you might not.\u2019 They said you won\u2019t always be at the top of the charts but you\u2019ll always be able to make a living and work as long as you do what you do, so don\u2019t change. That\u2019s what they were trying to tell me.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YBBq_1Yvu5Y?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YBBq_1Yvu5Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p><strong>What does it mean to you when you play places like this and thousands of people are here that still want to come see you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Every time I walk on stage at Billy Bob\u2019s or anywhere else, I always hear Waylon Jennings saying, \u201cYou won\u2019t always be at the top but you\u2019ll always be able to work.\u201d And that\u2019s one of the things that always sticks in my mind right before I go on stage every night. And I\u2019ve been working Billy Bob\u2019s now for\u2026this is the first place I worked when I had my first hit record. It was the very first place.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d been playing at honky-tonks around Beaumont, Texas, for 10 years and when \u201cToo Cold at Home\u201d hit, it was on the charts far enough to where I didn\u2019t have to do any radio tours to meet radio people and introduce myself. They started playing the song immediately. So this was the first place that hired me to do my first big-time gig.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dHU1OS-RiZ0?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dHU1OS-RiZ0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p><strong>What did that mean to you when Billy Bob\u2019s booked you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It was scaring the living hell out of me. I didn\u2019t know what the hell. \u2026 \u201cMan, I ain\u2019t got but one song that anybody knows! And from what I hear, they already sold tickets for these people to book me off of one song. Well, hell, there ain\u2019t nothing I can do but load up and go.\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n<p>Me and my band finished playing at Cutters in Beaumont, Texas \u2014 that was my house gig, played there for several years. We left there, loaded up the vans, and I couldn\u2019t afford no bus. I drove one van and my lead guitarist drove the other van. And we drove all night long to get here. That\u2019s a long way from Beaumont, Texas. Six hours. And we drove all the way up here, no sleep.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8yH7DC8kjU0?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8yH7DC8kjU0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p><strong>What has Billy Bob\u2019s meant to country music? It\u2019s almost like a rite of passage to play here.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oh man, every year that I see it show up on my schedule I get excited. Whenever I look at my calendar and I don\u2019t see Billy Bob\u2019s I get depressed. It makes me think, \u201cOh hell, I\u2019m done. I might as well go back to Beaumont and set up camp somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But we play a lot of other places too. We play all over the world. We started out doing 200-plus dates a year back in the early \u201890s. Now we slowed it down to 100 shows a year, which is still a hell of a lot of dates for somebody that\u2019s been around for 30 years like me.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kcEpRGHbArg?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kcEpRGHbArg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p><strong>Is that a good thing to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yeah. I bitch about it a lot because I\u2019m 55 years old. Man, I get tired of being on the road all the time, I get tired of flying, I get tired of being in the bus, but then I start thinking, \u201cThis I why I worked my ass off all them years.\u201d All those years, this is what I always wanted. And I tell you what, it\u2019s a hell of a lot easier than climbing on top of a house and roofing a house, or climbing under it and doing the plumbing.<\/p>\n<p>I would much rather be getting on my bus or getting on an airplane and going somewhere to get on a stage and sing country music. The stuff that I love to do, the stuff that I think I was born to do. Billy Bob\u2019s is home to me. I\u2019ve played here every year ever since that first night. Sometimes two or three times a year and it\u2019s home to us.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You said you were born to do this.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oh, listen, I know I was born to do this because this is all I can do.<\/p>\n<div class=\"deferred_content\">Embedded from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uNpUCkeU7hw?feature=oembed\">www.youtube.com<\/a>. <noscript class=\"deferred_content\" data-deferred-info=\"{&quot;type&quot;:&quot;iframe&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uNpUCkeU7hw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/1809248\/mark-chesnutt-90s-stardom-was-scaring-the-living-hell-out-of-me\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by CMT.com Staff 22m ago Mark Chesnutt entered the national country scene in 1990 with \u201cToo Cold at Home,\u201d although he\u2019d been gigging around his native Texas for years and years. Not long into his commercial streak, he claimed No. 1 singles with \u201cBrother Jukebox\u201d and \u201cI\u2019ll Think of Something,\u201d and continued to chart Top [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16796","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-12 15:26:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}