Mark Chesnutt Interview 5-10-11

           

Mark Chesnutt has been on the music scene for over 20 years. He has won multiple awards including the prestigious Horizon Award in 1993. Currently on tour with his new album “Outlaw”, I had the opportunity to interview the journeyman while he was at home in Texas.

The Concert Scene: So, Mark, in this day and age of over producing and louder is better, why make a traditional country album? Why make Outlaw?

Mark Chesnutt: Well you can blame Pete Anderson for that, (Pete Anderson is a Grammy award winning producer and guitarist), and he came to me with this classic country project he was working on for a Time Life label, they had asked him about remaking some old outlaw classics, and he thought of me. I thought it would be a lot of fun. It was the first time I ever recorded anywhere other than Nashville since the eighties. And the chance to work with Pete Anderson was pretty cool. I grew up singing a lot of those songs from my heroes like Waylon and Willie. Some of the songs I had always sang but never recorded before like Sunday Morning Coming Down. And to do it in a way that isn’t over produced with pro tools, the way that things are usually done now days, we just wanted to go back to basics.

TCS: What do you think about the way country music is heading? It’s more pop than anything anymore.

MC: Some of it’s really good. I’m a fan of some of it. I’m a fan of Miranda Lambert’s. I like her style. She doesn’t sound like we did in the early nineties cause, like you said they changed the sound, it’s different, but I like where her heads at. She’s doing music that means something. She’s an individual, she writes her own music, has her own unique sound that is not like anybody else. I like Jimmy Johnson; he’s not new but just getting the notoriety he deserves. I like The Band Perry. There is some good stuff and there’s also some stuff I can’t stand to hear. I really like people who write their own songs. I’ve never really been known as a writer. I’ve co-written some great stuff with Roger Springer, but on my own I’m doing good to write my own name.

TCS: Do you feel you have to change to meet the revolving trends of today’s standard?

MC: No. Absolutely not. I came along in the eighties and nineties and I had some big traditional country hits. And when things started shifting in country music and Nashville, I just didn’t feel the need to shift with it. I was with AMC at the time and they tried everyway in the world to get me to be more contemporary country sound. They are out to sell records. They were not interested in having individual sounds, or taking a special talent and focusing on that like they used to do in the fifties thru the eighties. In the nineties we all had to what radio research projections told us people wanted to hear. I thought that was bull. That’s not what I got into country music for. Instead of nurturing some ones voice and style they said, hey you got a nice voice lets remake a pop song. And that’s where they wanted to carry me when I had success with I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing, wanting me to stay with that formula. I said no. My fans don’t want to hear that from me, covering U2, and pop singers. I’m sure it cost me some record sales. But in the long run I’m still playing 100 dates a year and I still have my same fans and I picked up some new ones along the way.

TCS: How is touring now different, from when you first started?

MC: Awe man you know it hasn’t changed that much for me, the touring part, the music business has changed tremendously. But you know I’m actually seeing Nashville letting individuals be individuals now, which is great, I think it’s because there are new people in the power position in Nashville and that’s great. They are all doing and saying thing I was told I couldn’t say fifteen years ago, so I’m glad to see that. But the touring part, you know, it’s pretty much the same. I’m still doing a lot of the same venues that I did. Even with 14 number one records and platinum albums I was still doing fairs and festivals in the nineties. I never got to that level of Kenny Chesney or Jason Aldean, you know these guys go out and have a huge production and play huge arenas. I never got to that and I think it’s because my type of music is more country and there’s really no rock and roll in it at all. You know our stuff is little, and still, and its traditional country. We play Billy Bob’s there in Fort Worth Texas two or three times a year. We play the grizzly Rose in Denver every year a couple times. We play all the big honky tonks that are still there that cater to our type of music, and they’re full every time we play them. Now days there is a lot more flying then there used to be because running a bus is just not very economical in some situations. I used to own buses and I was spending more money keeping the buses running then I was bringing home from the tours. Now we are down to one bus and we lease a bus as we need it. Most of the time we fly. It just makes more sense. Cause you know this is a business. I like to keep it simple, and basic, and its working for me. I’ll tell you what else has changed, there is a lot more casinos then there used to be, all over the country, and they book a lot of country shows. It’s nice. And people can hear music on the internet and satellite now that radio and the mainstream don’t play. And people can hear what they want to hear and buy what they want to buy without going to a record store in the mall and be intimidated.

TCS: That’s true. Do you have a favorite venue in particular that you like to play?

MC: Oh yeah, like I said Billy Bob’s and the Grizzly Rose we love to play. We been playing those places since the beginning of my career, for 21 years now, they’ve been there and they are still going strong. Cowboys in San Antonio, we were just there. We do that every year. There is several big places. I love a lot of the big casinos; we play South point in Vegas every year. There’s some small, and some big honky tonks we play every year, but basically it doesn’t really matter to me. A lot of times we go out and play acoustic shows. Just me and three of my guys and we just sit on stools.

TCS: You just play to play?

MC: We just love playing music. It doesn’t matter it is a honky tonk, or a big casino, or a theater, or a parking lot, or a garage, or an airplane hanger. If there’s people that wanna hear us play and sing, we’ll do that. Like the rest of the guys in my band, we cut our teeth in the honky tonk scene. Playing the dance halls. So they hold a special place in my heart, you know, that’s my atmosphere. I love a lot of people sitting around at tables watching you, seeing a lot of people dancing. It’s just a fun atmosphere; it’s just something that’s in my blood. It the same all over the world. I seen honky tonks in Europe. And for me I guess that where I’m more at ease cause that’s where I started out at.

TCS: You like it more intimate, more interaction with the fans. I understand. What’s next? With all you’ve already accomplished, is there anything else you want to do?

What’s the next rung in the ladder?

MC: Well right now we are looking for songs to record. As soon as I finish finding the right tunes, I’m gonna go do some writing in Nashville next week, hopefully we will get enough tunes together and go in to the studio sometime this summer and record some brand new songs, you know, some brand new country songs, no more covers, and put em out for digital download only.

TCS: Exclusivity is the way to go anymore.

MC: Yeah we are planning on doing that, and making a limited number of CD’s to take out on the road to sell cause there are still a lot of people who like to buy a cd and look at the art work and read the album credits. We carry a number of CD’s on the road for them. I sit around all day before a show and sign CD’s. There’s a lot of people, including me, that like looking at all the pictures.

TCS: I am one of those people too. I frame the ones I get signed.

MC: Well good. Everywhere we go we have a lot of them for sale, they are not something that is available in record stores and some people can’t get anywhere else. It’s a pretty unique deal.

TCS: That’s great. What would you say is your greatest accomplishment, or what are you most proud of professionally?

MC: I’m proud that I’m still recording, and touring, you know. After 21 years in this business, I haven’t slowed down a bit, and I’m really proud mainly of that. Mostly because that’s very unusual for a career to last as long as mine has, and I’m really thankful for that.

TCS: Happy to be in the game. What was the first concert you ever attended?

MC: The first concert I ever went to? Well the first show I can remember was the Grand Ole Opry in 1968, I was 5 years old. We still have pictures of that. I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember everyone and everything I saw. Driving with my family into Nashville. And it’s real interesting to see in black in white, what I remember seeing in color. I remember standing in the pew in my cowboy boots with my momma and my daddy. Now all these years later every time I get the opportunity to play the Ryman, they move the opry to the Ryman every year for a few weeks and I always try to play when they ask me. I have a standing invitation to play the opry whenever I’m in town, and when I can, I go over there and play it. Especially when it’s at the Ryman for the fact that I was there when I was a kid.

TCS: So much personal history, sure. Well with your busy schedule, do you attend any concerts? What was the last concert you attended?

MC: Believe it or not most of the concerts I attend, when I can, are rock concerts.

TCS: Really?

MC: As much as I grew up listening to hard country, I listened to hard rock. I’m a big fan of Aerosmith. and ZZ Top, Van Halen and Kiss. I’m a kid of the 70’s. I’ve been to see Aerosmith several times. I had the chance to meet Steven Tyler in Nashville at one of his shows. I guess the last concert I saw was , ZZ Top in Beaumont. I try to catch them every chance I get. I still love that those guys are originals. They are one of the original rock and roll bands of the 70’s and they are still doing it. Any chance I get to see those icons, country or rock, I’ll be there.

TCS: Absolutely. Have you ever gotten the chance to meet the outlaws, whose songs you covered?

MC: I have met Kris Kristofferson several times. I been around Willie Nelson, I got to sing with him on stage a couple times. Waylon and I were good friends. I named my first son after him. George Jones and I have been friends since the 80’s. Yeah I’ve been real lucky in my career. I got to hang out with a lot of my hero’s, before some of them passed away. I partied with Hank Williams Jr. a few times. I met Johnny Cash, I toured with Conway Twitty, and Tammy Wynette. I was real lucky to get in when I did when all these people were alive. And that’s been the best thing about my career. I have won awards yes, but I went to Merle Haggard’s house. I got invited over there while he was rehearsing with the band and I got a private concert in his house. I got to play with my hero’s and that’s probably been my biggest accomplishment.

TCS: I can only imagine what that was like. Well we are pretty much done, is there anything you’d like to add? Last words to close it out?

MC: I’m still out there touring, and I hope everybody can keep up with me cause I’ll be touring till I drop. Hahahaha! Come see me, I’ll be there.

Thanks Mark Chesnutt,

The Concert Scene

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