Mark Chesnutt 2

Another Mark Chesnutt Interview

(Q)- Is Mark still being typecast as the “Keeper of the flame”?

(A)- Yeah man. I don’t know why people started calling me those things. But, I’ll tell you this those people who are calling me that, have never, ever heard my whole catalog of albums. They might have heard “Too Cold At Home”, or my second single, but they’ve never heard anything else by me. They’ve never even bothered to give a listen to any of my other songs. They never bothered to go out and buy any of my other singles or albums for that matter. Then, when I released “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing”, then people went crazy with that I I started reading and hearing things like,’Well, he’s not the keeper of the flame(of traditional country music) anymore. And I had a hit single at number One for a month. People didn’t think that was my style, but come on,, it was a rock song and I’ve been cutting rock songs for like ten eyars man. Don’t you think?

(Q)- Yes Mark. What’s the Strait Tour mean to you? It’ a plum role isn’t it?
(A)- It’s like the biggest tour of the year, so it means a lot to me. So I finally am doing something to break out of this rut that I’ve been in for the past couple of years. I’m finally gonna start playin’ in front of some people man! (he laughs). That means I get to finally do a show in front of 60,000 and that’s what it’s all about. I’ve been playin’ clubs and smaller places for ten years and now I finally get to play some big stadiums. I finally get to have more then a few people find out just who I am?

(Q)- And you previously have not had that opportunity?
(A)- No man, not on this scale. I think there’s a lot of people (country fans) who don’t even know that I exist. They don’t know me all that well, they don’t know who I am or what I do. I mean, radio knows who I am and I do have quite a few fans, but I still don’t think I’ve “broken out’ and that there’s a lot of people who, have heard one or two singles by me and they think, ‘Oh that’s that guy who sounds a lot like George Jones. That’s that guy.’ They don’t think that I can do anything else then stand there and sing country music and that’s just not true.’ I mean we have a real rowdy show and we like to cut loose and I’m not that standard hat act man.

(Q)- Mark is looking at a serious obstacle in being typecast as a traditional country singer who is solely a keeper of the flame, kind of guy. What’s his take on this and what’s he going to do to try and break that mold?

(A)- There’s a lot of artists out there who do get the respect of the industry, who are not traditional country. I mean look at Shania Twain, Garth Brooks, they were never categorized as one style of music but I’ve been around for ten years and I still can’t get anybody to say that I’m anything more then an old honky tonk, barroom, country singer. That’s why I am so excited about this tour. I’m going to show people what I’m about. We’re going to pour it on.

(Q)- Whats up for the next album which is due in August or September of this year?

(A)- There’s some real country stuff and some not so country stuff, there’s some more commercial stuff on this record, then I’ve done in years. But, people will probably say there goes Chesnutt, he’s straying again.’ But, I can’t worrying about that any more. I can’t sit around worrying that I’m being typecast as the guy whose gonna keep country music alive. Because country music ain’t dead, it’s just changed. My next album is gonna to be very up to date with what’s going on right now in country music.