Mark Chesnutt has never pretended to be proud of the biggest crossover hit he ever had.
The Texas singer told the story to Taste of Country, and the site shared it with readers again on Oct. 31. It starts with a record label that wouldn’t take no for an answer, and it ends with Mark’s musical idol.
“George Jones got mad at me for doing that,” Mark said.
If you’re newer to classic country, George Jones was the singer other country singers wanted to sound like. Born in Saratoga, Texas, in 1931, he was known to fans as “The Possum.” His 1980 ballad “He Stopped Loving Her Today” went to No. 1 and is still his best-known song. He joined the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1992 and passed away in April 2013.
Mark comes from the same corner of Texas. He was born in Beaumont in 1963, and his dad, Bob, was a singer and record collector who filled the house with music. Critics compared the two for years, and they even recorded together. George sang on Mark’s 1992 song “Talkin’ to Hank,” and Mark’s official channel has a clip of the pair singing it on stage.
Mark Chesnutt and George Jones sing “Talkin’ to Hank” together live
Mark built his name on hard country. Hits like “Too Cold at Home” and “Bubba Shot the Jukebox” kept him on the radio through the 1990s, even as the format leaned toward pop.
Then came 1998. Mark says his record company pushed him to cut a song he never wanted, and he gave in because he feared what would happen if he didn’t.
“I did it because I knew if I didn’t do it, they were gonna push me back on the back burner and I was gonna lose my shot,” he told Taste of Country. “Then I wouldn’t be on radio anymore. I knew that was gonna happen, so I said, ‘Okay, I’ll do it, just this once.'”
The song was “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” the Aerosmith power ballad from the movie “Armageddon.” It had been a giant pop hit that year. Now a honky-tonk man from Beaumont was singing it with a full orchestra behind him.
That record is what made George mad, and Mark doesn’t argue with him one bit.
“I don’t blame him. I don’t blame him at all,” Mark said. “Here’s this guy singing ‘Bubba Shot the Jukebox,’ ‘Too Cold at Home’ … I’m doing all these country songs.”
He also pointed out that the ballad wasn’t really Aerosmith’s kind of song. “They didn’t write it, and it’s not their type of song,” he said. Songwriter Diane Warren did.
The funny thing is that it worked. The record hit No. 1 on Billboard’s country singles chart on Feb. 20, 1999. It even crossed over to No. 17 on the Hot 100. “As luck would have it, it ended up going to No. 1,” Mark said, laughing. He still calls it a mistake. “It didn’t sell anything,” he said, and when the label wanted another pop cover, he turned it down and asked to leave.
Whatever George thought of that record, it didn’t end things between them. In March 2013, George announced the “dear friends” who would join him on stage for his final Nashville concert, and Mark Chesnutt was on the list. George passed away that April, before the show could happen.
Here’s Mark singing that Aerosmith song live, on his own official channel.
Mark Chesnutt sings “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” live
Mark’s channel also posted a longer clip from his visit to TNN’s “Nashville Now,” which it titles as an appearance with George Jones.
Mark Chesnutt on TV’s “Nashville Now” with George Jones
Mark has kept making traditional country records on smaller labels ever since, and he still tours every year. He laughs about how long that song stayed at No. 1, and he still says George had a point.