Mark Chesnutt

Mark Chesnutt was finally back on top of his world – then he started having pain in his arm. The pain wasn't in his shoulder as is typical in a heart attack, but below his elbow. It was a Friday night, and he was playing in Texas. After his concert the next night, his wife called an ambulance to meet the tour bus on the way home and transport him to the hospital. The night ended in emergency quadruple bypass surgery. It was June of 2024—the latest hurdle in years of health challenges Chesnutt had tackled to work his way back to the stage. The '90s country star had to start all over again. But just like always, Mark Chesnutt was up to the challenge. With hits including "Too Cold at Home," "Brother Jukebox," and "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," his career exploded with his impressive catalog carrying him from honky-tonk stages to one of the decade's most reliable hit makers. He signed a record deal with MCA Nashville in 1989 and was notching chart-toppers within one year. By the decade's end, he earned 14 No. 1 hits and 23 Top 10 songs, sold more than 12 million albums, and was a CMA Horizon Award Winner. Billboard named him one of the most-played country artists of the decade. He's thriving and excited to rededicate himself to his music and touring in 2024 and 2025. But 2021 brought a different kind of chaos – career-threatening back surgery and potentially fatal alcoholism. Chesnutt is ready to share his decades-long healing journey through chronic pain and substance abuse – punctuated by a near-fatal potential heart attack. He had lived with a fractured spine for years, with his condition deteriorating further over time. "Back then, when it happened, it was just a small fracture of the spine," Chesnutt explains. "In them days, they didn't know how to fix it, and I couldn't fix it, so I just lived with it.” In 2021, Chesnutt's spine was somewhat healed, and other than his back being curved, it didn't cause him many problems. Until it did. He lost the ability to walk and fell down the escalator at the Houston airport. "It was just bone-on-bone, and I had a lot of nerve damage," Chesnutt says. "I just couldn't keep my balance anymore. They told me if I didn't stop and have surgery, I was gonna be crippled.” Having weathered the first year of the pandemic, he had started drinking more, too. Chesnutt was always fond of a few beers, but he readily admits that being forced from tour by COVID had worsened an already dangerous habit."It was getting worse and worse, and my surgery was a major major one," he says, explaining doctors scraped scar tissue off his nerves and that he now has two titanium rods in his back. His recovery was long, and because of COVID and social distancing, the singer had to delay his much-needed physical therapy by six months. "I couldn’t work. I was laid up, didn't drive, couldn't walk, couldn't do anything.” Chesnutt had to use a walker, couldn't eat and his weight dropped to 135 lbs. But he could drink. He started physical therapy in 2022. The singer and his wife moved to Tennessee during that time for what he said was "some stupid, unknown reason.” Then he returned to tour before his back – or his addiction—were healed. He still struggled with balance and frequently fell. Then he got desperately sick—this time from alcohol – and had to go back to the hospital. "I drank all day, every day," Chesnutt admits. "I'd get up in the middle of the night and drink. I'd never stop.” The singer had been a heavy drinker most of his adult life. He was in the music business, where overconsumption can feel like the job description. Living through the solitary nature and slowed pace of the pandemic combined with ongoing back pain pushed Chesnutt further into addiction. He knew he needed help but didn't want to check into an alcohol rehabilitation center because he was afraid his presence would leak to the tabloids. He asked his wife to call an ambulance. "I knew I was dying," he says. Doctors gave Chesnutt four blood transfusions that night. He learned his heart was on the edge of cardiac arrest and that if he hadn't called an ambulance when he did, he probably wouldn't have survived the following two days. He stayed in the Knoxville, Tennessee, hospital for a week and learned that all his organs – especially his heart were shutting down. He had esophageal varices, a common complication of cirrhosis. "I was bleeding out from my inside," he explains. "They basically told me they were gonna get me over this, and I was going to be fine, and they could fix everything wrong with me. But if they discharged me and I went home and started drinking again, I'd be back in a matter of days, and I might not leave alive. I had to quit drinking or die." Chesnutt took his last drink on November 1, 2023. He was 60 years old. He believes getting terribly sick made him realize how desperately he needed to get sober."I prayed for so long for something to make me realize that I had to stop drinking, and I couldn't do it on my own," he says. Then Chesnutt had to learn how to live life as a sober person. He had to do band rehearsals sober for the first time – and he had never been on stage without having at least a few drinks. "I wasn't blasted every time, but I was close," he says. Rehearsals started in February of 2024. Chesnutt told his wife he wasn't sure he was going to be able to do it – but he was determined not to drink. "I walked up there, started my set list, and said, 'Well, let's take it from the top of the set.” The Texan remembered every word to every song and was convinced his voice had never sounded better. "I thought to myself, 'What in the Hell was the big deal?" he admits. "Why did I think for so many years that I needed to drink?” Four months later, Chesnutt was in the back of that ambulance in Texas headed for an emergency quadruple bypass surgery. He was as close to a heart attack as he could get. Previously, he knew his heart was bothering him, but he put off addressing it. That night in the ambulance, he didn't have a choice. His heart surgery set him back three months. Now, Chesnutt is gearing up for his 2025-2026 Redemption Tour– more dedicated to his health and sobriety than ever and equally determined to deliver the most compelling shows of his career. This time, when he steps on stage, Chesnutt will do it as the healthiest version of himself – no alcohol, no pain, just the undeniable songs and unfailingly distinct voice on which he built his career. "I'm back and doing better than ever," Chesnutt says. "My diet is better. I'm more active, and I feel better than I did in my 30s. I'm excited about the whole process of going on the road. I'm excited every night to go on stage. I have the energy I wish I had throughout the '90s."