Mark Chesnutt was one of the country artists that carried the honky tonk sound into the ‘90s. He dominated the airwaves of the decade with songs like “Bubba Shot the Jukebox,” “Brother Jukebox,” “Too Cold at Home,” and many more. All told he launched 20 singles to the top 10 of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Eight of those landed at the top. However, one of those chart-toppers stands out from the rest in Chesnutt’s mind, and not for positive reasons.
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Aerosmith had a massive hit with “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” from the Armageddon soundtrack in 1998. The next year, Chesnutt recorded his rendition of the song. It went on to become his final No. 1 hit to date. However, he didn’t want to do the song at the time and still isn’t happy about doing it. To make things worse, the single attracted the ire of a highly respected country legend.
[RELATED: The Meaning Behind “Too Cold at Home” by Mark Chesnutt]
Mark Chesnutt Regrets Recording “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”
In a 2018 interview, Chesnutt spoke to Taste of Country about the single. During the conversation, he revealed why he recorded it and talked about the fallout from it.
He said recording the Aerosmith cover was the “last damn thing” he wanted to do. “I did it because I knew if I didn’t do it they were going to push me on the back burner and I was gonna lose my shot,” he admitted. “Then, I wouldn’t be on radio anymore. I knew that was gonna happen. So, I said, ‘Okay, I’ll do it. Just this one.’”
As mentioned above, the song was a huge hit for Chesnutt. “As luck would have it, it ended up going to No. 1 for four damn weeks,” he said, laughing. However, his core audience wasn’t impressed. At the same time, it didn’t move any units. “It didn’t sell anything. So I asked to leave the label because when it was time to go back in the studio, there was another pop hit they wanted me to cover. I said no, absolutely not. That made everyone at the label mad at me,” he recalled. “I got the reputation in town for being hard to work with. And once you get that label, you’re pretty much done.”
Chesnutt had good reason to walk away, though. The label forced him to compromise his values to record the song and his fans weren’t happy about it. That was only part of the fallout, though. “George Jones got mad at me for doing it,” he said. “I don’t blame him. I don’t blame him at all. Here’s this guy singing ‘Bubba Shot the Jukebox’ and ‘Too Cold at Home.’ I’m doing all these country songs, and then all of a sudden, here I am singing with a big-ass orchestra behind me, doing an Aerosmith cover,” he added.
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