Mark Chesnutt Reveals The Reason George Jones Was FURIOUS With Him

biography.com/Arkansas Times

For longtime fans of country music, the name Mark Chesnutt will most definitely ring a bell.

He sang the tunes like “Brother Jukebox”, “Bubba Shot The Jukebox” and “Ol’ Country”. Chesnutt gained success with 30 charted singles, including eight No. 1’s, and having his first three albums go platinum.

In 1995, Chesnutt left his label, MCA, and signed with Decca Records. After releasing two mildly successful albums with the label, they put pressure on him to cover a pop song, and ultimately forced him to title the album after it.

He recorded a version of Aerosmith’s pop hit “I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing” in 1998.

“[That was] the last damn thing I wanted to do,” Chesnutt told Taste of Country in an interview. “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. 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 became a huge hit for Chesnutt and put him back at the top of the charts for four weeks.

Although he had major success with “I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing”, he wasn’t too pleased with himself and neither was a certain country legend.

“George Jones got mad at me for doing that. I don’t blame him. I don’t blame him at all. Here’s this guy singing ‘Bubba Shot the Jukebox,’ ‘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 says.

Chesnutt ended up asking to leave Decca and go back to MCA because when he went back into the studio, they wanted him to record another pop cover.

His refusal to record another pop hit gave him a reputation around town that he was hard to work with, but he says he wouldn’t change a thing.

“I’m still here, after 26 years working. Here I am after all these years, coming out with a new CD and guess what? It’s country music that I’m coming out with,” he says.