FEATURE: CLINT BLACK INTERVIEW

A Better Man

Clint Black played the industry game, but now he makes his own rules

Country music got a fresh infusion of energy in the late 1980s, when a string of Stetson-hatted dudes like Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson broke through to wider and younger audiences with a sound that respected tradition while taking some cues from classic rock.

Leading the charge for the so-called “Class of ’89” was a young Texan named Clint Black. His debut single, “A Better Man,” was the first of four consecutive No. 1 hits from his debut album, Killin’ Time, which topped Billboard’s country chart for 31 weeks. The 1990 follow-up, Put Yourself in My Shoes, also hit No. 1 and spawned four Top 10 singles.

His dreams had come true, but the sudden Beatles-like success came as a blessing and a curse, taking a mental, emotional and even physical toll.

“I would be going onstage to sing, and I would have no vocal chords left, because I had been doing interviews every morning, playing eight cities in a row with one day off,” he recalls in his slow, intermittent drawl. “And along with that are photo shoots for magazines, TV appearances, meeting sponsors backstage, contest winners, radio stations – all of those things, where I finally had to get on the phone to my manager and I said, ‘If you want “A Better Man” to sound like Joe Cocker recorded it, let’s keep doing what we’re doing.’”

The success continued, but over time, Black’s preference for recording original material ran afoul of music-biz politics.

“Ultimately, the major-label system won’t accept that,” he says. “When my deal with RCA was up, I didn’t want to be pressured by them anymore, and they didn’t want an artist like me who insisted on writing his own songs, and whatever else they didn’t like about me. So we had a mutually agreeable departure, and from that point on, I wouldn’t sign another major-label deal.”

These days, Black is enjoying a more manageable lifestyle, living in the Nashville area with his wife and top adviser of 30 years, actress-singer Lisa Hartman Black, best known for her roles on CBS’ Knots Landing and many episodes of ABC’s The Love Boat and Fantasy Island.

“She was famous before I was famous,” he says. “I wonder

Winner of a Grammy and multiple CMA and ACM awards, he now records with friends at his home studio, acting as producer as well as singer, chief songwriter and guitarist. He releases his work independently, dropping a new album about every five years, a far cry from the “tornado” days when a new project was expected every year or two.

“It takes me about three years to forget the torture of the last album, and then about two years to get the next one out,” Black explains.

His latest venture, released last year, is titled Out of Sane, a nod to his admittedly obsessive approach in the studio. He says the process begins with the fun stuff – the art of writing and playing songs – but soon becomes what he calls “the science” – the meticulous work of tweaking and mixing the recordings into the final product.

“By the end of it, I’ve hit the play button about a thousand times per song, and I’m literally dealing in tenthsof-a-decibel changes to make it all sound right in my mind, and that produces a sleep deficit, because five hours is about all I can get before those songs start playing in my head and I have to get up,” he says. “All of the mojo is gone, and it’s now a science, and when I finally deliver it, it’s not something I want to hear again very soon and not a process I want to go through again very soon, and it takes a few years before all that is forgotten.”

“When my deal with RCA was up, I didn’t want to be pressured by them anymore, and they didn’t want an artist like me who insisted on writing his own songs, and whatever else they didn’t like about me.”

As usual, the new album includes several songs cowritten with friends, such as Noblesville native Steve Wariner and Black’s longtime lead guitarist and collaborator, Hayden Nicholas. The goal is not to surprise fans with new sounds, but rather to continue honing the craft, with top musicians playing a classic blend of introspective ballads and honkytonk twang.

“I’ve settled into an aim of making the music timeless, in the sense of not chasing or following trends but just having a great band playing my best songs, the best songs I have for that compilation,” he says. “I’m still striving for better and better-sounding records, but the approach to the music is still the same.”

Out of Sane was barely finished in early 2020 when the pandemic brought concert touring – “my day job” – to a halt. Black realized he would have to rely on the Internet to promote the new album, so he started building a video setup in his studio for Facebook performances and Zoom interviews. With every step forward, he jokes, he discovered a new cable or adapter he needed to get all “Fortunately, FedEx and UPS and Amazon kept delivering,” he says. “And then it was a good bit of work just discovering there was a 195-millisecond delay between the audio and video, so it was one challenge after another, but it was fun. I like the technical stuff.”

That learning curve led him to pitch an idea to Circle, a country music TV channel available online and through various cable systems and streaming services. The result: Talking in Circles with Clint Black, an interview show that premiered in May. Guests in the first season have included old friends like Vince Gill and Travis Tritt as well as new friends like contemporary bluesman Keb’ Mo’. A second season is now in production, and the host swears he is honored just to have such artists show up for the tapings.

“It’s a humbling job,” he says. “Many of them are musical heroes or people I admire tremendously, and now I’m going to be trying to carry on an intelligent conversation with them. … It can’t all be ‘So what do you think about how I feel about your music?’ or ‘How did

me listening to you all my life influence you?’”

Black also launched a signature coffee brand during the pandemic shutdown, but now he and his band and crew – many of whom have been with him since the pre-fame days – are ready to play music for live audiences. The performances are accompanied by video clips he painstakingly assembled and edited himself.

“We weren’t sure it was ever going to happen, and we have a new perspective after all these years,” he says. “When you have a day job and you do it for 40 years – I played the bars for a long time before my record deal – you take things for granted. I never really took all the big success for granted, but at least that we could get out and play. So now I think we’re just a little quicker to count our blessings than before.”

And whatever success comes, he and his family and friends own it.

“I think in the last 10 years, I’ve finally figured out how to do it, to do it well, to safeguard the things that matter most,” he says. “I get to do my own music the way I want to do it, and I think that’s the best thing I can do for a new fan or a longtime fan, is to be myself and not allow somebody at a record company to decide what song I’m going to sing for them next. And that has allowed me to keep my love and passion for this alive.”

An Evening with Clint Black Sunday, Oct. 24, at 7 p.m. The Palladium