This country music legend is back on the road touring after escaping death: “I was bleeding out from my inside”

Country music star Mark Chesnutt is making a comeback, having recently announced his 2025-26 Redemption Tour. This comes after years of serious health conditions and struggles with addiction. He’s cheated death multiple times, and is now able to fulfill his dream of being back on the stage.

Less than a year ago, Chesnutt’s wife Tracie made her second emergency call on her husband’s behalf. An ambulance came to pick him up from a show he’d just performed. Chesnutt, who was in serious danger of suffering a heart attack, had an emergency quadruple bypass heart surgery that night.

“I almost died,” Chesnutt said. “I worked through that after the heart surgery, did more therapy, took another three months off, and now I’m back and doing better than average.”

Mark Chesnutt’s journey: from near-death to Redemption Tour

Chesnutt’s career took off in the ’90s with several hit songs that topped the charts, and albums that sold in the millions. But the last four years haven’t been so fortunate for him.

Back surgery

In 2021, Chesnutt began to deal with some serious health problems. He was living for years with a fractured spine in three places that deteriorated little by little over time until he was forced to have a back surgery that threatened to end his career. In the beginning, the fractures were so small that Chesnutt didn’t notice anything in his day-to-day. But when it became too big to ignore, things escalated quickly. One day, at the airport in Houston, Texas, Chesnutt lost the ability to walk and fell down an escalator.

“In them days, they didn’t know how to fix it, and I couldn’t fix it, so I just lived with it.” Chesnutt said. “It was just bone-on-bone, and I had a lot of nerve damage. I just couldn’t keep my balance anymore. Doctors told me if I didn’t stop and have surgery, I was gonna be crippled.”

Alcohol addiction

Unfortunately, the suffering didn’t end there. On top of the physical pain, the Covid-19 pandemic hit, not only forcing him into a sedentary life he was unaccustomed to, but also delaying his physical therapy. Without the ability to walk or eat well, Chesnutt lost a lot of weight and became dependent on alcohol.

“It was getting worse and worse, and my surgery was a major major one,” Chesnutt said. “I couldn’t work. I was laid up, didn’t drive, couldn’t walk, couldn’t do anything. I was pretty much a mess for several years there.”

In 2022, he was finally able to start physical therapy, but he went back to performing before he was fully ready. He had to sit on stage, and he still relied on alcohol to the point that he was hospitalized.

“I drank all day, every day,” Chesnutt said. “I’d get up in the middle of the night and drink. I’d never stop. Back in those days, it was normal for everybody to drink all the time. I just took it to the extreme, and it about killed me.”

In 2023, rather than checking into a rehabilitation center, Chesnutt checked into a hospital to avoid the tabloids. His wife helped him there, and he was told he would have likely died within days had she not called an ambulance when she did. Chesnutt received four blood transfusions and learned that most of his vital organs were shutting down, including his heart.

“I was bleeding out from my inside,” he said. “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 has been sober now for nearly two years. But living a sober life meant performing sober too, and that was scary for Chesnutt, who was used to having a few drinks before each show.

“I wasn’t blasted every time, but I was close,” he said.

But once Chesnutt was able to get back on the stage, he felt better than ever and sounded better than ever, too.

“I walked up there, started my set list, and said, ‘Well, let’s take it from the top of the set,” Chesnutt said. “I thought to myself, ‘What in the Hell was the big deal?’ Why did I think for so many years that I needed to drink?”

It was in June 2024 when Chesnutt had to have the quadruple bypass, resulting in more canceled shows.

Back to health

Now, in 2025 and at 61 years old, Chesnutt’s mind, body, and heart are finally healthy again and he’s gearing up for his Redemption Tour.

“I’ve been enjoying sobriety now. I’m alive, and I’m so excited to see what’s going on right now with Zach Top and traditional country music,” said Chesnutt. “I’m glad I lived long enough to see this happen because I almost didn’t make it.”

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