by Roman Mitz

"I was walking down a street in New York City five or six years ago when this guy came up behind me and started calling 'Bono, Bono, Bono'. I stopped, turned around and looked at him, and he said 'You're not Bono'. I said 'Nope, I sure ain't'.

Mark Chesnutt feels like whooping it up, and what better place to do it than Las Vegas. In town for three days, Chesnutt has been celebrating the biggest hit of his career, a country remake of 'I Don't Want To Miss A Thing', and he admits things have been "pretty wild". The song, which is the title track of his latest CD, was popularized by Aerosmith not so long ago when they recorded it for the Armageddon soundtrack. Therefore it seems fitting that Chesnutt is in town to play the Hard Rock Café, a venue that has hosted some of rock's biggest acts including The Rolling Stones. In addition to his success on country radio, Chesnutt's recording has crossed over to the pop charts and he now finds his song in unfamiliar territory, firmly wedged between hits by soul man R. Kelly and rapper Will Smith.

"I haven't really thought about that too much," drawls the amiable Texan. "I saw Aerosmith's music video and I kept thinking 'that's a great song'. When we decided to record it I wondered a while about what my fans would think, but you can't worry about that. If it's a great song and it feels good, you have to do it. It's great any time you can get a song that makes such an impact that it puts you up there with all of them other people. That's the power of a great song. It was important to me because I needed to get everyone's attention again because I think people didn't care anymore about what I was doing. "

Chesnutt's rock connection doesn't end with Aerosmith. He's actually quite a fan of the genre and he speaks enthusiastically about a recent Kiss show he attended. If you check out the cover of the new CD you'll also find that he bears an uncanny resemblance to another rock icon, U2 front man Bono.

"It's funny you should say that," Chesnutt begins. "I was walking down a street in New York City five or six years ago when this guy came up behind me and started calling 'Bono, Bono, Bono'. I stopped, turned around and looked at him, and he said 'You're not Bono'. I said 'Nope, I sure ain't'. As far as the rock thing goes, I've always been a fan. That's something a lot of people don't know because I got kind of pigeon-holed as a traditional country singer. I grew up with rock and roll and I've seen Kiss three times and the original Van Halen a couple of times. Rock artists aren't afraid to admit they like George Jones and Hank Williams but up until now it wasn't cool for a country artist to say they liked Kiss. I think the line between rock and country is disappearing. People who listen to music now grew up with a huge variety of influences. They just like what they like and it's getting harder to categorize it."

Fans of Chesnut'ts more traditional songs need not fret as there are still plenty of torch and twang numbers on the disc. The singer pokes a little down-home humour at himself on a couple of numbers, 'That's The Way You Make An Ex' and 'My Way Home'. The latter song finds Chesnutt arriving home to an empty lot after his wife has taken off in their trailer home. There's also a tasty Cajun treat in the form of 'Jolie'' which closes with a guitar lick from (Uh-oh, there's that rock thing happening again) The Beatles' 'Day Tripper'.

"The session guitar player, he's crazy, and he was just fooling around with that lick. I liked it so I told him to leave it in there. I'm from south-east Texas (Beaumont), and there are a lot of Cajun people down there. My mother's from Louisiana so Cajun music was always around when I was growing up. I love the feel of it. My bass player also plays the accordian so we started working it into our shows. We've played Canada many times in the past, especially western Canada, and hopefully we'll get up there again soon."

Although he continues to cultivate his own songwriting, Chesnutt says he is content at this stage to rely on other writers for material. Only one of his compositions, 'Let's talk About Our Love', made the new album. In selecting tracks for the disc, Chesnutt and his producer cast the widest net possible, leading to a very eclectic album. In additon to the hit ballad there's some bluesier, more adventurous fare. The singer does not think this will scare off his fans.

"I'm proud that people think I'm the keeper of the flame and all that stuff," he says. But when you sit down and listen to all of the hits I've had over the last nine years, there were some big ones like 'Almost Goodbye' and 'I'll Think Of Something' that I wouldn't call traditional. Now I have the biggest record of my career and it doesn't have a steel guitar or a fiddle in it. It's kind of strange ain't it?"

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