Mark Chesnutt was rushed to the hospital late last week right before he was set to open a show for country group Alabama on October 16th in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He is currently recovering at home in Beaumont, Texas and is expected to be okay. But it’s the latest health scare in a rash of them for the country legend, and his remaining shows this week have been postponed.
“Mark was admitted to Baton Rouge General Hospital Thursday morning after his flight arrived for the concert with Alabama,” Chesnutt’s publicist Don Murry Grubbs tells Saving Country Music. “Doctors determined he had a low sodium count and very high blood pressure. His show Saturday in New Mexico was canceled. Mark wants to apologize the fans who came to see him in Baton Rouge and also to those who had planned to see him in Portales, New Mexico. He hopes to be back to perform in both cities soon. Additionally, shows this week have been canceled, which Mark also regrets.“
Publicist Don Murry Grubbs continues, “Mark was released from the hospital on Saturday. He’s home in Beaumont, Texas and visiting with his doctors this week to get the low sodium and high blood pressure under control.”
In late November of 2023, Chesnutt was forced to cancel multiple shows, and was in the hospital getting tests for undisclosed reasons, leading to much speculation about his health, and a prolonged pause from touring. Then in May of this year, Chesnutt came clean about his health struggles, and his battles with alcohol.
It all started when the Beaumont, TX native was in his early 20s and he fractured his spine. “In them days, they didn’t know how to fix it, and I couldn’t fix it, so I just lived with it,” Chesnutt says. But in 2021, his back problems caught up to him, forcing him off the road to have necessary surgery. At first the surgery seemed to have worked somewhat, but then complications set in. Mark began losing the ability to walk, and fell down and escalator at the airport in Houston.
This forced Chesnutt to have another surgery that involved doctors installing two titanium rods in his back. Then the necessary rehabilitation after the procedure was put on hold due to the pandemic. “My surgery was a major major one. I couldn’t work. I was laid up, didn’t drive, couldn’t walk, couldn’t do anything.”
This is when Chesnutt’s drinking problems started to cope with the pain. Chesnutt tried to return to touring to put some purpose back into his life, but his back wasn’t healed yet, and his alcoholism was raging. Chesnutt was afraid of going to rehab, because he didn’t want the public who was already curious from canceled tour dates to find out about his drinking problem.
But when it got so bad there was no other choice, his wife called an ambulance. Chesnutt needed four blood transfusions just to keep him alive. He was bleeding internally. Doctors said he only would have lived a couple more days without seeking treatment. “I had to quit drinking or die,” Chesnutt says. So on November 1st, 2023, he took his last drink.
“I’m back and doing better than ever,” Chesnutt said in May. “My diet is better. I’m more active, and I feel better than I did in my 30s. I’m excited about the whole process of going on the road. I’m excited every night to go on stage. I have the energy I wish I had throughout the ’90s.”
Nonetheless, Mark Chesnutt just turned 62 years old in September, and is no spring chicken, including with his list of previously diagnosed ailments. But the good news is he is currently expected to make a full recovery, and is currently scheduled to resume touring on November 7th at the Harvester Performance Center in Rocky Mount, Virginia.
