Chris Cagle Puts Career in Perspective

Chris Cagle photo courtesy of Capitol Nashville.

Chris Cagle Photo Courtesy of Capitol Nashville

April 30, 2008 - When Chris Cagle's new album came out, it went immediately to the No. 1 position on the national country charts.

It was a positive step for Chris, who's endured a number of trials and tribulations in both his career and his personal life over the last few years. In the process of making the album, it became apparent that he's looking to turn a corner.

"If you look at the titles — like 'No Love Songs,' 'What Kind Of Gone,' 'If It Isn't One Thing' and 'Never Ever Gone' — they're tremendously negative," he told CMA Close Up magazine. "But then you listen to the songs, you hear that 'I Don't Want To Live' is 'I don't want to live without you anymore.' The songs themselves are positive, which seems ironic to me in many ways."

Also ironic is the album's title. It's called My Life's Been A Country Song, but it comes at a time when Chris has decided that country music is not his life — at least not the most important part of it.

"I'm turning 40 this year, and I don't have kids yet," he said. "But I want to live long enough to have a child and some grandbabies. Music is a chapter in my life, but it's not the chapter. My livelihood is performing, but my life is not a performance. I want to live to be 85. I'm not going to be sitting in a hospital room when I die looking at my gold records on the wall. No, I'm going to be talking to my kids and my woman. When I leave this world, that's what I want as my legacy: three or four amazing children, my namesakes. That's the stuff that matters."