Chuck Wicks Reaches a Milestone

Julianne Hough and Chuck Wicks on the CMA Awards Red Carpet at "The 42nd Annual CMA Awards," on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008, broadcast live from the Sommet Center in Nashville on the ABC Television Network. Photo courtesy of the Country Music Association.

June 19, 2009 — Chuck Wicks turns a corner on Saturday when he celebrates his 30th birthday. He reaches that mark with a happening career and a beautiful girlfriend, Julianne Hough, so it’s doubtful that flipping numbers on his age will have a big negative emotional impact. But with Chuck — well, it’s hard to know.

"This is a big time for me," he says. "I’m probably gonna sit in a corner and cry — a lot — just because I’m gonna miss [the] 20s. I just feel old. I fell down the stairs yesterday. I hurt my hip, and I said, ‘Man, this is not gonna be fun.’"

Chuck won’t be home on his big day. Instead, he’s playing the Porterfield Country Festival, according to Pollstar, in the Dairy State of Wisconsin, where maybe one of his fellow performers — LeAnn Rimes, Pat Green or Carolina Rain — can get the crowd to at least sing "Happy Birthday" to him.

"Wisconsin — I’m gonna have some cheese," he says. "I am gonna have some cheese; I’m gonna turn 30; I’m gonna drink some wine; I’m gonna be doin’ a show. I wish Julianne was gonna be there for my big 30, but we are celebrating. She’s got a big birthday comin’ up, too, July 20, and we’re gonna celebrate together, right in the middle of, you know, June [20] and July 20. So July 8, maybe, I think we’re gonna plan a big ol’ party."

Stocking the refrigerator for that party might help him keep from getting the doldrums over the big 3-0.

"I look 21," Chuck insists. "That’s what the guy at the counter said, anyway, when I tried to buy beer. He goes, ‘You look 21, but man, you’re old.’ I mean, that made me feel really good."

The birthday isn’t the only date-related milestone on Chuck’s June calendar. It was in June a year ago that he began performing on Brad Paisley’s Paisley Party Tour. That’s the concert run in which he and Julianne began dating.