Black, Clint

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Clint Black

Singer, songwriter, guitarist

Throughout 1990 the country charts were dominated by a new young star—Clint Black, a Houston-based honky tonker with an expressive voice and movie star good looks. Black’s debut album, Killin’ Time, went platinum and spent a phenomenal eight months at number one on the Billboard lists, and he placed no less than five singles in the country top ten as well. Few stars have climbed to fame so quickly on the strength of just one album.

“Boy, it’s like jumpin’ into a car doing eighty,” Black told Rolling Stone of his sudden success. Once the front singer in an anonymous bar band, Black is now hounded by the press and is a headlining entertainer who can draw crowds of 85, 000. Women beg him for locks of his hair and even his fingernail clippings, and in the summer of 1990 fans stood in line all day to get his autograph at a fair in Nashville. “I’d pretty much been living off nightclub gigs for the past eight or nine years,” Black told Country America magazine. “I made ends meet, but I never could keep up with the bills. Now I find I can keep up with the bills and have a little extra too.”

Such modest expectations are typical of Clint Black, a singer who has sought success because he dearly loves to perform. Black was born in New Jersey in 1962 but was raised in Texas, where his father worked as a crane operator. The youngest of four boys, he barely missed being called Cole by a father who loved Cole Porter. His father backed off the name Cole Black, he told Country America, only “because we thought he’d take a ribbing for it.” Black was “painfully short” and described himself in People magazine as “a loner” who “wasn’t popular with girls.” In high school Black began to pick guitar and sing. He entered a school talent show as a junior and won second place. From then on, he told People, “I took my guitar everywhere I went. I was obsessed.”

Soon after he graduated from high school in 1980, Black hit the nightclub circuit in Houston, playing and singing covers of Merle Haggard, Loggins and Messina, Charlie Daniels, Willie Nelson, and even Dire Straits. The living was meager, to say the least, and to help make ends meet he also worked in construction. “I hated that kind of work,” he admitted in People. Slowly Black began to incorporate his own material into his act, mainly Haggard-esque honky tonk ballads and tales of lost love. In order to publicize his appearances, he used his own pocket money to print fliers which were distributed in the Houston area.

In 1987 Black met guitarist Hayden Nicholas at a gig. Nicholas joined Black’s band and began providing tunes for Black’s lyrics. The following year, producer Bill Ham (ZZ Top and others) caught Black’s performance

For the Record…

Born February 4, 1962, in Long Branch, N.J.; son of G. A. (a crane operator) and Ann Black. Education: High school graduate.

Country singer, guitarist, and songwriter, 1980—. Has also worked in construction in Houston, Tex. and as a bait cutter in Galveston, Tex. Signed with RCA Records c. 1988; released first album, Killin’ Time, 1989. Had first number one country single, 1989, with “A Better Man.”

Band includes Hayden Nicholas (guitar, vocals), Jeff Peterson (steel guitar, dobro), John Permenter (fiddle), Jake Willemain (bass guitar), and Dick Gay (drums).

Awards: Horizon Award for career development from the Country Music Association, 1989; named male vocalist of the year by the Country Music Associaton, 1990.

Addresses: Record company —1133 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036.

at a Houston club. Ham was impressed and offered his considerable services to the band. Black recalled in People: “[Ham] said, ‘Clint, do you want to be a star?’ And I said, ‘Yup.’” Within five months Black had a recording contract with RCA Records. When he arrived in Nashville to cut his album, he had never been inside a recording studio before.

Most country musicians—especially newcomers—record with seasoned studio veterans as backup. Black insisted on recording with his road band, thus preserving the intimate quality of his live work. On Killin’ Time, Black sings lead and plays guitar; the album is entirely composed of songs he wrote alone or with Nicholas. Killin’ Time was released in 1989, and the debut was auspicious from the start. Black’s first single release, “A Better Man,” climbed to number one on the country charts—the first debut single to do so in fourteen years. Subsequent number-one hits from Killin’ Time include the title cut as well as “Walkin’ Away” and “Nothing’s News.”

Many of Black’s lyrics deal with the consequences of a broken heart. A bachelor, Black has mined his relationships—especially the breakups—for song material. Some of the tunes are traditional heartbreak fare, but others reflect the lessons to be learned from any life experience. In “A Better Man,” for instance, Black thanks a departed sweetheart for giving him confidence to pursue his goals. “Walkin’ Away,” also a hit, suggests that it’s best to end a bad relationship and search for “the right one” instead. Black’s superhit “Killin’ Time” takes the message a step further in a frank disavowal of “drinking to forget.” All of Black’s music is Texan in flavor, with a honky tonk beat and plenty of steel guitar accompaniment. Black’s voice has a remarkable range and is strong, full-bodied, and distinctive.

When fame found Clint Black so did women. Fellow honky tonker Buck Owens described Black as “the kind of guy you’d want to take home to meet your father, if you could trust your mother.” His talents as a songwriter and singer notwithstanding, it is probably Black’s looks and stage presence that helped propel his album to platinum sales. Whatever the source of his success, Black is more than satisfied that he finally has huge audiences for his work wherever he goes. “I have to make sure that I stop and tell myself, ‘Wait a minute—this is a moment I’ve been dreaming about and living for,’” he told Country America. “I used to say, with a sigh, ‘I wonder if this could ever happen to me?’ Well, this is it!”

Selected discography

Killin’ Time (includes “Straight from the Factory,” “A Better Man,” “Nobody’s Home,” “Walkin’ Away,” “You’re Gonna Leave Me Again,” “I’ll Be Gone,” “Nothing’s News,” “Winding Down,” “Killin’ Time,” and “Live and Learn”), RCA, 1989.

Put Yourself in My Shoes (includes “Put Yourself in My Shoes,” “The Gulf of Mexico,” “One More Payment,” “Where Are You Now,” “The Old Man,” “This Nightlife,” “Loving Blind,” “Muddy Water,” “A Heart Like Mine,” and “The Goodnight-Loving”), RCA, 1990.