Clint Black considers himself lazy. It’s a rather absurd statement when you consider what he accomplished during the pandemic-fueled lockdown. 

In addition to performing on a regular livestream and launching his line of Clint Black Cowboy Coffee, he pitched and was cleared to host Talking in Circles with Clint Black, a television show that’s a behind-the-scenes conversation of two entertainers talking shop.

All this came on top of releasing 2020’s Out of Sane, his 13th studio outing. And now with live music venues back up and running, Black’s welcoming his return to the road.

“My booking agent — we renamed him rescheduling agent — and he did a great job of keeping things moved up just far enough in front of us so they might happen,” he said. “Now I’m as busy as I like to be.”

His 2023 schedule includes a healthy run of dates that continues into early February. Amid that run is an Oct. 28 stop at Honeywell Center in Wabash.

Winning formula

As for Out of Sane, it’s a collection of songs that find Black sticking with the tried and true, working with longtime collaborator Hayden Nichols. 

After opening with the bluesy slow-burner “Hell Bent,” Black switches gears into the twangy toe-tapper “My Best Thinkin’ ” and the sentimental “America (Still in Love With You),” both penned with friend and fellow Nashville, Tennessee, veteran Steve Wariner. 

Elsewhere, Black delivers a solid reading of Fred Neil’s “Everybody’s Talkin’.” 

“It’s still one of the songs I can listen to when I’m overexposed to it and my ears are still happy,” he said.

Becoming Disenfranchised

Born in Long Branch, New Jersey, Black and his family moved to his grandfather’s hometown of Katy, Texas, before the future country star’s first birthday. 

After dropping out of high school and performing his music at bars for about a decade, Black burst out of the gate with his multi-platinum 1989 debut Killin’ Time. Along with performers like Steve Earle, k.d. lang, Dwight Yoakam, and Lyle Lovett, the Texan stormed Music Row as an artist who penned his own material. 

Despite turning out hit-laden follow-ups that included 1990’s Put Yourself in My Shoes, 1993’s No Time to Kill, and 1994’s One Emotion, Black faced pressure from then-label RCA to start relying on outside composers for material. 

After agreeing to change a verse in a song at the request of RCA’s Joe Galante, Black found himself in the president’s office having an uncomfortable conversation about wanting to continue writing his own material. 

“I recorded the new verse, sent it in and (Galante) loved it,” Black said. “So, I went in and talked to him and told him I wanted to be cooperative, but I didn’t understand the pressure to record outside songs when I have so many songs that I had written. 

“He said they just wanted a little taste and it broke my heart. If he would have said that he didn’t think my songs were that great anymore, I would have felt better. It would have still hurt, but it wasn’t about that. It was about spreading the revenue from my record to share it with the people on Music Row and I thought that was the exact wrong reason to do anything.”

Following the release of 1999’s D’lectrified, Black and RCA parted ways. 

Popping up on television

While Black has continued making music and touring, he has expanded into television and film. 

Among the shows he’s appeared on are Secret Talents of the Stars, “I worked on my jokes and performed in a comedy club”; Celebrity Duets, “I sang a song with Cheech (Marin)”; and Celebrity Apprentice, “I’m glad I have it behind me. That up-close, upfront, and personal exposure to ugliness is more than I ever want to see again.”

In 2020, he and his wife, Lisa Hartman Black, appeared in The Masked Singer as “Snow Owls,” competing as the series’ first duet competitors while riding in a mobile egg. As difficult an experience as it was, Black was happy coming out of the other end of it. 

“It was really challenging in a good way,” he said. “The challenge in a bad way was singing inside that suit. You can’t see, the little lenses you’re looking out of are fogged up after 30 seconds, and you’re sweating. If you have to move at all, it’s perilous because it’s inside of that egg. We had inches at a time. 

“But I typically like stuff like that because I don’t see myself as too precious to step into weird things. I sometimes second-guess myself after getting in it. I like being a little afraid of things, and I like finding myself in situations where something comes out that otherwise wouldn’t have happened.”

Don’t miss your chance to see him on back on the road, where he is most comfortable.