Jackson Free Press

In 2008, Chris Cagle left Nashville and the country music business. He spent the next couple of years building Big Horse Ranch in Marietta, Okla., from the ground up while starting a family.

Now, Cagle is back on the road promoting his upcoming, as-yet unnamed album, due out in April. It will be the singer-songwriter's fifth studio release and his first for the Bigger Picture Group label. The album's first single, "Got My Country On," has climbed the Billboard Country Singles chart since September.

Cagle takes that momentum to the stage at the Mississippi Coliseum Feb. 10 during the Dixie National Livestock Show and Rodeo. A man who's only happy with a guitar in his hands or his feet in stirrups, Cagle should fit right in at the fairgrounds this weekend.

How is the tour going?
It's good. It's really kind of just started, man. We haven't had anything to really tour about in a long time. We have a new single out in the radio that's doing really well. The song is top 30 now.

Hopefully we'll have a good showing. We've got a lot of belief in this record and in this song.

Where did music play a part in your life when you were away from it professionally?
It didn't. When I got away from it, I got away from it. I put it down. I didn't even listen to the radio much. I had to find me again. This business is tough, man. If you're soft hearted or big hearted or naive, you completely get taken advantage of, and I did. And it made me a different person. I'm excited about that new person. I'm still me—I still got a big heart and I still love people—but nobody's going to get me this time.

You mention AC/DC and Lynyrd Skynyrd as influences. Do you have to consciously keep a balance of country and rock in your music?
Nope, I don't do that at all. If I do that, then I'm lying to you. I write a song, and if the song makes the record, it makes the record. It come out of me so it's got to be somewhere in between country and rock 'n' roll. And that's it.

When I was on Capitol Records, I had to be real careful with it. There are a lot of songs that I had on hold that I didn't get to sing because of what they thought I should be. And it sucked. I'm in a position now where I'm not going to sit and sing a song that I don't 100 percent believe is me, or especially just because I want to make some president of a record label happy and try to get him to like me. So, I'm in a position now where everything that goes on my record, I will hold my chin up—especially if it comes from me as a writer.

Do you get excited about playing rodeos?
Oh yeah. I love Dixie National. We've played down there before, and I've always enjoyed it. I enjoy getting out and going and looking through the show barns at the horses and the pigs and all the steers and things like that. It's just always a ball to go walking around. I'd rather walk around with a smoked turkey leg looking at livestock than be in an amusement park.

See Chris Cagle Feb. 10 at 7:30 p.m. Visit http://www.mdac.ms.gov.