from CountryStarsOnline.com
by Helen Neal

Every artist wants to take that "rocket ride" to the top of the charts and stay there. When I first talked with Chris Cagle back in the fall of 2000, he was primed to climb into that rocket. His first single release, "My Love Goes On and On" was just entering the charts and was already so well received that you knew it was headed to the stratosphere and Cagle with it. His initial album, Play It Loud, spawned two other chart toppers, "Laredo" and "I Breathe In, I Breathe Out." Then followed his self-titled sophomore album, Chris Cagle, which debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart.

Cagle is known for the emotion and the strength in his music. Never afraid to show his vulnerabilities, or to duck anything head on, he reaches audiences with his high-energy shows and his ability to write songs that live with you.

In that first interview he spoke of his grandfather’s admonition, "In anything you do, bet on yourself and when you do, bet the farm." Since relating that story, nearly four years ago, Cagle has bet the farm every time he’s stepped on stage. And sometimes the stakes have been high. And sometimes Cagle has paid extra.

Besides the price of the emotional fuel consumed by a "rocket ride" career, Cagle has incurred some high physical costs, too. One bad jump from the top of a speaker, an action he’d done many times, left him with an injured knee. Then the big bill came when the physical demands of six hundred dates in three years laid a claim on the franchise, his voice. And the payment due was "six months of vocal rest." To him, the boosters fell off of the rocket.

Asked to relate how the rocket ride had affected him so far, Cagle replied, "Like most things it’s had its ups and downs. I believe firmly in the fact, that as people, we cannot control most of the things that we think we’re in control of."

On getting the orders to stop speaking, "In the very beginning, I was angry. Lord, I don’t understand. It turned out to be one of the greatest blessings that ever happened to me in my life. It got me to a place of forcing the issue of finding balance in my life."

"When they made me shut down I was going stir crazy. So, I went down to a farm and had my little notepad, and I wrote I’m on vocal rest."

The farmer asked him, "What do you need? " "Can I work for you?" Cagle penned.

Farmer, "I’m not hiring. " Cagle, "Then I wrote ‘free.’ I work for free. "

Farmer, "What do you do?" Cagle, "I’ll start by shoveling stalls. So I’d get up every morning and go shovel and clean twenty-eight stalls – fourteen on each side – and took care of the horses. I didn’t speak; I didn’t have to. I was occupying my time. Then I went and built a barn with this man for his father and learned how to build my on so that I can literally do it by myself."

"I’d worked so hard for so long and then when I got the record deal, I began to work even harder. On my days off. I wouldn’t take my days off ... This year, it’s going to change. On my days when I’m off, I’m off. I’m going to go ride my horse. I’m going to go love on my colts. I’m going to go take care of my mare. I’m going to clean my house if I want to."

"It’s all about balance. You know it’s funny cause when I’m on Pete, my stallion, if I lose focus I hit the ground. When I’m working a cow and start thinking about music I’m going to be in the dirt. Finding your seat and your balance in the saddle is like finding a whole new balance in life."

And if you don’t have that balance …

"You have all these great things happen to you and you never stop and you never think about it. You get rolling and the ball is rolling down the hill and you can’t quite stop it. Then, you’re in a place where all of it comes to you. Like yesterday I was out on the softball field playing at that City of Hope Celebrity Game, and I looked around and there were people who’d had success and you don’t really hear them on the radio anymore. And there were people who are just starting out and you don’t really hear much of their stuff on radio. And I thought … I mean there were just a few of us there who are really played consistently in the mainstream market. It was just like – whoa – how blessed I am. "

What’s ahead for Chris Cagle?

"We’re going to be do the Rascal Flatts’ tour this fall. I’ll be back out on the road in a pretty heavy schedule – in between all of it I’m going back in the studio to start my third album.

Did the vocal rest give you some time for songwriting?

"I tried. I wrote a ton of songs and it’s just not there, and I hate to say that. I’d love to say I wrote another ‘What a Beautiful Day,’ but I didn’t. I have some stuff that’s OK, but I don’t’ have anything that’s in a position to take me to another level After all the momentum that ‘Beautiful Day’ and ‘Chicks Dig It’ gained for us and then stopping when you have that going. To get that momentum back, I need to find that three-minute moment in my life that changes everything. I’m going to wait until this album has that before I release it. I’m definitely not going to ask my fans, who are so dearly supportive of me, to go out and support something that I would not believe in."

It has to be inspiring to you to know that there are many people just waiting to hear you sing again.

"I had insecurities of being just flat out forgotten. It was pretty awesome to have the fan base that we have and to have them feel the way that they do. It makes me want to do better."

You can’t be around Chris Cagle, either on the other side of the footlights or sitting across the table from him without feeling the passion that he has for life and for his music. You don’t even have to ask; you know he’ll be back out there jumping off speakers, and "betting the farm," in every performance. And you know he’ll work just as intensely looking for that balance in his life.