Clint Black and his wife, Lisa Hartman Black, have been married for over three decades. And their real-life love story may as well be made into a Hallmark movie! It’s that sweet!
The pair, who wed on Oct. 20, 1991, met ten months prior on New Year’s Eve. It was then that Black was headlining a show in Houston – a city where both he and Hartman grew up. Little did he know that night he would lock eyes with his future wife.
Hartman, an actress, who, at the time, was in town promoting her role in a movie, had scored tickets to Black’s concert. She even ended up backstage with a swath of fans, who were waiting to meet the country crooner.
“I was incredibly ill at a New Year’s Eve concert in Houston,” Black once recalled on The Bobby Bones Show of the night fate stepped in. “…. Lisa and her mom were back in Houston for the holidays and came to the show. We met backstage briefly. Then we had mutual friends who were matchmakers, who were trying to get us together.”
30 years ago today, Lisa and I said ‘I do’ and started our wonderful life together! She’s a wonderful wife, and mother to our Lily Pearl. We’re so lucky we found each other! pic.twitter.com/ND0eYr723a
— Clint Black (@Clint_Black) October 20, 2021
“I knew I was looking at somebody amazing. I didn’t know anything about her. I didn’t know her TV show,” the singer-songwriter later told People. “I just looked at her eyes, and I was just, wow!”
After their initial meet-and-greet, despite both having busy schedules, things seemed to move quickly for Black and Hartman. So much so they tied the knot less than a year later.
“We knew pretty quickly,” Hartman admitted. “It happened pretty quickly. I mean it was an immediate attraction, and then we went on our first date and we just talked about everything under the sun. I don’t know. We just clicked. You just know when there’s something.”
Of note, Black and Hartman didn’t fall for each other in their early years. When they crossed paths, he was 29, and she was 35. And Hartman has credited her maturity to knowing what she wanted when she met Black.
“I think because we’re a little bit older, you know, we were not in our 20s. So we lived some life,” she said. “We had a lot of relationships, you know, business, personal and social, and I just feel like we were more developed. And, I don’t know, we just had a feeling, and we were right.”
The pair exchanged vows on Black’s 180-acre farm outside of Houston and have been happily married ever since. And, on May 8, 2001, they welcomed their first and only child, a daughter named Lily Pearl, into the world. (Black is also father to Chelsea Bain, his daughter from a previous relationship).
Along with that, Hartman has been the muse for many of Black’s love songs. A singer in her own right, she joined her husband on tracks like “When I Said I Do,” “You Still Get To Me,” “Easy For Me To Say,” and “Til the End of Time.”
The lovebirds, who won an ACM award for Vocal Event of the Year in 2000 for “When I Said I Do,” also starred in movies like Flicka: Country Pride and Still Holding On: The Legend of Cadillac Jack together. And, in 2021, they appeared as Snow Owls on The Masked Singer before teaming up for their first-ever joint 24-date tour, dubbed the Mostly Hits & The Mrs. Tour.
Thanks to the success of that tour, and a widely-watched PBS Special, which began airing in June, they will embark on another tour in November.
While no romance is perfect, the Blacks have some advice as they share the secret to their long-lasting, successful marriage.
“When Roy Rogers heard we were getting married, he said, ‘I’ll give you one piece of advice. ‘Don’t ever go to bed angry,’” Black says. “Now there’s a more complicated way that psychologists have talked about it. But if you look at emotions as drops of mercury on the table, you want to clear one off before another one comes along because before too long, you’ll end up with a blob. You can’t dissect it, you can’t identify it from the past. So it’s good to get that stuff out of the way as you go. We’re going to irritate each other. We’re going to embarrass each other. We’re going to make mistakes, misread each other and you have to assume the best of your spouse.”
Clint Black and his wife, Lisa Hartman Black, are taking their 30-year marriage on the road. The husband-and-wife duo will embark on the Mostly Hits & the Mrs. Tour in late 2021, marking the first time the couple have done a full tour together.
The 23-date trek spans four months, kicking off on Nov. 18 in Wichita Falls, Texas, and concluding in 2022 on Valentine's Day in New Orleans. Along the way, they'll stop in Cheyenne, Wyo., Sioux Falls, S.D., Bakersfield, Calif., Baltimore, Md., and many more cities across the country.
“I’m so happy to be doing live concerts again. I’m even more excited to get to November, when Lisa and I will tour together," Clint Black shares in a press release. "We have a very special show planned and can’t wait to take it on the road!”
The couple have been married since 1991.
Hartman Black launched her acting career in the 1970s with appearances in several films and TV shows. Her credits include The Love Boat, Matlock and a starring role in 1977's Tabitha, a spin-off of Bewitched, as well as a high-profile role on Knots Landing.
She had a parallel career in music, and the couple scored a No. 1 single on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart in 1999 with their duet "When I Say I Do," which won them an ACM Award for Vocal Event of the Year. The song also earned a Grammy nomination for Best Country Collaboration With Vocals in 2000.
Most recently, Black and Hartman Black appeared on Season Four of The Masked Singer in 2020, where they performed a cover of Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion's "The Prayer" under the disguise of the Snow Owls. Black also hosts a new show on the Circle Network, Talking In Circles, featuring guests including Darius Rucker, Vince Gill, Amy Grant, Sara Evans and others.
Clint Black's 2021 Mostly Hits & the Mrs. Tour Dates:
Nov. 18 — Wichita Falls, Texas
Nov. 19 — Midland, Texas
Nov. 20 — Lubbock, Texas
Nov. 21 — Enid, Okla.
Dec. 2 — Pueblo, Colo.
Dec. 3 — Rapid City, S.D.
Dec. 4 — Cheyenne, Wyo.
Dec. 5 — Grand Junction, Colo.
Dec. 9 — Mankato, Minn.
Dec. 10 — Sioux Falls,
S.D.
Dec. 11 — Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Dec. 12 —Omaha, Neb.
Dec. 16 — Fresno, Calif.
Dec. 17 — Bakersfield, Calif.
Dec. 19 — Prescott, Valley, Ariz.
Feb. 3 — Wilkes Barre, Pa.
Feb. 4 — Baltimore, Md.
Feb. 5 — Tysons, Va.
Feb. 6 — Richmond, Va.
Feb. 10 — Augusta, Ga.
Feb. 11 — North Charleston, S.C.
Feb. 12 — Savannah, Ga.
Feb. 14 — New Orleans, La.
5 Hottest Country Tours of Summer 2021
There’s a lot to consider when making a list of the hottest tours of summer 2021, including star power, opening acts, venues and set lists. Add to that concerns and cautions as the country begins to emerge from a pandemic and that no one has seen live music in 14 months. It’s quite likely you’re craving live music like a drug that’s just out of reach ... or you’re scared shirtless to surround yourself with 10,000 fans indoors.
All the emotions about reengaging with the live country music community are valid. While at first it seemed September would be start-up month, several tours on this Hot List begin in July and August at outdoor venues across America. The No. 3 tour and No. 1 tour on our list are mostly indoors, but both are banking on increased safety that comes from a majority of the population having the COVID-19 vaccine.
Once those lights go down, all of these worries will be carried away by the buzz in the air (and maybe, from your cup). Find five total professionals on this list of Hot Summer Tours, each bringing a total stage show, plus several in-demand opening acts with a proven track record of live entertainment at the highest level. There’s no fat on any of these country tours — if you stick to the tailgate through an opener’s set, you’ll truly be missing something special.
As always, let us know who you can’t wait to see on tour in 2021 via Twitter or email.