Tippin touts high energy
By Becky Brooks
Enterprise Editor
clydenews@bizwoh.rr.com
From his bio sheet, country singer Aaron Tippin sounds like he could have grown up next door.
Called the "hardest workin' man in country music", Tippin is marketing his new CD "Now & Then" exclusively through Cracker Barrel restaurants.
"It's all good," he said about the food and menu at Cracker Barrel, "Nothing like eatin' at Cracker Barrel."
In a phone interview last week he personally recommended the "greens and beans."
Tippin, a country artist since the late 1970s, will be performing his hits and new songs from his CD "Now & Then" in concert at the Clyde High School Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27.
His CD released earlier this year is on his own label NIPPIT Records.
Tickets are still on sale at the Clyde-Green Springs Board of Education office, 106 S. Main St. or charged by phone at 419-547-0588. All seats are reserved and are $40 each.
Although Tippin fit an interview with The Clyde Enterprise last week, he did not allow that to change his busy schedule. He spoke while working out in a gym attached to his log home in Tennessee.
"Just something I started doing years ago," he said with a groan, release and hard breathe.
Tippin started his career working in honky tonks in the 1970s after a TNN contest in 1985, he landed a songwriter's contract. But according to his PR, the artist worked the midnight to dawn shift at a Kentucky factory, commuted to music row to write songs, lifted weights in the afternoon, went to bed and started over his routine over again day after day. Besides writing songs for artists such as Mark Collie and Diamond Rio, he also won body building competitions. His career started taking off and he joined the Bob Hope USO tour to Saudi Arabia in the 1990s. In the 1990s, he started writing songs for bigger names like Garth Brooks and Kenny Chesney and scored his own hits.
In 2002, he traveled to Afghanistan to visit the armed forces and made annual visits since, according to a press release. It was the same year he released, "Where The Stars and Stripes and The Eagles Fly" and got an American County Music award nomination. His daughter from his first marriage, Charla, is married to a Blackhawk pilot in the South Carolina National Guard.
"I try and do 8 reps and have a 40 pound dump bell between my legs," he said last week, taking a short break from the interview to get his fast-paced workout in. "I usually make it something I do first in the morning," he added.
Staying fit and pumped as well as working on a schedule is something the country artist has become known for, according to his bio.
When he comes to Clyde this month, he will be fitting in a workout somewhere along the way, he said. "I always do, I'll pick out the club or local gym and away we go."
Alan Binger, public relations coordinator for the local Society of the Arts, said that the fitness center at Clyde High School would be made available for the artist's use.
Tippin is famous for his blue collar attitude country tunes including "Working Man's PH.D", "Kiss This", "You've Got to Stand for Something" and "There Ain't Nothin Wrong With The Radio".
"We'll do a lot of the old hits," he said still pumping away in his gym. "They want to hear 'Stand for Something", "Workingman's PH.D', "Blue angel".
"They want to hear 'Kiss This' and 'Stars and Stripes," he said.
He commented that the crowds should "buckle their seatbelts" at the Clyde auditorium.
"This is high energy... have fun with country music," he added. "In the middle of my show, I put together a bicycle for Toys for Tots while I sing a song," he added, noting he has been a Toys for Tots supporter for the past decade.
His press release noted he has donated over 600 bikes since he became involved with Toys for Tots.
|
