Former 90s Boy Band Member Chase Mitchell Interview
Chase Mitchell was the youngest member of the boy band “Lucky,” opening for groups such as Destiny’s Child and Outkast and a regular act on Radio Disney. He made the switch to country and hasn’t looked back, sharing stages with Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean and Rascal Flatts.
Sue Bonzell
He was in a boy band in the 90s has made the switch to country music and he’s open for Taylor Swift Jason ElDeen Rascal Flatts, and he has a new album coming out super excited. Chase Mitchell is here. Welcome Chase, thank you so much for having me. I am excited to have you here. We have to talk about 90s. Yes. So you were in a boy band called Lucky? Yes, the youngest member. I need to I need some details on this.
Chase Mitchell
So I was nine years old when I got signed to Lucky by Maurice Starr, who was the founder of New Kids on the Block Menudo. So I was nine years old when I got signed to Lucky by Maurice Starr, who was the founder of New Kids on the Block Menudo.I know that some of those names probably this generation doesn’t recognize but they were like the original instinct. Backstreet Boys, if you will, they were the original boy bands. And yeah, I got cast early on. I was nine turning 10 years old. That is pretty much what stepped me into the world, but pushed him into the world of what could be if you followed your dreams in music. We started working with Radio Disney, like early on, they had just started and launched their radio, literally their Disney’s radio station, it was an am station at the time, which is kind of being in radio, you probably am. Right, they were trying to branch out and really kind of get more listenership. So they were working with like Destiny’s Child, vitamin C. OutKast, ourselves, Lil Romeo. And yeah, it just it was like a whirlwind. It seemed like it all went by in such a flash. But I’m forever grateful for those years. And it’s what got me into the music business, which would eventually lead me to Nashville and to where I’m at today, so So how did you how did you make that switch from kind of the pop 90s? Because that had a real distinct sound to it. Oh, yeah. And that, you know, of course, and then there’s 90s country, which was amazing, amazing. Amazing. But how did you make that switch to into country? Well, so the band started kind of falling apart a little bit. I shouldn’t say falling apart. We just we were I was, you know, a kid. I was the youngest of three in the band. So the oldest was Tim Brantley, he was like 2122, Justin Guzman was about 1918. And they all kind of started wanting to do their own creative thing. I thought, You know what, let me just go back to school. I was like, 1314 years old at the time, decided to like a good idea. I was like, this school. Gotta be like, a normal kid for a minute and and see if there’s anything else in this world or life that like, gets me going. I found out really quickly that music was really just what I was put on this earth to do. And so when it went through my eighth grade year, I pretty much sat down. My parents were like, please just hear me out. If I promise to get good grades and focus and put in the work, will you homeschool me? Will you let me pursue music again, because we did have a couple of contacts. And Nashville, I’ve opened up for Mark wills, which is huge. 9090 scammy Jacob’s Ladder. I mean, like, come on, in. So we reached out, we quickly kind of learned it really doesn’t mean anything. If you’re not in Nashville. Yeah. And so I right away, started making the weekly trips up from Atlanta, my mom would drive me up in her little station wagon and drop me off. Back in the day, early 2000s. Music Row was a little more simple. It wasn’t as kind of like, touristy or like just like super congested, you could just start around breakfast time on one avenue, like 17th Street or 16th Street, and you would just I would just literally walk up and down with my little briefcase, my EP K, some album demos and stuff and pass them out. And I did that for about two and a half three years before. Yeah, it was a little insane. I feel like at a certain point, it’s kind of like, most parents would probably be like, Alright, do I, but they they believed in me and they kept taking me weekly up here, you know, to Nashville and trips. And so I eventually landed a booking contract with Buddy Lee, I got signed by Tony Conway, who was the president of Buddy Lee, which was insane. That story’s a little crazy. I, we had a lot of showcases, we put on each month. And most of the people that would show up were only there for the free food and drinks. They didn’t have like any contacts or any real means of helping me with any opportunity. But to be honest, looking back at it, I’m super grateful for all those people that showed up because I would complain to a dead room. Right. So it’s kind of like give and take but eventually, we got around to play into some some industry people, Donna Lee and Dwayne brown caught wind of what we’re doing. And they were like, you know, what’s funny is we think that we need to get you in touch with Tony Conway. And I had actually said, This is what’s really weird about this town. It’s much smaller than you think. Yes, I had sent an email blast out about a year prior to a bunch of agents in town and the one thing that I thought was cool about Buddy Lee was bloodedly attractions was they actually had pictures next to all the agents. I don’t know if this is like manipulative if this is bad of me or not, but it all came full circle and worked itself out. I had saw John saw tails picture and she looked to be about maybe my grandmother his age. And so I tried appealing to that grandmother instinct wrote this, like two page long email. Never heard a word back, right. But the reason why Dwayne Brown and Donna Lee from Buddy Lee were in the audience that night is they had finally caught wind of one of my showcase invites. And apparently, Joan had forwarded that email out to the company interested in Tony Conway, who was the president at the time said, Listen, if we ever run into this kid in town, ah, we will, we’ll have them, you know, come in the fold, and we’ll bring him in. So it was kind of like a litmus test in the state. And so I’ve been, I’m blessed to say, Tony still managed to this to this day, he’s my manager. I’ve worked with him for over 15 years now. And the one thing that he said back then, and he still says it to this day, it’s not going to be easy. You know, it’s sometimes not going to be fun. But if you keep the faith and you do the work, yeah, you know, you’ll have a shot. Wow, that’s where we’re at. Today.
Sue Bonzell
You’re right, it is a small town. And it’s kind of like, sometimes you just never know who other people are going to be. Right? Also, you know, some of these people, you’re like, Well, they didn’t really have the context, then who knows where they are now. And you know what I mean, this town is very, it’s very, very small.
Chase Mitchell
What was crazy, like, half of the interns back in the day are pretty much running all the companies.
Sue Bonzell
Exactly. So now, um, I know that, you know, starting at such a young age that for anyone can kind of take a toll on you, I know you, you kind of struggle with some some stuff. Tell us a little bit about that?
Chase Mitchell
Well, when you do something for so long, you start to kind of hold on too tight. And you start to forget why you’re even doing it in the first place. And so when that started happening to me, was around when I kind of had met who’s now my wife, and I was like, Man, I know I’m not in a good place, I need to step back for a minute. And I did. And when I went through these phases of trying to kind of rebuild a whole nother life outside of music, I realized I just wasn’t really in tune with my purpose. And so a few years went by where I was kind of in like a really dark place, like, I was bitter, you know, holding on to a lot of resentment, when really, I had to let go of expectations, and I had to just kind of lean back more into my purpose. And I remember the one thing that kind of struck me to the core was, I was trying to be like, in there’s nothing against selling insurance or cars, or whatever. And I kept trying to rebuild my life in some way to be able to be a good husband and potentially a good father. But my wife could tell that I was just kind of a little bit miserable. And so she was like, you know, Chase, if you could only see yourself the way that I see you. I feel like you could work this out pretty quickly. And what she basically was saying is, I know that you were the happiest when you’re doing music, I kind of got her blessing and my family’s blessing to kind of like, lean back into pursuing where I once left off in the biggest was Tony picking right back up where we left off. All those years later in. Yeah, I kind of made it my mantra though, this time where it’s not about China. I mean, I’d love to sell millions of records, I’d love to tour the world over with, you know, number one records and stuff on the radio. But I also understand that at a granular level, it’s more about finding joy and your purpose. And if you can have any bit of your life that is resembling what you love to do. And day in and day out, you get to do that. If there’s any level of being able to make a living at it, then that success like that is what’s winning. And so I had to kind of bring myself back to that level. Because for so many years, it was all about like, those expectations were so high from very young, you know, at nine years old touring with some of the biggest artists and, and it was always about kind of just everything was just out of grass, where I had to bring it back and go, you know, what if I get to play music, and people show up, and I get paid to do it, and I get to write songs, and I can provide a live from a family doing it. That is all I really care about. And as long as I’m chasing my purpose, purpose, then I’m good. And so I had to kind of literally making a brand so that I don’t forget, yeah, you know, and then it kind of turned into something bigger than itself, which I think is what musics meant to be. And us as artists, we’re not meant to just be so caught up in our own crap. We’re meant to, you know, kind of inspire and, and make it about something more than even just the music. And so that’s kind of where my new whole mission and why I do music is it’s my purpose, but it’s also to inspire others to chase their purpose.
Sue Bonzell
So now that’s the name of the album. Yeah, exactly. Perfect. And tell us it’s coming out next year.
Chase Mitchell
Yes. Next year, and we don’t have an exact date just yet. But we’re working on getting that date nailed down. But yeah, okay.
Sue Bonzell
And so and the new song back road. Yes, that’s the first release Aussie album, right? Yes. And so hopefully you’re gonna play that for us a little bit later. Absolutely. Okay, good. Very good. So, I want to talk about being in Napa because I’m from Northern California. No way. Yeah. So I grew up in Sonoma County. Who wishes the right oh my gosh, see this beautiful Yeah, talking about see we will we will 100% Wine about wine about being no better wine country. Oh my gosh. But Napa is also beautiful with amazing wines as well. So you were playing live in the vineyard. Right? What an honor. Tell us about that.
Chase Mitchell
So I felt so they have to live in the vineyards. They have one that’s more pop oriented, and one that’s more country oriented. And because I’ve kind of split throughout my career, the best of both worlds pop and country. I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to do both. And so we started with the pop one. I did truthfully kind of feel like a fish out of water because I’m still a country boy at heart. There’s so many amazing pop artists out there. We got to play with like Jack’s and Bebe Rexha and Alec Benjamin and so many others to lists. I was like one besides Ingrid Andrus and me were like the only country artists out there. But it was amazing. I every day when we were driving to the venue’s or to the hotel, I would just look around and I’d be like, Dude, are we in like another country? Like, are we literally in like Italy right now or something? Yeah, it was amazing. Shout out to live in the vineyard. Bobby Lauren for having us out there. That was amazing. Can’t wait to do it again in April. Except we’ll be with some Nashville folks in April. I don’t live in the vineyard goes country. Yeah, I’m definitely looking to be an out there.
Sue Bonzell
Okay. All right. See, we got the California connection. We love that. And so do you like wine? I do love what I do love what I liked, was gonna have to maybe kick you out. No, I do.
Chase Mitchell
But I would be remiss if I were to say that I’m like an everyday wine guy. I’m more of like a bush latte.
Sue Bonzell
Oh, there you go. Very nice. Keep it simple. Yes. Okay. All right. Okay. Well, before you go, we do want to play a little game. All right, called Truth or truth. And, and Jason Mitchell is going to stick around and play his new song back road. And you can watch that by clicking on the link in the description. So when we come back, its truth or truth. Its truth or truth. All right, it’s time for my world famous game truth or truth? Chase, are you ready?
Chase Mitchell
As ready as I’ll ever be? Okay.
Sue Bonzell
No, I pulled out one of these hats. You’re gonna get one of these hats. Yes, I love hat. Okay, this has all the questions I’m gonna have you pick. But before we do that, I didn’t notice your hat. Is there a story with the hat?
Chase Mitchell
Yes. So as we were talking about earlier, coming back into music, I kind of had made it a purpose to say, look, it’s not going to be a lot of artists like to run with a logo that’s like their name, right? And I thought, Man, I need to do something that’s a little bit bigger than myself like a mascot. And so my oldest Brooklyn. She’s a little bit of an artist. She’s nine years old. She’s won so many Art Awards. And so my best friend Mark and I kind of sat her down. We’re like, dude, bounce, you draw us something like that maybe represents what you think that is? Right? And so she was like, Well, Dad, you’re a little bit of an astronaut. You’re a little crazy. You’re out there. Right? And so there she started drawing the astronauts and they she put the eyes as an X and across because she’s like, Dad, you’re a little good. And you’re little bad as mom would say no. And then she you know, kind of handwritten My name as best as she could. She was like seven and a half, eight. And she was about a year year and a half ago. But it became more of a mascot. And I’m proud to say that my daughter had a lot to do with it. Which makes it even cooler for me as a father to run with it. And we also give a percentage of the online merch sales back to music for school like music intranets for schools. So we’ve been able to in the last year donate about half a dozen different guitars to different schools here in Nashville as well as Pensacola, Florida, and yeah, it’s been it’s been awesome. You know, I still have a lot of plans for what I want this to be and could be, but so far, it’s it’s been amazing. A lot of people, even Jax if the people in Tik Tok you know, Jax has been blowing up she saw that was like, Dude, I gotta get one. I was like, Dude, I will give you so we’ve got some content we’re gonna put out with her, which she’s wrapping it in and she believes in it as well. And so yeah, it’s, it’s it’s a it’s a cool story, and I’m really proud of
Sue Bonzell
- I love it. Okay, great. Well, we’re gonna do truth or truth with with my up and country hat here that you’re gonna take home so you get to pick your own question.
Chase Mitchell
Alright, I’ll even do it not looking at a second. What’s the biggest prank you’ve ever played on someone? Oh, man. Are you? No, no, I’m more of like, Well,
Sue Bonzell
did you ever do like like April Fool’s or anything like that?
Chase Mitchell
No. I’m gonna need I honestly can’t think of a prank I’ve ever pulled on tonight. Yes, it gets pretty quiet. Never. I’m always the dude that gets sprayed. Can I pick another one? Yeah, okay. Yeah. All right. I got I’m too empathetic to pull pranks on people. What’s your most bizarre nickname? Oh, hold on. I just can’t say it.
Sue Bonzell
Sure.
Chase Mitchell
I’m pretty much like half my family always would call me like shithead growing up like my uncles and stuff, stuff like that. So I wouldn’t say it’s that bizarre. I’m sure there’s other guys out there that have had their uncle’s calm shitheads all the time, but that was okay. The one I appreciate the most is chaser, my pappy would always like that most bizarre shithead the one I prefer chaser.
Sue Bonzell
Okay. I promise not to call you. The first one. Right?
Chase Mitchell
If you did, you won’t be the first. What did you see at your first concert? Or who did you see the first concert? in sync? To be honest, my concert was the insync Christmas. So well, first real concert I should say. So I was a huge insync fan from the get go. I will say this. Do you remember back when you could go to Target? Back when like CDs were a big deal CDs. They would have a kiosk. And if you didn’t have the 1899 or the 2199 to buy the whole album. A lot of artists would have like a 299. You remember the song thing? Well, I remember the first time nobody had heard it in sync my sister at no one that in in my crew that would have heard of a boy band. But I remember that I had a couple dollars. We were about to go to Thanksgiving down in Florida from Atlanta. And so I was like, What am I going to spend my money on. And so instead of getting a snack, I got one of the seat because I’ve always been in the music my whole life. I got the very first instinct demo, which was basically the I Want You Back and I want you back Germany edition. So there’s two different cuts. I wore that sucker out for weeks. And then when we got back, that’s when my whole family and my sister my brother, all of us, we kind of became believers because no one knew instinct was they literally were not that big. And so I went to Macy’s when they were doing parking lot concerts back in the day in Atlanta. And I got to see in sync, literally in their very like infantile stages, which was amazing because the look back at how big they became was nuts. But just us and a few 100 Girls basically just like me, and like a few 100 Girls, you got to see a smart guy got to see unsafe and then about a year later, they had blown up and I would say the first official concert because it wasn’t like in a parking lot. Like kinda doesn’t count was at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, and it was their Christmas tour. Just put up that Christmas album which you gotta love some Vincent Christmas song. Oh, so that was my that was that was my first. Yeah.
Sue Bonzell
Now I have to ask Who was your who was the first country concert?
Chase Mitchell
First country concert? Probably would have been Tracy bird. Okay. Yeah. They’re incoming Georgia Tracy bird or the Charlie’s Daniels, man. Okay. Yeah. Because they were like doing like a dual bill. So it was kind of that was like the first real country concert. Yeah, there you go. And you haven’t looked back or have not looked back since?
Sue Bonzell
Do you want to do one more? One more? Let’s do just because we can’t just because we can’t.
Chase Mitchell
What is the one thing you would stand in line an hour for? Well, thank God, you can do it online these days. A Taylor Swift ticket. Right? Apparently that’s like the thing these days I’ve opened for Taylor in She’s amazing. But these days, you know, don’t know her that well these days. So my wife’s obsessed. My kids are obsessed. I would gladly stand in line for an hour.
Sue Bonzell
And if and if it was only an hour, then you get the be no problem. Week these days. Yeah, exactly.
Chase Mitchell
You don’t even do in person tickets. I don’t think yes, I think it’s all online.
Sue Bonzell
Well, awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to be here. Play the game, do the interview, play a little little song. If you want to see Chase, play his song, click on the link in the description. So thanks so much, and we wish you all the best in the career. We’re gonna keep an eye on you.
Chase Mitchell
Thank you so much for having me. Thank you guys.
Sue Bonzell
Thanks for watching up in country be sure to like and subscribe and leave us a comment. We do new episodes every Tuesday. And be sure to follow up and country on Instagram tick tock and Facebook and you can follow me to add Sue Bonzell on Instagram, Facebook and Tik Tok.
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