Travis Tritt is recovering at his home in Georgia, one day after spending more than 15 hours filming the video for his latest single: “Love of a Woman.''
In three hours, he will catch a plane to Michigan, where he will meet up with his tour bus that will take him to a date in Allegan County. From there, he will bus to Toledo, where he will be performing at the Stranahan Theater tonight at 7:30.
He's a busy man, but he's not complaining.
“I'm happier than I've ever been,'' he says during a phone interview with The Blade. “And that's due to my wife and kids.''
The change is dramatic for those who have followed Tritt's career since his first album, “Country Club,” in 1990. Back in those days, he was known for the parties and the women.
“There were drugs, alcohol, all the excesses that being a successful musician and celebrity bring,'' he says. “In a lot of ways I was lucky because I never had any kind of addictions. It was just about going out and partying.''
By the time he met his wife, Theresa, in 1995, Tritt, 37, had already been married and divorced twice.
“I thought, `This marriage thing I've tried twice, and I'm not very good at it.' I'd given up on [marriage]. And that's when I found out that love will find you.''
It was at his birthday party in February, 1995, that the couple met. They were married in 1997.
“It was her sweetness. I found out the first time I talked to her that she was as sweet on the inside as she was beautiful on the outside,'' he says. “That's a rarity. In my world, women were always after something - either the attention they would get from being with a celebrity or the money.
“I didn't have a problem with golddiggers, you could spot them a mile away. I was going to get what I wanted out of them. I knew how to play the game, but Theresa was different. She was so honest and sincere, sweet, almost to the point of being na ve. I'd dated hundreds of women, and I'd never seen that type of thing in any of them.''
For his latest CD, “Down the Road I Go,” Tritt wrote seven of the 11 songs, basing almost all the singles on life experience.
His first release, “Best of Intentions,'' soared to the top of the country charts and stayed there for four weeks. It tells of a man's struggle to show his wife how much he really loves her and wishing he could give her more.
“That came from me laying in bed next to my wife, knowing that I should do more for her and show her I care,'' he says.
“Just Too Tired to Fight It” touches on the pain that he suffered from his two divorces. In the chorus, Tritt writes: “If I had the strength I'd fight to make things like they were before, but I'm just too tired to fight it anymore.''
“That was all about trying to struggle to keep things together. I just had to say `I've fought all I can. I can't fight anymore.'''
His second release, “It's a Great Day to Be Alive,'' reached No. 2 on the charts and has become a personal anthem for some. He says fans go “bonkers'' when he plays it in concert. However, earlier this year, he was touched when he realized the effect that the song had on one woman.
“We had flown back on a commercial flight, had landed, and this woman came down the aisle and handed me a note. She said she was a fan and didn't want to bother me, but asked that I read the note. So I'm walking along reading this: She had just been diagnosed with breast cancer in January and had successful surgery.
“This was the first song she heard after her recovery, and it had become a personal anthem. When you can have a song that has that kind of impact, that means something.''
Besides his wife, Tritt lives on his 75-acre farm with his daughter Tyler, 3, and his son, Tristan, 2. He scoffs at those who question whether he has gone soft.
“I've got the best of both worlds. During the day I get to be daddy and a husband. At night, I throw on the leather and act like an idiot for two hours,'' he says. “People have speculated that [marriage] would affect my songwriting, soften it up. If you look at people like Waylon Jennings, Charlie Daniels, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, these guys all have successful marriages, have children, and they have tremendous family lives.''
His family travels with him almost all the time, although they won't be with him in Toledo. His act normally runs about two hours, and he usually sings seven tracks from his new album.
“I guarantee I'm going to do everything in my power to be entertaining, and going to give them their dollar's worth. So far, we haven't had too many complaints.''
Travis Tritt appears tonight at 7:30 at the Stranahan Theater. Tickets are $30.50 to $40.50 at the box office or by phone at 381-8851.
First Published July 1, 2001, 12:53 p.m.
