Country music star was bleeding out from the inside: ‘Knew I was dying’

Alabama Life & CultureFrom left, Tracy Lawrence, Joe Diffie and Mark Chesnutt perform "What a Difference You've Made in My Life" in honor of Pioneer Awards winner Ronnie Milsap at the 37th Academy of Country Music Awards at the Universal Amphitheater May 22, 2002. (Photo by M. Caulfield/WireImage)WireImageBy Brian Linder | blinder@pennlive.comFans of country music star Mark Chesnutt have been sending prayers his way as he has battled a string of health issues and tragedy over the past several years. Chesnutt announced just last month that beloved band member Dave Sirmon died on their tour bus.Chesnutt has been open about his personal health battles, too.The singer had emergency quadruple bypass surgery back in 2024, and, in 2025, he was rushed to the hospital before he could take the stage for an Oct. 16 show with what his publicist said was a “low sodium count.”But perhaps even the bypass surgery is mild compared to the story that the singer told American Songwriter about the time he nearly died. Chesnutt laid out a series of health issues that became progressively worse. He had a fractured spine that he lived with for years that finally needed to be fixed.And, while he was recovering from that back during the pandemic, he picked up a drinking habit that took control and nearly took his life, too. He was off the road because of the virus and laid up after having back surgery.“It was getting worse and worse, and my surgery was a major major one,” he said. “I couldn’t work. I was laid up, didn’t drive, couldn’t walk, couldn’t do anything.”Chesnutt said he “drank all day, every day.”“I’d get up in the middle of the night and drink,” he said. “I’d never stop.”Chesnutt said he grew up in a time when “it was normal for everybody to drink all the time.”“I just took it to the extreme,” he said, “and it about killed me.”That was when he said he had his wife call for an ambulance.“I knew I was dying,” he said. American Songwriter reported that doctors gave the singer four blood transfusions and told him his heart was “on the edge of cardiac arrest.” Chesnutt said they told his wife that if she had not called when she did, he likely would not have survived another two days. The singer told the site that he spent a week in a Knoxville hospital, where he learned that all of his organs, especially his heart, were on the verge of shutting down. “I was bleeding out from the inside,” Chesnutt said. “They basically told me they were gonna get me over this, and I was going to be fine, and they could fix everything wrong with me. But if they discharged me and I went home and I started drinking again, I’d be back in a matter of days, and I might not leave alive. “I had to quit drinking or die.”He told American Songwriter he took his last drink on November 1, 2023.Then, in 2024, he underwent a quadruple bypass. Brian Linder is the trending editor at PennLive.com. He has more than 20 years of experience working for newspapers first in South Carolina, then Daytona Beach, Florida and now in Pennsylvania. Linder spent...