Kathy Mattea Biography, Age, Family, Husband, Songs And Net Worth

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Kathy Mattea Biography

Kathy Mattea (born Kathleen Alice Mattea) is American country music and bluegrass singer. Active since 1984 as a recording artist, she has charted more than thirty singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts This includes four that reached No. 1: “Goin’ Gone”, “Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses”, “Come from the Heart”, and “Burnin’ Old Memories”, plus twelve more that charted within the top ten. She has released fourteen studio albums, two Christmas albums, and one greatest hits album.

Kathy Mattea

Kathy Mattea Age

Kathleen Alice Mattea was born in South Charleston, West Virginia, U.S. on June 21, 1959. She is [agecalc birthdate=1959-06-21] old.

Kathy Mattea Family

Mattea was born in South Charleston, West Virginia, as the only daughter of three children. Her father worked in a chemical plant and her mother was a homemaker. She sang in her parents’ church as a child, and in high school, she performed at school shows and family gatherings.

She attended West Virginia University, and in 1976, she joined a bluegrass band, and two years later dropped out of school to move to Nashville. During this time, Mattea also listened to folk and bluegrass, which she would later say “formed [her] roots” as an artist. She worked as a tour guide at the Country Music Hall of Fame, and then as a secretary and a waitress, in order to support herself while working as a demo singer. Songwriter, publisher, and record producer Byron Hill discovered her and helped her sign to Mercury Records in 1983.

Kathy Mattea Husband

Mattea is a married woman, she has been married to songwriter Jon Vezner since February 14, 1988. He started a publishing company underneath the apartment in which Mattea lived in the 1980s, and the two met after he jump-started her car. Vezner wrote four of Mattea’s singles: “Where’ve You Been”, “Whole Lotta Holes”, “Time Passes By”, and “A Few Good Things Remain”, along with singles by Diamond Rio and Clay Walker.

Additionally, she is known for her roles in AIDS activism. In 1992, many televised awards shows were handing out red ribbons to participants in honor of AIDS awareness, but the Country Music Association chose to hand out green ribbons promoting environmental awareness instead. Mattea chose to wear three red ribbons that night, each one honoring a friend of hers who had died of the disease, along with the green ribbon.

She also participated in charity concerts and made public appearances at activism campaigns. She was also the recipient of the inaugural Harvard AIDS Initiative award in 1994.

Kathy Mattea Career

Mattea’s self-titled first appearance came out in 1984, with Hill and Rick Peoples as the album’s producers. She later noted that “there were no budgets” when she was recording the album, as she was unable to afford a $75 makeup session, and the front cover featured her wearing a jacket which she had purchased at Kmart. Even so, four of its singles made the Hot Country Songs charts, starting with “Street Talk”, which charted at No. 25

Her second album, From My Heart, was also her first under the production of Allen Reynolds, who is best known for his work with Crystal Gayle and Garth Brooks. It was released in 1985 and it produced the chart singles “It’s Your Reputation Talkin'”, “He Won’t Give In”, and “Heart of the Country”, which peaked at numbers 34, 22, and 46 respectively on Hot Country Songs.

Breakthrough

1986’s Walk the Way the Wind Blows was “her breakthrough both critically and commercially”. Four singles were released from the album. First was “Love at the Five and Dime”, written and originally recorded by Nanci Griffith on her 1986 album The Last of the True Believers.

Following it was “Walk the Way the Wind Blows”, “You’re the Power”, and “Train of Memories”. All four of these songs reached the top 10 of the country music charts between 1986 and 1987. The B-side to “You’re the Power” was a rendition of “Song for the Life”, written by Rodney Crowell and later a top 10 hit for Alan Jackson in 1995.

She had her first No. 1 single in late 1987 to early 1988 with “Goin’ Gone”. This song also previously appeared on The Last of the True Believers, Co-written by Pat Alger and Fred Koller. Mattea’s version was the lead single to her third album Untasted Honey.

Kathy Mattea Net Worth

Mattea is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who has a net worth of $3 million.

Kathy Mattea Discography

Singles (Hot Country Songs)

  • Goin’ Gone (1987–88)
  • Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses (1988)
  • Come from the Heart (1989)
  • Burnin’ Old Memories (1989)

Albums

  • Kathy Mattea (1984)
  • From My Heart (1985)
  • Walk the Way the Wind Blows (1986)
  • Untasted Honey (1987) (RIAA gold)
  • Willow in the Wind (1989) (RIAA gold)
  • Time Passes By (1991) (RIAA gold)
  • Lonesome Standard Time (1992) (RIAA gold)
  • Walking Away a Winner (1994) (RIAA gold)
  • Love Travels (1997)
  • The Innocent Years (2000)
  • Roses (2002)
  • Right Out of Nowhere (2005)
  • Coal (2008)
  • Calling Me Home (2012)
  • Pretty Bird (2018)

Christmas albums

Good News (1993)
Joy for Christmas Day (2003)

Kathy Mattea Twitter

Note: This biography is based on the available information as of 2023, and real-time updates or developments are being updated by our editorial team.