Rimsie McConiga
Special to the Citizen
Country singer Matt Snook has a lot of stories to tell about his many adventures that began when he started singing in church at age 3. His love of singing and songwriting would take him many places, including an appearance on NBC’s “The Voice.”
Matt Snook
He grew up in Edgerton and won his first talent contest when he was 6 years old. When he was 7 years old, he began singing in country music theaters and after a year of parking cars at the Boswell’s Union Mill Opry in Edgerton, he finally got to sing on its big stage. “I paid my dues,” Snook said. “Grand Ole Opry stars would frequently visit the Union Mill Opry. In the late ‘1970s and early ‘80s, the Union Mill Opry was the place to be. Huge artists like Barbara Mandrell, Dolly Parton and many others, would perform in front of a packed audience. It reminded me of the Grand Ole Opry. When you walked in, it was a beautiful building with amazing people.”
At 16 years old — Snook began playing honky-tonks around the four-state area. He continued playing clubs on the weekends, while working for Sprint as a project management professional. When he became certified as a PMP, there were only 20,000 in the world. He said he met a lot of great people and wasn’t scared to take on projects that nobody else wanted. In one particular project, he helped save the company more than $3 million in tax savings.
In 2007, many of his co-workers were shocked when he accepted a voluntary separation package from the company to pursue music full-time.
“I loved my job and the people I worked with, but I needed to pursue my biggest passion,” Snook said. I had a paid salary for about six months from Sprint, so I had to figure out how to make a living pretty quick. I decided to start playing in restaurants. I doubled my performance fee and reduced the duration by half to manage the five to six nights a week. My entertainment fee was paid for by keeping the patron’s last table turn there a little longer than they would have been.”
After a few years and a conversation heading to football practice with his oldest son Austin, Snook took an early withdrawal from his 401k and moved his family to Nashville, Tennessee to pursue a record deal in 2010. After struggling to find work for 10 months and their house still for sale in Missouri, the family was on the verge of returning home, but Snook’s wife Stephanie landed an accounting position at the famous Stockyard Restaurant and they just happened to need a new balladeer. She told them, “My husband sings.” So after a successful audition, Snook started singing for their dinner crowds. “I walked around the tables and played music for cash tips. That really helped out,” Snook said.
After 10 years of driving back and forth between Edgerton and Nashville and two years after his move, Snook was finally offered a publishing deal by Senior Vice President — Patrick Clifford at Ten Ten Music Group. Ten Ten was co-owned by RCA’s Barry and Jewell Coburn. Snook met Jewell through a mutual friend. Ten Ten Music Group was a major publishing company that represented songs written by Keith Urban and Taylor Swift. But just two weeks after the offer, Snook got a call saying the company was no more due to a divorce between the owners. A few months later, Snook was offered a second publishing deal with Flat Earth Music, but it soon closed for the same reason. After conversations and other considerations three years in, Stephanie and the two boys moved back home. Snook stayed and completed the renovation in the house that they purchased in White’s Creek, Tennessee.
In 2013, after failing to get selected at The Voice’s Open Call in Atlanta, Georgia, Snook and his wife created a video on YouTube. Shortly after, Snook got a call for a private audition in Nashville for Season 7. “I remember living in Nashville, but playing music somewhere in Missouri, but they wanted me in Nashville - so I drove my car overnight to make the audition date,” Snook said. “I had overalls on for the drive and had forgotten to bring a belt, so when I went into the audition room with my straw hat and boots, I had to keep pulling my jeans up and thinking my pants were gonna fall down.
“Then I decided, that they would never know I forgot my belt. After performing my first audition song, a lively energetic casting woman said, ‘Let me see that belt buckle!’ I quickly replied ‘I don’t need no stinkin’ belt buckle, I grew up on a hog farm.’ She must have liked my response, because I got to perform a second song and they asked me to go further in the process. I went through six months of this process and was one of 15 people that didn’t get a chance to sing for the coaches in the blind audition. We were pulled in a room and told that the teams were full. The emotions were widespread. Some people were crying, some people got mad and some people started laughing.”
Snook went through the process again when he became one of three people who were invited back for Season 8. This time he was able to perform his blind audition and sang “Red Dirt Road” by Brooks and Dunn. In the blind audition process, coaches’ decisions are based only on voice and not appearance, so their chairs are not facing the performers. If a coach is impressed with a singer’s voice, he or she pushes a button to select the singer. After singing for about 10 seconds, Matt received a half-standing ovation, but none of the coaches’ chairs turned toward him.
“In the last few moments of the song, my life flashed in front me,” Snook said. “All of the failed contests, my mom and dad’s road trips to gigs, and other memories flooded my mind. Then a little voice popped in my head and said you’re Matt Snook, finish strong. As I sailed on the high note at the end, Blake Shelton finally turned his chair. To this day, I believe the audience’s response caused Blake to turn. I don’t think I was part of their plans, but the crowd just kind of made it happen.”
He was chosen for the show. His blind audition performance was montaged. “They just showed one little snippet at the end of my audition, so I wasn’t seen or heard by the public yet,” Snook said.
Snook would later get the chance to perform for TV, but lost in the battle round to his friend Cody Wickline from West Virginia. “I told Cody that I loved him and walked off stage,” Snook said. “I was glad that he would get to advance to the voting audience. The camera folks were in my face doing their job to capture emotion, but didn’t stay long as they saw me smiling with my head up as I proudly walked off the stage gesturing to my family in attendance.
“When you get eliminated, you go see a shrink and a lawyer. My new shrink friend who was a Columbia, Mo., grad, asked me if I was OK after losing the battle. I asked him if he watched the battle and he said yes. Then I smiled and said, then you know I didn’t lose that battle. He smiled and said you’re good, get out of here.” Snook said the experience was well worth it because of all the people he met who love music and are passionate about it. He also enjoyed mentoring some of the younger kids that were interested in how he was able to play music full-time.
While The Voice is still what most people want to talk about, Snook says he is blessed, because he has so many memories and experiences that he would rank above his television adventure. While living in Nashville, he volunteered for Musicians on Call and sang bedside to kids in children’s hospitals, veterans’ hospitals and Round Wings.
“I sang for people who didn’t have very long to live,” Snook said. “It’s pretty special for someone to give you three and a half minutes of their life when they don’t have long to live. Secondly, being able to travel overseas with the Troops First Foundation to sing for our servicemen and women, isn’t bad either. Walking through the entrance of The Support Medical Hospital in Balad, Iraq and seeing Hero’s Hwy — the large round entrance with an American flag draped on the ceiling so the injured coming into triage would know they are safe, is inspiring.” Snook said it was so inspiring that he wrote a song titled “Hero’s Hwy” that is popular with military service members.
In 2018, Snook was asked to sing the song for retired Four-Star Gen. Raymond T. Odierno at an appreciation event in Washington, D.C. Snook became friends with the general after singing to him one-on-one at his palace residence in Iraq. Snook also remembers handing out school supplies outside the wire at Northern Hills School just north of Balad for Mary Eisenhower’s Operation International Children. “I can still see the kids’ faces and hear their excitement over my cowboy boots,” Snook said.
He has also performed for Snowball Express in Dallas where more than 2,000 Gold Star Family members have shared their stories with him.
He is currently waiting on confirmation for a trip later this month, to play with one of his favorites, George Strait. The first time he met Strait, he had played at a Troops First Foundation event in Texas.
“George and Jamey Johnson were coming up on stage to do their set,” Snook said. “I played right before they came up. I asked George if he needed my guitar, he shook his head no, got close to me and stuck his hand out and said, ‘Good job.’ That was the first compliment he ever said to me. I enjoy being around such a professional and look forward to every opportunity with The King,”
Snook has opened for many artists over the years including Michael Peterson, Little Big Town, Aaron Tippin, Tracy Lawrence, Mark Chesnutt, John Conlee, Tracy Byrd, John Michael Montgomery, Joe Diffie, Kacey Musgraves and many others.
He opened for Tony Orlando in Baghdad, in 2009 and there were mortars going off in the background. Before the show Orlando said, “Will you find me a Fender like yours and ship it to me? I will pay you for it.” After sleeping on it, Snook gave Orlando his guitar in Germany after their last show of the trip. “It moved Tony to tears,” Snook said. “Tony said he’d never had anyone give him their working guitar.” Orlando invited Snook to play on his Veteran’s Day show that year. Then the following Veteran’s Day, he gave the guitar back to Snook with a laminated note saying “This baby cried tears for you” and he signed it. “He told me it belonged in my family and suggested I give it to one of my boys, so last September - I did,” Snook said. “I gave it to Austin for his birthday. He is attending his second year at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado but is still finding time to learn how to play his favorite songs.”
Snook says the things he likes most about performing are the adventures music has provided. “If you asked me when I was 20 years old why I wanted to be famous, the answer is the same now,” Snook said. “I would love to use my celebrity to make more of an impact when serving others. I’m very proud of my life so far, the things I’ve been able to accomplish and the people I have met along the journey. I am living a blessed life.”
There may be another adventure that lies ahead for Snook. He recently signed a deal with MC1 Nashville and Sony Orchard to release his debut single, “Poster Child” to country radio. “It comes out this week, so be listening and requesting on your local radio.”