Hot Dogs and Harmonies: The Night Tim McGraw, Tracy Lawrence, and Kenny Chesney Got Fired in Nashville
Before they were country music royalty, they were just three hungry dreamers trying to make it on the streets of Nashville.
Tim McGraw recently shared a hilarious memory from his early days—one that involved Kenny Chesney, Tracy Lawrence, a corner hot dog stand called Houndogs, and a few mischievous clown heads.
“There was a place called Houndogs Hot Dogs that was right on the corner of where the circle is now in Nashville, where the statues are,” McGraw said in a laugh-filled retelling via Big Machine Label Group. “Flash Flanagan was the guy who owned it.”
Back then, the trio—just kids with guitars and dreams—would sit on stools, play tunes for passing pedestrians, and live off hot dogs as currency.
But their brief stint as street musicians came to a comedic end, and Tim blames Kenny for it:
“There were clown heads on the trash cans, and our job at the end of the night was to take the clown heads, run a chain through them, and lock them up,” McGraw recalled. “I think Kenny didn’t do it one night… and they got stolen. And we got fired.”
No hard feelings. Just one of those charming stories that reminds us even legends like Tim McGraw, Tracy Lawrence, and Kenny Chesney had their clumsy, hungry, and humbling beginnings.
From guarding clown heads at a hot dog stand to filling arenas across the country—now that’s what you call a country comeback.
