NASHVILLE, Tenn. — There's something disquieting in the singer's voice in the rising country music hit "My Love Goes On and On."
"It may be that the rugged Rocky Mountains don't last long/But my love goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on," spits out Chris Cagle like a man possessed.
The song may be about a guy in love. Or perhaps he's a stalker.
Either way, Cagle has been properly introduced to country music fans as a man who sings with the fervor of an evangelist. Nashville hasn't had a potential star with this intensity since Garth Brooks was getting started 11 years ago.
In a music genre where many singers try to avoid controversy, Cagle is outspoken. He speaks frankly about his troubled childhood in Texas and takes an occasional potshot at radio programmers who aren't playing his single.
"I'll say this, and I don't care if it's printed in headlines," Cagle said, building up a head of steam within minutes of the start of an interview.
"If Tim McGraw sang every one of my songs on my record, he'd sell 10 million copies. Every song would be No. 1, without question," he said, snapping his fingers for emphasis.
"The thing that tugs at me is, I'm not fighting radio wanting to hear good music. I'm fighting, 'He's new.' That's all I'm fighting. It's wrong. It's just wrong."
Cagle is getting all heated up while things are generally going his way. "My Love Goes On and On" is a Top 25 hit and still rising. And there's better stuff on "Play It Loud," his debut CD on Virgin Records in Nashville.
He's eager for success.
"I didn't sign a piece of paper that says I'm a star," Cagle said. "I signed a piece of paper that says I get the opportunity to make a life around music.
"I have trouble sleeping at night, thinking about everything."
Cagle, 32, was born in Louisiana and raised near Houston. His parents divorced when he was 3. His mother then married a man Cagle says was abusive.
"There's a lot of water under that bridge," Cagle said. "I will probably have to go see somebody someday to kind of get some things straight. Right now, I suppress it, and do what I want to do."
But scars from his childhood tend to push their way to the surface.
"You know how sometimes you think you're hearing the word of God?" Cagle said. "I remember laying in bed and thinking, 'Why do I have to experience the things I'm experiencing?'
"And in a split second I heard, 'So your family and your children's children, and everybody who follows you, does not have to experience it.' "
His competitive nature first found its release in the tough world of Texas high school football. Standing 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing 190 pounds, Cagle was on the field with guys who were 50 pounds heavier. When he was a freshman, a coach told him he "couldn't play dead."
He started at cornerback in his senior year.
"Right then I remember saying to myself, 'You can do anything in this world, dude. You just proved it."'
Cagle's father, an executive at Exxon, was proud of his son's football playing. But he didn't understand why Cagle decided to head to Nashville to pursue a career in country music.
"He and most of my family said, 'You'll never do it, you're living in a dream world, you need to go get a real job and be a real human being. You're stupid, you can't even sing good."'
Cagle struggled for six years before being signed to Virgin, so it should come as no surprise that his favorite movie is "Rudy," the story of an undersize Notre Dame football player who became a star in the only play of his college career.