- Clint Black and his wife, Lisa Hartman Black, have producer credits on a new Lifetime movie.
- The film is a romance inspired by the couple’s 1999 duet, “When I Said I Do.”
- The pair talked to Country Living about what this rebirth means to them.
The love story that blossoms in the new romance flick When I Said I Do is not reminiscent of Clint Black and wife Lisa Hartman Black’s love story at all, but the film—premiering on Lifetime on Saturday, May 23—is bringing up fuzzy feelings from those early days in their relationship.
“Clint's very romantic. I mean, look at what he writes!” Lisa gushes during a friendly chat with Country Living. She’s calling from home, with the couple’s two dogs at her feet, and he’s phoning from the road on his Back on the Blacktop Tour. But even separated by hours, both cast loving looks toward the screen as they listen to their partner of 35-plus years speak.
Clint and Lisa married in 1991, not quite a year after meeting at his concert in Houston. Perhaps it was his romantic nature that reeled her in. She’s got a point in noting that this side of him really pours out in his songs: “Like the Rain,” “Loving Blind,” and “When I Said I Do” paint poetic pictures of what it feels like to fall in and be in love.
“When I Said I Do”—a Grammy-nominated No. 1 hit from 1999—is especially close to Clint and Lisa’s hearts, because it is about their story, and because they sing it together, as a duet. The lyrics are a promise from the narrator to their partner to love them until the end of time—a commitment they made in saying “I do.”
The Blacks are beside themselves that such a sentimental song is getting new life in a reimagined way, through this new Lifetime movie, on which they are executive producers. When I Said I Do tells the story of widowed Ali Corley (Sarah Drew), a search-and-rescue K-9 handler who’s learning how to stand on her own and raise her children after her husband’s untimely death. Along comes Shawn Willis (Eric Johnson), who also happens to be a rescue specialist with a painful past.
You can probably guess what happens next. A press release details: “As their connection deepens into something real and healing, they are forced to confront grief and fear — and discover whether they have the courage to choose love again.”
Of course, nothing brings up mushy memories like a romantic movie, and Lisa is as giddy as a schoolgirl as she recalls how “When I Said I Do” came to be, and the moment Clint asked her to sing on it.
“We’re home. He comes in to the room wherever I was and he goes, ‘I'd love to play this song I've written,’” she remembers. “And I'm thinking, ‘Oh, another hit song,’ you know? And he plays this song, and I'm just … oh, it's so beautiful.”
“And he says, ‘I want you to sing it with me,’” she continues, “And I went, ‘Oh, no. No.’ And he went, ‘I mean, think about it. Who else am I gonna sing this with? It's about us — it's us, you have to do this.”
“And I probably cried and went, ‘Okay!’” she admits.
“I needed to write something for us to sing together, and the question I kept asking myself was, ‘What would we say to each other in front of God and the world?” Clint chimes in. “And that's what I came up with.”
“When I Said I Do” was a massive success as a country radio single, but perhaps more significantly, it resonated with thousands of fans who could see their own love stories in it — and still does, nearly 30 years later.
“I mean, it went to No. 1,” Lisa says. “You know, the nominations! We won Vocal Event of the Year (Top Vocal Event winner, 2000 ACM Awards)! It's nominated for a Grammy! People get married to it, people are renewing their vows!”
Hesitant as she was to jump on the song with him, she admits now that she is “so grateful” she agreed to record the duet. “And here we are talking to you about this whole new thing that's going on because of this song that you wrote, sweetheart,” she raves, now speaking directly to Clint.
It’s clear that she hasn’t grown tired of gushing over her husband’s talent and what this chapter in their story means to her. “He knows, he does. I mean, he just… he just does it,” she says. “I don't know how, but he does it, and he continues to do it, and it just blows my mind.”
She’s equally proud of their daughter, Lily Pearl Black, who seems to have caught the music bug from dad. During the call, Clint checks the Find My Phone feature and sees that Lily, recently 25, is in a songwriting session on Music Row in Nashville that day. She’s their only child, and they’re a close-knit trio—Lily even performed with mom and dad on tour a few years back and released music of her own shortly thereafter.
Clint hopes to make a new album himself this fall. It’s been six years since his last (Out of Sane, 2020), and he’s been writing for the project when ideas strike. He reveals that he has even been in the studio with modern country singer-songwriter Ernest. Suffice it to say, he’s feeling inspired.
“I just feel like I haven’t lost it yet,” he admits with a confident smile. “I haven’t exhausted the resource.”
It’s got to help reinvigorate you to watch your song get turned into a feature film, too.
“The actors do such a great job,” Clint acknowledges, “And then when they play our song behind it, you know, we're just we become saps.”
When I Said I Do premieres May 23 at 8 p.m. ET on Lifetime.
Amanda Hensel Jermstad is a skilled writer based in Austin, Texas. She spent 14 years as Editor-in-Chief of Taste of Country, where she led coverage of the artists, stories and trends shaping country music. With a career deeply rooted in the genre, Amanda has built a reputation for sharp editorial insight and authentic storytelling. Outside of work, she’s a proud mom of three.
