Entrepreneur and mother of four Kasi Wicks is married to singer, songwriter, radio personality and podcast host Chuck Wicks. She also happens to be Jason Aldean’s half-sister, which is inadvertently how she met Chuck. The couple got engaged in Banff National Park in snowy Alberta, Canada and wed in Cabo in the summer of 2019. Although their romance might seem like a fairytale, Kasi’s personal story hasn’t always been easy. She and Chuck share one child, Tucker, nine months—thanks to a round of IVF. (“We’re next-level obsessed with him,” Kasi says of their son.) Meanwhile, Kasi has a daughter and two step-daughters from her previous marriage, whom she legally adopted after they lost their biological mother to cancer. Sounds Like Nashville recently sat down to chat with Kasi about finding love when she wasn’t looking for it, launching a wine line that tells her family’s story, and working with Chuck to revitalize one of Nashville’s oldest buildings.
SLN: What do you remember most about growing up with your step-brother Jason?
Kasi: I lived in Florida; he lived in Georgia. We have the same dad, so he mostly would come down to Florida in the summers. A lot of our time spent together revolved around baseball. We would play outside in the yard, and he taught me all the things. I played baseball as a kid growing up until I was 12 or 13. And so I actually was the only girl that played baseball. But during that time he started getting into music.
I was getting snuck into bars and selling his merch and stuff growing up. And it just, obviously, has exploded over the years. I always knew he was talented, and our family is very musical, especially on my dad’s side. My dad was in a little garage band, and my uncles would come around with a guitar and sing. So we’ve grown up around it, but Jason was the first one who really did something with his talent. And I, unfortunately, did not get that gene.
SLN: What role did Jason play in how you met Chuck?
Kasi: He played a role unintentionally, I guess. Chuck and I would see each other at different industry events, which I was always at with my brother. But I was married before, so I knew who Chuck was, but we never really met or talked. And so after my divorce, I actually had gone out to Vegas to celebrate because Jason had just won one of his many awards. Chuck showed up to the after-party, and we still didn’t really talk necessarily, but Chuck was talking to my brother. Brittany, my sister-in-law, kind of nudged me like, “Hey, this guy’s right here. What do you think about this?” And I think Chuck caught it out of the side of his eye, and so he was like, “Wait a second. I thought this girl was married. I’m getting a different vibe.”
Once he came back to Nashville, he went on Instagram and started researching and kind of figured out maybe I was single. And so he put the feelers out, and then we kind of chatted back and forth. And then he and I ran into each other randomly at Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row downtown.
SLN: When you met Chuck you were raising three daughters as a single mom, right?
Kasi: Yeah, I had been divorced and was just trying to figure that life out and really wasn’t looking for anything serious. And then Chuck kind of just fell into my life, and it felt easy. It was meant to be.
SLN: What’s something about him that stuck out to you and made you think, I want to spend the rest of my life with this guy?
Kasi: I think just what a good person he is. He truly is so thoughtful about everyone who’s around him and truly cares about people, and it just comes out in everything he does. He’s nice to everyone and respectful, and that was just a quality that I really appreciated in him. Especially when you have kids, too, you start to think more about examples that you want them to grow up around. And I mean, he is great with advice for me, with my girls. He listens really well. And then he’s pretty funny, too. So that definitely helps a lot.
SLN: You’ve been pretty open about your IVF journey so that you and Chuck could have Tucker. Then you ended up giving birth during the pandemic. What was that experience like?
Kasi: It was different, but also it was kind of nice. We had a really quiet labor—just peaceful. It was me and Chuck and the doctor and one nurse. Normally we would have the entire crew there—all the family, the cousins, the grandparents, everybody. That’s just kind of how our family rolls, but we were forced to have this really small, intimate delivery. And it was actually pretty awesome. It makes me emotional thinking about it because it was just Chuck and I, and the moment Tucker came out, I mean, we just locked eyes on him and were sobbing. We got to really enjoy that first 24 hours with him.
SLN: You and Chuck recently announced that you’re launching a wine line called Melorosa. I know the name of the wine has a special meaning for you. Tell me about that.
Kasi: We didn’t want to just do a wine to have a wine with our name on it. We wanted it to have meaning. My mom is from Cuba; and my grandparents and my five aunts, they all defected from Cuba about 50 years ago. They have this amazing story of leaving Cuba during a really hard time of living under communism. My grandparents really wanted a better life for their family and wanted to live the American dream. So they took that huge step to come to America and bring their six daughters with them.
My mom was 15 when she came over. Melo is my grandparents’ last name, so my mom’s maiden name; and Rosa was my grandmother, who I’m also named after. My middle name is Rosa. We are a really big family. We’re loud, but we’re really passionate about loving one another. And we wanted that to kind of embody this wine. We wanted it to be something that could last and stand the test of time. Our bottling date is on November 15, so we’re going to start pre-sales October 1. It will be direct-to-consumer initially, but the goal would be to eventually be in restaurants and stores and all of that.
SLN: Is there a charity component to Melorosa Wine?
Kasi: Yeah. We haven’t officially chosen how we’re going to do it, but we’re trying to figure out the best way to make sure that the money gets in the right hands that can truly benefit people who are still in Cuba and still living a pretty difficult life there.
SLN: You and Chuck are also working on revitalizing the historic Woolworth building in downtown Nashville that was most recently a restaurant. What are your plans for that building?
Kasi: Chuck just has had this vision for what he wanted this to be for probably, I think, three years now. And so when we first started dating, he would kind of talk about it, and I mean, it’s really come to life. Chuck has taken the lead on this project, but I am very involved as well. I went out to Vegas for some of the creative meetings, which really got me excited. It will be the first-ever theatrical residency in Nashville. We have NappyTabs, which is just a world-renowned choreography team. It’s a husband and wife, and they’re so fun. They choreograph for J.Lo, Madonna, Britney Spears, all these huge names. They are creating the show with us, and their ideas are just next-level, mind-blowing kind of things. It’s so exciting to be in that room with all their creative energy and thoughts.
Pre-order a bottle of Melorosa Wine at melorosa.com, and keep up with Kasi and Chuck’s revitalization of Nashville’s Woolworth Theatre at woolworththeatre.com.