On Oct. 20, 2021, Clint Black and Lisa Hartman Black celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary. The couple's enduring love story began on New Year's Eve of 1990, when they met backstage at one of Black's shows in their shared hometown of Houston, Texas.

Black didn't know it at the time, but his future wife was already an accomplished actor who had a role in the TV drama Knots Landing. "I didn't know anything about her. I didn't know her TV show. I just looked at her eyes and I was just, 'Wow!'" the singer recently recalled to People.

The two quickly became a couple and were married just 10 months later, in a small wedding on Black's Texas farm. In the years and decades since, the pair have been inseparable, often finding ways to combine work and quality time together: They recorded a hit duet, "When I Said I Do," and Black's 2015 album On Purpose included another duet with his wife, "You Still Get to Me."

More recently, they appeared together as the Snow Owls on The Masked Singer, and in November, they'll kick off Black's Mostly Hits & The Mrs. Tour, which will also feature their daughter Lily Pearl as an opening act. Continuing to pursue new endeavors and challenges together, Black explains, is an important part of making sure their marriage continues to thrive.

It's important to the couple to "keep creating something out in front of us that we have to be ready for and go do and enjoy," Black says. "Doing this tour is a new chapter. It's challenging, exciting fun."

It's the latest in a string of fun challenges that the couple have pursued during their life together. When they recorded "When I Said I Do," for example, Hartman Black was initially hesitant to put her voice on the track, but Black was adamant that he wanted to sing it with her.

"It just seemed so big. And I was done with that," explains Hartman Black, who had pursued a modest musical career in the '70s and '80s but shelved that part of her life by the time she and Black married. "I don't know ... fear!"

Finally, Black told her, "If you don't sing on this, I'm gonna sing it by myself, not getting anyone else to sing it with me, and we'll always look back and wish you were there." Hartman Black agreed, and the couple's version of the song became a No. 1 hit, and earned them an ACM Awards trophy.

After three decades together, Black and Hartman Black have learned a thing or two about how to make a marriage last: "Love is something that you nurture and protect," the singer reflects. "We've grown together in our relationship and never apart."

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