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“BACKSTORY: TRACE ADKINS” ON GREAT AMERICAN COUNTRY

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(NASHVILLE, TENN.) October 07, 2009 --  Multi-platinum country star, author, reality television darling and comic book superhero Trace Adkins is a self-professed shy man but on GAC’s Backstory: Trace Adkins, Wednesday, October 14, 8:00 pm/eastern, he opens up for a candid discussion about the extreme highs and lows he’s endured throughout his life and career.  Helping to tell the story are those that know him best:  Adkins’ parents, brother, wife, manager, publicist, bandmates and longtime friends.   Rare photos from the Adkins family album – chronicling his childhood through young adult life – provide a glimpse into the past.  

“I know right.  I was raised right.  I just don’t always do right,” says the 6’5” Adkins who grew up in Sarepta, LA, (pop. 941) with a loving, supportive family.  He did not start singing until he was 17 and admits it was by accident.  “I didn’t have any silly dreams about being successful in the music business,” he said.   He entered Louisiana State to play football but an injury ended his football career. He continued to sing, joining a band that went on to win a few regional and state talent competitions.   Opting to do the responsible thing, he took a job on an offshore oil rig  and started a family with his first wife and two young daughters.  Yet even on offshore drilling trips, he took along his guitar.  When the band asked him to join them on tour, he took a leave from the oil rigs and became part of a lifestyle that he describes as “full bore into that outlaw honky tonk thing.” After four years of playing honky tonks and while dealing with a troubled marriage, Adkins recalls a moment of truth.  “I looked in the mirror and thought; 'Five years ago I wouldn’t have been caught hanging out with someone like you.’” And that was it.  He called his agent and told him he was quitting, opting to go home and save his marriage.

Things did not work out as planned and soon Adkins was a young father with sole custody of his young daughters.  He returned to the off shore drilling before getting a call from his agent, a man who’d never lost sight of his talent and star quality.  Seems the agent was moving toNashville and asked Adkins to give it another shot and come with him.  It was also during this time that the singer remarried.

At age 30, Adkins relocated his family to Nashville and took a job as a pipe fitter while playing nights at a small club.  Word of this talented singer spread and he was eventually offered a development deal at Arista Records.  Three days after signing his deal Adkins was fighting for his life after being shot in the chest by his second wife who’d confronted him about his drinking.  “If there’s anything in my life that I could go back and do over it would be that split second right there where I had the choice between confrontation and running like hell.  I would’ve run.”  Against all odds he survived but the development deal was taken off the table.

Four years after relocating to Nashville he was offered a record deal by Scott Hendricks, who as Capitol Records’ new Nashville chief, made Adkins his first signing.  Dreamin’ Out Loud eventually went platinum and contained hits like “Every Light In the House is On,” and “Ain’t No Thinkin’ Thing.”  Things were also looking up in his personal life and in ’97 Adkins married Rhonda Forlaw, the former Arista publicist who was among the first to discover him playing at a Nashville club.  He released a second disc, Big Time, before Hendricks left the label.  “It just shattered my whole world,” he recalled.

Viewers will find out how, despite his success, Adkins’ drinking was so out of control, his family staged a dramatic intervention.

With his life back on track, hits like “I’m Tryin’,” “Honkytonk Badonkadonk,”  “Ladies Love Country Boys” and the ’09 ACM Song of the year, “You’re Gonna Miss This,” should’ve kept him busy but that wasn’t enough.  Adkins has been inducted into the Opry, wrote an autobiography and gained fame as one of the most popular stars on Donald Trump’s “Celebrity Apprentice.”  He’s also committed himself to the troops by making regular trips to the Persian Gulf. 

He is also the proud father of five daughters.