A cast member of Nashville's Grand Ol' Opry, Trace Adkins is the deep-voiced country singer, whose fatherhood ballad "Then They Do" became popular so quickly that it inspired a book of stories collected from parents all across America.

Born January 13, 1962, in Springhill, LA, Tracy Darrell Adkins was raised in little Sarepta, LA, the son of a factory worker and a schoolteacher. As a child he began playing guitar, and at age 17 he became the bass singer for the regionally popular gospel quartet "The New Commitment." The act recorded two local albums when Adkins was 18. He had been playing high school football, and moved on to college football, and then to work on an off-shore oil rig. His coworkers heard him playing and singing, and, in 1985, one of them connected him with the Louisiana band "Bayou Speak Easy." Adkins sang lead in the group and wrote its 1986 single, "Bayou Sunrise." Adkins performed regularly over the next few years, until he decided that he had had enough, and left the music field in 1989, taking a 3-year hiatus. When he went back to performing in the early 1990's, Adkins was spotted by a producer for Capitol Records, who signed him on the spot.

In 1997, The Academy of Country Music voted him Top New Male Vocalist; Country Weekly gave him that same award that year, as did judges of the 1998 TNN/Music City News Awards. His first two albums went Gold and Platinum and yielded five top-ten smashes. His fourth album also went Gold.

A regular guest on Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect, Adkins has starred in TV commercials and in magazine ads for trucks and jeans, and has narrated music shows, home-décor programs and western documentaries, as well as a new feature film about a boxer, The Dance.

Last updated: March 24, 2009.

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