An accidental meeting with a recording label president who liked country star Trace Adkins' deep voice was an encounter that ignited his music career.
Adkins-known for his hits "You're Gonna Miss This," "Ladies Love Country Boys," "Songs About Me" and "Every Light In The House"-will appear at 8 p.m. Saturday on the Lakes Jam stage at Brainerd International Raceway, north of Baxter.
Adkins, in a telephone interview June 14 while relaxing at his Nashville home, said Lakes Jam fans will hear all of their favorite songs they hear on the radio at his show during country night of the three-day music fest.
"We won't sing a lot of new stuff," Adkins said. "I'll give them what they know."
Adkins moved to Nashville in 1992 and signed his first record deal in 1995.
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"It was all about meeting the right people, having good connections and hopefully get a lucky break," Adkins said of getting into the music business. "I had an accidental meeting with a record label president at the airport and he was impressed with my speaking voice and asked if I was singing around town somewhere where he could come here me. I told him and he came out and heard me and he signed me into a record deal right there."
Adkins music career took off from there, selling more than 10 million albums and having countless singles topping the charts. The Grammy-nominated member of the Grand Ole Opry is a TV personality, actor, author, spokesman for the Wounded Warrior Program and the American Red Cross, where he raised more than $1.5 million dollars as the winner of NBC's All-Star Celebrity Apprentice. In recent years, Adkins has performed 10 United Services Organizations Tours.
In his 2007 autobiography, "A Personal Stand: Observations and Opinions from a Freethinking Roughneck," the former oil-rigger recounted his rise to fame, brushes with death and battles with personal demons, according to a press release bio of the star. Adkins has played a tough as nails biker in "The Lincoln Lawyer" and a wise oracle of a tattoo artist in the family-friendly film "Moms' Night Out." He also developed and hosted GAC's "Great American Heroes" honoring every-day heroes.
Adkins has a busy summer planned with plenty of shows. He has played all over the country and at all sorts of different venues, including an aircraft carrier.
"You don't get too many opportunities to do that," Adkins of performing on an aircraft carrier. "It was amazing. It was a full-blown out concert we did in the hangar of the aircraft carrier and they put all the jets and everything up on the deck that hanger was maybe the biggest room we played that year."
When asked which single means the most to him, he said: "That is a really hard question. You can pick ones that were milestones, like your first No. 1 or the ones that sold the most records, but the one that will always be my favorite would be my first single. That first time you were on the radio, that one is hard to beat. ... It will always be special to me."
Adkins first single is "There's a Girl in Texas," which wasn't one of his greatest hits, he said.
"I wrote that song and I still enjoy doing that song," Adkins said. "It's a lot of fun.
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"I had a conversation with a guy I was writing with and he asked me where I came from and I said I've been playing a bunch of honky-tonks in Texas for a few years. He asked if there was a girl in Texas and I said 'Yeah they're a bunch of them out there' and he said 'Well let's write a song about one of them' and I said 'Alright.' (Writing it) was as simple of that."
Adkins said he and the writer in Nashville wrote several songs together.
"Some of the best songwriters in the world live here in Nashville and that is why they are here," Adkins said of the songwriters. "I always said It would be foolish of me to not draw from that well. To be able to sit down and write with a guy who wrote 25 No. 1s, that is something you should do if you have a chance to."
Adkins said he doesn't have anything on my bucket list for his future.
"I'm content with where I am in this business," Adkins said. "I've had a really good run and I just want to keep doing what I have been doing for as long as my voice holds up and people want to see me. I just want to keep playing because I still enjoy it. I'm one of those fortunate people, where my hobby turned into my career. I don't want to stop until I have to."
If You Go
• Lakes Jam 2017
• When: Thursday-Saturday
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• Where: Brainerd International Raceway
• Thursday: Dylan Jakobsen, 2 p.m.; 32 Below, 4 p.m.; Chris Hawkey, 6 p.m.; Locash, 8 p.m.; and Chris Janson, 10:30 p.m.
• Friday: Fabulous Armadillos, 4 p.m.; Buckcherry, 6 p.m.; Bret Michaels, 8 p.m.; and Skillet, 10:30 p.m. On the secondary stage will be Analog Drifters at noon; and Fookey at 2 p.m.; Kat Perkins at 11:30 p.m.
• Saturday: Maiden Dixie, 4 p.m.; Montgomery Gentry, 6 p.m.; Trace Adkins, 8 p.m.; and Jake Owen, 10:30 p.m. On the secondary stage will be Steele River Band, time to be determined; and Chris Hawkey at 11:30 p.m.
