Trace Adkins

Trace Adkins is an American country music singer and actor whose three-decade career has produced multiple American country chart hits, including Hot Country Songs #1 singles "You're Gonna Miss This" (2008) and "This Ain't (No Thinkin' Thing)" (1996). He was born Tracy Darrell Adkins on January 13, 1962, in Sarepta, Louisiana. He grew up working on oil rigs in the Louisiana oil-field region through his teens before pursuing country music professionally in his late twenties.

His 1996 Capitol Records Nashville debut album Dreamin' Out Loud sold over 1 million copies and produced the Hot Country Songs #1 single "This Ain't (No Thinkin' Thing)." His six-foot-six (1.98 m) stature, deep baritone vocal range, and ponytail-and-cowboy-hat aesthetic made him one of the American country-music figures of the late 1990s. The 1996 launch was followed by continuous chart success across the late 1990s and 2000s.

His 2008 single "You're Gonna Miss This" — about the perspective shift across life-stages — became one of the American country songs of the late 2000s and reached Hot Country Songs #1. The 2005 single "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" became one of the American country crossover hits of the mid-2000s, reaching the Billboard Hot 100 top 30. His 2009 album Cowboy's Back in Town reached Top Country Albums #1 and produced four top-30 country singles.

Beyond his music career, Adkins has been active in American TV and film. He competed on the 2008 NBC reality series The All-Star Celebrity Apprentice, finishing second to Piers Morgan, and won the 2013 The All-Star Celebrity Apprentice. He has appeared in film roles including The Lincoln Lawyer (2011, opposite Matthew McConaughey) and An American Carol (2008). He has continued to tour and record into his sixties. He has been involved in American military-veterans charitable work through his 2014 Wounded Warrior Project ambassadorship.

His name Trace is from the Old French trace meaning "path" or "track" — anchored in American Western tradition through the 19th-century American Western trail-tracker character. Trace has been continuously among the most-popular American boys' names for decades.