22. Trace Adkins

Trace had interest in music since he was ten years old and got a guitar from his father, but he tried lots of jobs before trying music full-time. He was a member of a football team, he worked on an oil rig and for a time was a pharmacy technician. (Fun fact: as a pharmacy technician, he sliced off one of his fingers. Once at the hospital he had the doctors sew it back on at an angle where he could still paly his guitar). But music was always in the background, playing gigs during the nights. Finally, he made the decision to move to Nashville in 1992. After a couple years of playing gigs, he met up with a record label executive. They, in turn, brought some of their executive friends with them to one of Trace’s shows. Once Scott Hendricks from Capitol Records heard Trace singing, he signed him on the spot to a record contract. Although never turning out to be a consistent hitmaker in country music, he would continue to get top tens here and there for at least 15 years. He also got some love from the industry, earning Grammy nominations and winning trophies from the ACM awards and the CMT awards. He also gained a wider audience by being on “The Celebrity Apprentice” in two different seasons, placing 1^st and 2^nd. The chances of him making it into the Hall Of Fame at this point are very low, but he was able to build up a nice career for himself, and I’m sure he is perfectly content with that.