Tracy Lawrence

Tracy Lawrence is the Texan country singer-songwriter who had a run of No.1 singles in the early 1990s.

Lawrence moved to Nashville aged 17 to pursue his love of country music. He got his break when a talent show win led to a radio appearance and from there to a record deal with Atlantic records. It almost came to end there however, when he was shot four times, by muggers. It's an ill wind though, and the resulting publicity helped boost his debut single to the top of the country charts. The success of that, and other singles from Sticks and Stones, gave him a top ten position on the album charts and the first of his platinum disks.

He beat that by a country mile with his follow-up, which gave him four chart toppers, including "Can't Break My Heart" and "If the Good Die Young" and a two more platinum disks. After contributing "Renegades, Rebels and Rogues" to the Maverick film soundtrack, he carried on his run of successful releases, with a string of No.1 singles and top five placings on the Country Charts for his albums (along with more platinum disks).

In 2000 he released the Lessons Learned album, which reflected the problems he had been experiencing in his personal life. It received lukewarm praise from previously enthusiastic critics and his subsequent release failed to perform to his high standards.