#672 - Trace Adkins

This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von

Country legend Trace Adkins joins Theo Von for a candid conversation spanning his Louisiana roots, 30-year music career, near-fatal shooting, four marriages, and wild anecdotes from working oil rigs, selling Italian food

Key takeaways

• Trace Adkins was shot through both lungs and his heart by his third wife, who thought her gun was a toy; he survived due to the bullet’s muzzle velocity preventing it from mushrooming

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Today's guest is a country music legend. He's got six gold and platinum albums. He's a Louisiana boy. He's got so many hits. Every light in the house, you're going to miss this. That honky town, but don't get... He's on a special 30th anniversary tour right now. I've been a fan for a long time, man. I had a blast with the one and only, Mr. Trace Adkins. I was just looking at all. I was just, what was it? I was seeing a commercial that it was for, was it Pogo stickers or something? See if you can find something. It's like a Pogo, uh. I didn't have a Pogo stick. Yeah, this is it. Extreme Pogo athletes. This was, what is it? Wow. That's insane. That's Pogo stick. And did they have that? Y'all have Pogo sticks when you were a kid, any toy you remember? Not like that. That's crazy. Is he? No, ours had like an old shock absorber spring on it. I mean, I didn't have one, but I remember seeing them when I was a kid. That's like supercharged. Oh, yeah. That's for somebody that's trying to probably make their own power at home or whatever. You know, you got four kids out there in the yard just pogo sticking, you know, so you can watch an episode of As the World Turns. Yeah, charging your batteries. Yeah, dude. So you can be sitting inside watching Unsolved Mysteries or something. something. That would have been something you maybe would have seen nowhere. Yeah, I'm trying to think a toys that had. Was there any toy you remember growing up, Trace? I'm just trying to think. I remember when I got a gas-powered little car for Christmas one year, and it had a little gas-powered motor on it where you had to mix the gas and everything. It was like a tiny little motor on it, and it had a propeller on the back of it, where it would propel the car, you know. But, I mean, I guess my old man didn't know you really needed to have like a lot of concrete to have this car. Because it wouldn't run in the yard. You know what I'm saying? And we had a gravel driveway so it didn't work at all. But I thought, man, yeah, nowadays, I mean, that thing was dangerous. It had a propeller on the back of it and there was no guard or anything. And it took real gasoline? Yeah. Well, you had to mix it up with something else. Yeah. You crank that sucker up, man. You know, it cut your finger off. It looked like it was like that. Just like that, man. That was the car. It was that green. I remember that. It says high performance prop driven racer. Yeah. Super action on free runs, roars around on tether. Not sure what that means. You had a string on it and you could just stand in it. You'd just go in a circle. You'd stand still and it'd just go in a circle. Oh, hell yeah. Damn, I can't believe you had to mix it. your own gas for that thing. Yeah. Just the fact that they entrusted kids, there was definitely some things that they were too entrusting. There was one that had lawn darts, I remember. Oh, lawn darts, yeah. Them bidsches got recalled. Well, you don't want to give drunk rednecks long darts. Yeah. I think what happened? Was there a lawn dart recall? Well, I think the general public probably just, at some point, we're not buying our kids that anymore. Yeah, we got one, yeah, you got a kid who's got... We got one kid left, and we've lost two from lawn dart mishapsed, so... Yeah, you got a daughter with two new dimples all of a sudden. Metal-tipped lawn darts were found to present an unreasonable risk of death or serious injury, and that's on perplexity right here. About 6,100 people were sent to the emergency room in the 1980s. Wow, that was it, man. I remember also they had something. Was it called Tugger? This was an animal thing. This was, and you ever just going down Memory Road here a little bit? It was Tugger, can you look at it? It was a dog. See if they have a, oh, that's a dog there. Oh, I see. Look at this. I mean, that's... That's weird. It's a bit much, because, I mean, it's kind of crazy, man. Look at this shit. I mean, dude, look, you'd see some real creepers grabbing them, I think. You'd see a guy walking four of them and you don't have any children or whatever. That's when it's a bit much. Yeah, tugger, that was it. No, I never saw that one. Tug my sock, that was his motto or whatever. Yeah, play that. That's crazy. I remember one year the most ridiculous thing my mama did was bought us all three a pair of boxing gloves. I had two younger brothers, and so one Christmas we all got a pair of boxing gloves. That was bad. Yeah. That just, yeah, that didn't work out well. What was your record? I was undefeated until my old man, yeah. I remember my old man came home from work one day, and I was on my knees, and I had one glove on. And then my younger, my baby brother, he was 10 years younger than me. And he had on his little gloves. And so I'd let him hit me a few times, and I'd knock him down, you know. and then my old man was like he came to walking down the hall and he had my other brother's pair of boxing gloves on and he said get up boy and put that other glove on you know I was like oh yeah I was like 18 years old in good shape you know and I was like I'm about to wear you out and I just remember crawling down the hall to my bedroom I couldn't stand up you know he just he knocked me out so good he had that man strength on him on oh man he just yeah because I was going to hit him in the gut because I knew he'd be soft. And so I went under and he just hit me right between the eyes. And I remember my mama screaming, Erndole, you killed him, you killed him. Damn, hang on. Yeah. Wow. I think that was it for the boxing love. Yeah, I'm trying to think of a good toy. We had, oh, I remember we grew up by this guy. He was like an Elvis impersonator, but he didn't really want to be. but he had broke his hip in some type of deal he'd broken his hip or his leg and they'd set it in cement you know he'd had some locals set it and so when they broke the cast off of them they broke it with like a ball peen hammer or something they broke his leg in another place when they broke the shit off so his leg was bad man Elvis impersonated but he didn't really want to be well yeah and this is what happened sorry I think I started the story in the middle but so he ended up having Matt, like he had that. Oh, he was an Elvis impersonator after he broke. Yeah, because he ended up getting this at Tick. Because he had that, he had that, he had that TikTok thing. Yeah, he had that, like, you know that thing? He didn't want to show Elvis how to dance, but he did. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I didn't thought about it like that. But you ever know, yeah, you ever see that thing like on a, like a rich guy's desk that moves back and forth and keeps time or whatever? He had that just, he ended up getting that TikTok in him a little bit. And so he ended up, everywhere he'd go, people started calling him Elvis, and so he started impersonating him. But I can't remember what that story was about. Yeah, where were we? Oh, Christmas stuff. Yes. You won't talk about Christmas for some reason. Yeah, one night I went over to, I was walking by their house one night, and he was making his son, he was trying to make his son like a shirt out of wood. And I remember thinking this, they've really gone off, you know? Yeah. It was just like different times. People were always using wood for different stuff in our town. But anyway, yeah, sorry, I got a little bit lost there. But Trace Atkins, man, thanks for coming by, man. It was on my way. I didn't have to go far out of the way. It's good to see you, man. I know we've been talking about it for a little while, man. So thank you very much. Dude, one thing that we talked about last time I saw you, I think it was two times ago, that your mom was a mayor. Your mom was a mayor. We're both from Louisiana. And your mom's a mayor in Serepta? Serepta, yeah. Serepta. She's still the mayor. How's she fairing as the mayor? Nobody else wants to do it. And nobody else, I mean, it's one of those little towns that, you know, it's just not a lot going on around there anymore. Once the mill shut down and everything, it's just not a lot happening. So the population decreases every year, you know. So she's trying to hold it together best she can, but nobody else wants the job. It's nothing, not that much to do. What kind of issues you feel like is she dealing with us? She even relate any of that to you. She just writes a lot of letters to people to clean their yards up. You know, that's what she does, I swear. She's always writing people letters, your yard looks bad. You need to clean you, you know. She wants everybody to clean their yards up. I mean, hey, it starts with that kind of what. making your bed or whatever. Dude, I got a freaking letter one day here from Neighborhood Watch or like, you haven't been doing your shift. I'm like, I didn't, I didn't know we had a neighborhood watch, you know? And I'm like, I haven't been doing my shift. And my shift was from Saturdays from like one to four in the afternoon. I'm like, that's, you know, I'm usually trying to enjoy it. That's when I kind of will enjoy myself on the weekends. But I'm like, bitch, I don't even have, I didn't know we had a neighborhood watch. And I don't think y'all want me out there because I forget what team, what side I'm on. You know, I start going near people's houses or whatever. I forget what team I'm on, brother. And that's a volunteer thing too, right? Yeah. Or they just volunteered you. I think that's just a way now. I mean, if I'm, I don't recall volunteering to take a shift. That's what I said. And I was like, well, I don't even know, you know, I don't even know. And I was like, I wrote back, do we have a uniform or anything? And they, and they wrote back, ha, ha, like in caps. I'm like, bitch, don't, you know, I don't know. It's just kind of like, I think of something. You're asking a serious question. Well, yeah, I don't want. Don't I get like an orange vest or something? Don't I get a damn merit badge on a hat or something? Because what I don't want to be is wandering around somebody's yard saying I'm neighborhood watch and they don't have any, you know what I'm saying? They've never heard about it. Sure you are. Yeah. Yeah. And you get popped off. So how's that, how's a, how's a, surrender? Repta changed since you were there. Before you answer that, actually, what does Surrepta mean? Can you look that up for me? Or do you know? It's a town in the, it's an old, it's an old biblical, somewhere around Israel, way back in the day. But they named it after an old woman named Serepta Carter back in the late 1800s. Serepta, Louisiana, yes, has got its name for Serepta Carter, an early benefactor who donated a large Bible to the community. first church around 1868. That's all it took to get the town named after you? That was it. It was the Bible. I wonder what it cost to get it renamed. I could see it being... Two Bibles, maybe. That reminds me one thing my mama did. There was this girl got in trouble for something. I can't remember something to do with drugs. And so my mama was... She gets to play judge every now and then over these little... you know, misdemeanor type things, you know, and she sentenced the girl to go to Sunday school for six months. And she, my daughter called me, and she was like, Dad, you're not going to believe what my mom did. I was like, what? She said, she sentenced this girl to go to Sunday school for six months. And I called my mom, and I was like, you can't do that. You know, I'm pretty sure that's illegal. You can't make somebody go to church. And she said, well, I did. Yeah. Okay. Oh, my God, that's her. This is my jurisdiction trace. I can't believe, y'all. I have a picture of my mom. Oh, she's a beautiful lady. What's her first name? Peggy. Peggy. Adkins, does she go by? Peggy Adkins. Yeah, she's the mayor. Thank you for your service, Peggy over there. Keeping it together. Somebody's got to keep it together. And that town's changed. You said a lot of had a mill. Did it have a mill when you growing up? Yeah, it had a mill about eight miles away. That's where everybody worked. Yeah. Oilfield's still doing pretty well around there, but that's the only game in town. But then, you know, the school was what really made that town special. I thought when I was growing up, it was K through 12 all on one campus. But then when they, you know, when they consolidated the schools, now all the kids have to go to another town. And they just made that, took that campus and just made it a middle school. Yeah. So it's not the same anymore. I think that happened to a lot of places over the time. Yeah. You know, I think that was kind of a popular thing. All the people moved away and there just weren't enough kids to justify having a K through 12. They just weren't enough kids. Yeah, I think when you start to lose little things like that, it takes away something, you know. It did. It takes away some tradition. It did. And that was, it had that little charm about it because all the kids in town went to that school. Oh, yeah. You know, so it was just so every, the whole community was always. always behind the school, supported the school at every ball game and all that, you know. But then that just went away and they're, you know, sad. Yeah, a lot of things started to kind of change like that. I wonder, do you think that was like a financial choice that towns made? Or was it like? Well, there just weren't enough people, man. Once the meal shut down, people started leaving. So, you know, it's, I mean, it's decreased. The population has decreased pretty much every year since that happened. Yeah. you know, decades ago. It's just... It's a lot of towns like that in this country. Yeah. When a lot of business went away, man, when we go out touring, I'm sure you've seen it over the years. You go by places, some places, it's, you know, they're trying to redo the downtown. Like Amarillo, I was surprised at downtown. Like, you know, I'd always heard about it in country music. You know, and I went there, and there's some things that are coming back in it, you know, and it's a night, there's structure there, but it just doesn't have, you know, it's just missing like a, you can see like an energy that once was, you know, in a lot of places. You know, Shreveport's the same way. Yeah. Yeah, sure. I mean, I've never spent a lot of time in Amarillo, but, yeah. Shreeport, you know, the casinos have helped, you know, on the river. Bojure City has really prospered more than Shreeport has. I think in the very beginning, I think Bojure Parish was a little more receptive to the casino stuff than Cato Parish was. Yeah. Yeah, dude, I remember learning about the parishes growing up in Louisiana. That was fun, man. Louisiana's still the only state in the country that's still under Napoleonic law. I mean, they practice Napoleonic law as much as they can. I wonder what are some wild things that happened under Napoleonic laws? You see if you can bring that up. I don't know, yeah. Because it used to be, I would hear a rumor like if you lost a thumb or something, during employment, that was 25 grand. There wasn't any lawsuits. There wasn't any, you know what I'm saying? Really? Yeah, like you had a justifiable rate. If you lost a whole leg now, we're talking 80 grand, you know? I always thought it was like. Per did, per joint. Like a whole finger was like maybe that. But then if just this, then it was not as much if you just cut it off here. Oh, I see. You know what I mean? Yeah, because it was per joint. But then you'd have some drunk guy who was laid on his rent or something just chopping one. just to catch it, you know. Yeah, I could see that. But I guess that's fair. Louisiana's civil law system, the most notable and practical highlights. Louisiana's the only state that practices is forced airship, a concept rooted in a point in that code. If a person dies with children age 23 or younger, a specific portion of the estate must legally go to them. Oh, so you can't even write your kids out of the wheel in Louisiana, I guess. Dang. I moved for that. Yeah. What a no buyer beware. Oh, wow. What does that say? No buyerware. In standard common law states, real estate sales operate under caveat mTOR, which means buyer beware. Because Louisiana follows European civil law, the burden is strictly on the seller to disclose known defects and potential issues prior to the sale. I like that. Yeah, that ain't bad. That should do that everywhere. Feels fair. What about if you lose a limb or something, if you get a rebate on it? I don't know. Get into that. I got that, you know, but they put it back on. Are you missing something? No, like I cut my little finger off, but they put it back on and just fused all the joints together because it didn't work anymore. Can you straighten it or not? No, no, it's fused like that. Because he asked me how I wanted it. And he said, you want me to put it straight? And I was like, no, man. I said, put it like in the suss position. Yeah. You know, and he's like suss position. said, yeah, playing guitar, because at least I can, if you put it straight, you might as well just cut it off. It's going to be useless, but put it like that, and I can still play, you know, play a little guitar. I can't reach up the neck with it anymore. But a B-sharp, it'll help, huh? I just, I can't reach with it, but, you know, and piano playing. I mean, it's really bad. Oh, yeah. I mean, maybe you could rattle off some Christmas carols with that bad deal. But is that true, though? You had it set up like that? Yeah. He asked me how I wanted it Before he fuse the joints You're like almost like a little bit of Pinocchio Like a That's wild dude Yeah I wonder what I would get my hand Say if something if they had to have it I'd probably get these down And this went up to be honest with you You know what I'm saying? Just in case they ever come around Ask him to do that neighborhood watch again But that's wild That's one of the wildest stories I think I've ever heard Brother that you thought about that in advance You said well look I had plenty of time to think about it because I cut it off. I was working offshore, so it took them six hours to come get me and fly me back to the beach to go to the hospital. That was before you were doing music? I was playing guitar, you know. That was the first thing I thought when I cut it. It was like, oh, man, I ain't going to be able to play guitar anymore. You were wrong. Well, thank God. I'm not very good, but at least I can still use it a little bit. So you worked on an oil rig? Because that's kind of a Louisiana job. That's something I forget about, dude. When I got out of school, you'd hear like some guy, if he was kind of lucky, he got a job out on the rigs. He was going to do two weeks on, two weeks off. Yeah, that's kind of my first wife's uncle worked offshore. He was a superintendent for Texco. And he got me a job working on a drilling rig for Global Marine. Was that a pretty good gig? Do you remember enjoying it when you went out there? What was that like? I loved it. But yeah, I've worked in oilfield for 10 years, six years I worked offshore on drilling rig. And I enjoyed it. And when y'all hit oil, would people lose it and just be, like, beating their hat against their knee and stuff like that? Like, you see them? Man, that never happened, you know. It wasn't like that anymore. Were y'all having a good time out there? Like, were you guys, would you play music at night for the gang? I'd go up to the wheelhouse and, you know, try to write, and they would start coming up. and wanting me to do haggard tunes or whatever, you know, Hank Jr., and stuff like that. But by the time I was working out there, you know, those wildcat and things that you see from the movies back in the day when they'd hit oil and it'd just blow out, you know, wasn't like that anymore. People catch it in their mouths and shit. They had it dialed in, you know, so very, very seldom did we take a kick. That sucks, man. It almost takes a fun out of it because some of the fun would be running under and letting that shit hit you. I used to work on a soybean farm up near like Faradie, Louisiana, up near like right across the river from Natchez. And sometimes a fertilizer rig, I'd be sitting there filling up like one of those big balls that's on it with fertilizer. And I'd forget the fertilizer was going in there. And so I'd be sitting there just daydreaming or whatever, just kicking dirt or just, I don't know, listening to country music. I used to, it would just be top 40 out there all the time and I'd listen to it. and that spray rig would just start it would just right out the top just geysering out and it would be like bad chemicals fertilizer and it I mean just flying pretty high voltage shit pouring all on you getting in you and it was hot sun so finally I'd get over there and turn it off I'd like oh damn because I was so absent-minded but then you're standing in the hot sun with this fertilizer on you man and that shit would just God I couldn't get body hair to grow on my neck or anywhere near some of my glands for probably 18 months I would bet. I thought I was, I thought I was going to turn into a damn turnip, you know? They're going to put me in a little chair or something, a little baby seat. I used to have dry spots on my hands from sometimes when we would complete a well, which was very seldom. Usually we'd just drill one and then move on to the next location, drill another one. But sometimes they'd want us to stay and complete it and test the well. And so when you completed one, you'd have to displace all the mud and put calcium chloride or zinc bromide. or something like that. And, man, I worked Derek, so it was my job to make sure all that stuff was mixed up right. And if you got it on you, it was just, it was nasty, man. And it eats you up. All your skin would peel off. Really? Damn. Summer adds up fast. A trip here, a dinner there, a couple concerts. Makes you wonder, are you getting the most out of your money? That's where Chime comes in. Chime is changing the way people bank. They're not like traditional old banks who charge fees and gatekeep rewards. Nope. Chime offers the most rewarding, fee-free banking, all with no overdraft fees, no monthly fees, no minimum balance fees. You get 5% cash back on Chime card in a category of choice, like gas or groceries. all while building credit through regular everyday spending with no credit check. Join the millions who are already banking fee-free with America's number one choice for banking. Head to chime.com slash Theo. That's chime, C-H-I-M-E dot com slash Theo. Sign up now. It only takes a few minutes. Chime is a fintech, not a bank. Banking services and chime card provided by Chimes Bank's Banking. partners. Qualifying direct deposits required, terms and limits apply. Go to chime.com slash disclosures for details. Hey, business owners, you didn't lose that client because of bad luck. You lost them because nobody picked up. They called, it rang out, and 30 seconds later they were talking to your competitor. Dang. Every unanswered call is money walking right out the door. At some point, you got to stop leaving money on the table and say, Let's fucking quo. Today's episode is brought to you by Quo, spelled QUO, the business phone system built so you never miss a call. With Quo, all your calls, texts, and voicemails live in one place so anyone in your team can pick up a conversation, see the full history, and respond fast. Set up in minutes on any device, keep your existing number, and add teammates as you go. Grow. No IT, no hassle. Money is on the line. Always say hello with Quo. Try Quo for free, plus get 20% off your first six months when you go to Quo.com slash Theo. That's QUO.com slash T-H-E-O. What's up, Gary? Oh, is that a little dog, huh? Yes, Victoria's dog. That's a beautiful dog. His name's Gary Busey. His name's what? Gary Bucy. Is it? Yeah. How'd y'all choose it? Because I was pulling afloat in a Christmas parade in our little town we live in. And it was for a pet shelter that Victoria volunteers at. And she came running up to my truck and had this little bitty dog. And she held him up to the window. And at the time, he had, like, his baby teeth and his grown teeth at both because he had, like, two full sets of teeth. And she brought him up to the truck, and his teeth were sticking out, and he had that blonde thing sticking up on top of his head. I said, that dog looks like Gary Busey. And so we took him home that day, and that's his name. They do have similar kind of hair structure or whatever. Yeah, yeah. But he's lost all his teeth now, so he doesn't look the same. Oh, as you? I haven't seen Gary in a long time. If you put their pictures side by side, it looks exactly like. They should put a dog collar on Gary Bucci, the man, just so people... A leash. Or, yeah, just to, you know what I'm saying? I think all of us at certain points in our lives should have a collar on with our mother's information on it. Oh, my God, that's not a real picture of him, is it? Is that Gary? Someone said he was delivering pizza somewhere. Oh, geez, dad. Is that real? Oh, my God. That could be him, or that could just be any guy from Maine. So I think that could go either way, man. That's unfortunate. I think he looked pretty good. How old is Gary Busey, though? He's got to be late 70s, I'd say, probably, at least. 82. 82, wow, okay. I got to go back and watch some of his work, man. He's a talent that I sometimes forget about. A lot of people have. He's a talented guy. I know he was doing like a lot of TikTok. He was doing a lot of, like, Christmas cards for something, like audio verbal Christmas cards. He does those things. Yeah, I saw a couple of them. They were pretty cool. I thought one of them was kind of wild, though. What was it? I think he'll do anything if you'll send him some money. He'll read anything for you. Yeah, oh, this might be it. Let's see it. Let's see that. Is that a video that we can see? I'll do that too. Here we go. People don't ever ask me to. Hey, it's Gary Busy, and I have got a great Christmas present for you. listen to this that's what a goose sounds like where they're flat they let you know they're up there you get a bunch of geese together they're hawking in the air thanks Gary awesome dude but I tell you this he needs to be on you know National Geographic channel you know with that kind of insight to the wildlife that shit we didn't know That's more than I've learned. Thanks, Gary. That's more than I've learned in a while, I think, though. But at least he still has a great sense of humor, man. I'll say that. I don't think he was trying to be funny. You don't think so? I don't know. I hope he was. Yeah. He might have been. I've been around Gary, a good bit. Oh, you have? He's legit, crazy. Oh, he is? I didn't even know that. Yeah. Yeah. I just see stuff, and you always think it's just him being him, you know? Oh, we had a traumatic brain injury. Yeah, he had a motorcycle wreck. Oh, I didn't know this, or I didn't remember it. He had a malignant tumor from a sinus cavity as well. It said in 97. In 88, he had a motorcycle crash. So there was kind of a before him and after him type of energy? Oh, wow. He's always been a little crazy, though. Yeah. But then after the motorcycle wreck, he went full-blown. Oh, yeah, that'll bake it in. That'll bake it is. It's in the ingress. ingredients then. I love him, though he's funny. Yeah, entertaining guy. Did you have any other jobs, man, for you really got kind of like, for you took on music full time? Well, when I moved here, I went out to DuPont and worked out there on O'Hickory Lake at that plan out there. I worked for B.E.N.K. construction. I worked out there for a couple years before I had a record deal. Yeah. And was that just like day-to-day? Like, what kind of stuff they have you doing? I'm a move Piper Fitter's helper. Fitter's helper. Oh, you worked with pipe fitting? Were you in the union? No. Oh, dude, my buddy Frickin' Corry was in the freaking union, dude. Piper's union? Yeah, he said he was. He was always over there just drinking. He'd bring a big thermos of milk and drink it all the time on the sidelines of work. And then he gets sick if they were out in the sun and shit. He was a damn liability. But my brother ended up hiring him because they were friends. But he's a gypsy. You know, some of those guys can do. whatever. They'll spray your house and, you know, they'll spray your driveway and sell these, tell you its asphalt. You know what I'm talking about? If somebody show up with a truck full of nothing and be like, yeah, we got a truck full of it. And you don't even go look in the truck to see if anything's in it. Nothing's in it. It's just a spray rig with a little bit of paint and they'll paint it on there. Um, but anyway, yeah. Uh, I'm trying to think of what are we talking about? Just jobs we had. Oh, dude, I'll tell you one. I remember I sold they had door-to-door Italian going on in our area for a while. This