Trace Adkins knows country

A former oil-rig roughneck, Trace Adkins has come a long way since the days of working the derricks.

If he’d never made it in country music, he’d probably still be out on the rigs. “I’d be making a good living and probably be content,” he likes to tell people.

At 6-foot-6, armed with one of the deepest and truest baritones in the business, he’s lived the life of a country song. A former wife shot him in the chest. He lost a finger in an oil-rig accident and had it reattached so he could play guitar. And his battles with alcohol addiction are the stuff of legend.

Since 1996, when he debuted with the No. 1 hit “(This Ain’t) No Thinkin’ Thing,” he’s delivered a steady stream of sing-along hits like “I’m Tryin’,” “Then They Do,” “Hot Mama,” “Songs About Me,” “Honky-tonk Badonkadonk” and “Ladies Love Country Boys.”

Before the 52-year-old occasional WWE wrestler plays the Green Music Center’s Weill Hall tonight - a rare country show at the classical gem - here are five things you should know about Trace Adkins:

1. Born in rural northern Louisiana, he attended Louisiana Tech University, playing defensive end on the football team, but never graduated. After working the rigs, he got his big break in the mid-1990s when a record label exec saw him playing a honky-tonk one night in Nashville.

2. In 2001, his manager got fed up with Adkins’ alcohol addiction and forced him into an intervention with family and friends.

“If it didn’t end up in that situation, it certainly was going to cost me my career,” he told the Hollywood Reporter. “And my manager saw that, and they cared enough about me to gather my friends and family and co-workers all together, and they put me through one of those gut-wrenching interventions.”

Earlier this year, after a bust-up with a karaoke impersonator on a cruise ship, Adkins announced he was entering rehab again.

3. As an actor, Adkins’ range spans from voice-over work in the animated TV show “King of the Hill” to tough biker dudes in the film “The Lincoln Lawyer.” But he still hasn’t met his match: “I think my ultimate role is a mute gunslinger - that’s what I’m looking for,” he told a reporter. “I’d just ride into town and shoot people, and I have a love interest, but I don’t have any dialogue.”

4. Just imagine you’re a high school kid picking up your date for the prom and 6-foot-6 (6-foot-8 with the cowboy hat) Adkins answers the front door. The father of five daughters, Adkins’ most endearing ode to fatherhood would have to be “Just Fishin’.” Sing along: “She ain’t even thinkin’ ’bout/What’s really goin’ on right now/But I guarantee this memory’s a big’n/And she thinks we’re just fishin’.”

5. At a show last month in Cincinnati, Adkins kicked off a quick 90-minute set by telling the crowd, “(Let’s) do the stuff we know. That’s what you want to hear, right?”

Fans should expect much of the same tonight at the Green Music Center, where he’ll likely bust out all the hits, with a few covers thrown in, from Louis Prima’s “Just a Gigolo” to Wynonna Judd’s “My Strongest Weakness” and on to Bob Seger’s “Roll Me Away.”

Bay Area freelancer John Beck writes about entertainment for The Press Democrat. You can reach him at 280-8014 or john@beckmediaproductions.com.