Rodney Atkins photo courtesy of Curb Records.
Jan. 22, 2007 — Rodney Atkins wants to make one thing perfectly clear: He will never change to fit into somebody else's idea of what he should be.
"Every song I sing is about the world as I know it," he says. "Every word is real. I'm not going to sing it if it isn't."
Clearly in Atkins' case, honesty has been the best policy. The title track from his current "If You're Going Through Hell" album topped the country charts, and the follow-up single, "Watching You," has also gone to No. 1. The album remains a constant in the Top 10 of the country album sales chart.
Atkins takes his honest brand of country music to the Grand Ole Opry, appearing on GAC's Grand Ole Opry Live at 8 pm, ET Sat., Jan. 27.
His childhood near Knoxville, in East Tennessee, was spent "down by the railroad tracks, shooting BBs at old beer cans, choking on a smoke from a Lucky Strike that someone lifted off his old man." When he wasn't doing chores, he was playing baseball with friends. And by the time he reached high school, Atkins was playing music both as a solo performer and with a band.
He attended Tennessee Tech as a psychology major and even gained field experience as a clinical counselor. All the while, though, Atkins continued to visit Nashville, playing gigs whenever possible.
Signed to Curb Records in 2002, he released "Honesty" the following year. And while he's proud of his debut effort, things changed as he prepared to release his current disc.
"We found plenty of great songs for my last album but not all of them match me," the 36-year-old says. "Now we're thinking differently. When I heard 'If You're Going Through Hell,' for example, I loved it. It makes a powerful statement."
Another big change for the second album is that it was not recorded in a Nashville studio. In another attempt to stay true to his roots, Atkins built a simple home studio where he laid down all of his vocals between doing chores and spending time with his family. "This could be the most inexpensive record Curb has ever done," he says, laughing.
"There was no engineer riding me and no studio clock ticking away. I'd just go in whenever I felt like singing, leave for a while to take my son Elijah down to fish at the river and maybe finish after putting him to bed at nine."
And every song had to pass a test. "It's not about whether some artist I admire would sing this song, it's about whether I would sing it."
Touring schedule for Rodney Atkins:
Feb. 8, Cincinnati Gardens, Cincinnati, Ohio
Feb. 9, House of Blues, Cleveland, Ohio
Feb. 13, Mississippi Coliseum, Jackson, Miss.
Feb. 17, Four Rivers Center, Paducah, Ky.
March 16, The Longbranch, Raleigh, N.C.
March 17, Cattle Annie's, Lynchburg, Va.
March 18, Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa.
March 20, Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, Conn.
June 16, Steamboat Days, Burlington, Iowa
June 22, Meramec Community Fair, Sullivan, Mo.
June 23, Tuttle Creek State Park, Manhattan, Kans.
June 24, Country Jam USA, Grand Junction, Colo.
July 7, Hickory Hill Lakes, Fort Loramie, Ohio
July 8, Lake Winnepesaukah, Rossville, Ga.
July 12, Outagamie County Fair, Seymour, Wis.
July 13, Wisconsin State Fair, Chippewa Falls, Wis.
July 14, Hodag Country Fair, Rhinelander, Wis.
July 17, Allegany Country Fair, Cumberland, Md.
July 18 and 19, Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, Conn.
July 25, Elkhart County 4-H Fair, Goshen, Ind.
July 26, Rock County 4-H Fair, Janesville, Wis.
July 27, Adams county Fair, Mendon, Ill.
Aug. 1, New River Valley Fair, Dublin, Va.
Aug. 5, Franklin County Fair, Malone, N.Y.
Aug. 7, Warren County Fair, Pittsfield, Pa.
Aug. 10, Franklin County Fair, Courtland, Va.
Aug. 11, Ashtabula County Fair, Jefferson, Ohio
Aug. 12, Miami County Fair, Troy, Ohio
Aug. 13, Huron County Fair, Norwalk, Ohio
Aug. 17, Armada Fair, Armada, Mich.
Aug. 18, Clark County Fair, Berryville, Va.
Aug. 25, Firemans Grounds, Schaefferstown, Pa.
(Ronna Rubin, a 21-year veteran of the music industry, can be contacted at ronna@gacmusicbeat.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)
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