Chris Gaines

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Chris Gaines

Background information
Origin	Brisbane, Australia
Genre(s)	Alternative rock Rock
Years active	1986–1999
Label(s)	Capitol Records
Associated acts	Garth Brooks

Chris Gaines is a fictional alternative rock singer created as an alter ego for a movie project by Garth Brooks.

1 "Biography"
2 "Timeline"
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] "Biography"

Christian Gene Gaines was born August 10, 1967 in Brisbane, Australia to an Olympic swimmer and her coach. He dropped out of his high school to form a band called Crush, which released the one hit wonder "My Love Tells Me So". After the lead singer died in a plane crash, Gaines went dormant for several years before releasing his first solo album, Straight Jacket, which remained in the Billboard Top 40 for 82 weeks and won four Grammys. Gaines then was involved in a serious car accident in 1992 and required numerous plastic surgeries. He remained reclusive until the release on his last studio album Triangle in 1996.

[edit] "Timeline"

1967 - Chris Gaines born in Brisbane, Australia to Australian Olympic swimmer Carolyn Johnns-Gaines and her husband/coach Gene Gaines.
1972 - Moved to Los Angeles at the age of five.
1984 - Decides to quit school his senior year at Morningside High to pursue his music professionally.
1985 - Joins his best friends Tommy Levitz and Marc Obed in the band CRUSH, signing with Capitol Records later that year.
1986 - Crush releases self-titled debut album. The second single, "My Love Tells Me So," is a bouncy, happy, Beatles-like smash and one of the year's most successful songs. But the band's success is short-lived when lead singer Tommy Levitz dies in a plane crash later that year.
1987 - Joe Smith of Capitol Records and Chris discuss possibility of a solo career. During the two years of quiet that follows Levitz's death, Chris finishes his GED.
1989 - Debuts his solo album, Straight Jacket. Both the public and the music industry respond favorably; the album spends an extraordinary 224 weeks on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart, 82 weeks on the Billboard Top 40, and wins the Grammy Award for Album of the Year; indeed, Gaines sweeps the Grammys, defeating Bonnie Raitt in three other categories and sparking an over-played "rivalry" mainly cooked up by music biz publicists. Features the hits "Maybe" (a lovely flute and piano ballad co-written and produced by Paul McCartney), "White Flag" (from Chris' "'80s hair band phase"), and "Digging for Gold" (a swampy, Kenny Loggins-influenced song). Still Chris' biggest-selling album to date.
1990 - Tragedy strikes again when Chris' father dies in the fall of 1990 after his long battle with cancer. To make matters worse, Haywood, Mississippi town councilwoman Sandy Thompson proclaims Chris "anti-American" based on the vaguely anti-capitalistic lyrics to "Digging for Gold" and starts an "Anti-Gaines" movement that lasts less than a week.
1991 - Releases his second solo album, Fornucopia. A very dark and angry album, it debuts at #1 and spends a combined 18 weeks on the top of the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart. Includes a soulful remake of the 1972 Ramsey Sellers classic, "It Don't Matter to the Sun" (sounding vaguely like a country song) and the instant hit "Main Street," co-authored by master of folk Bob Dylan, who recycles in careful measure from his "Knockin' on Heaven's Door."
1992 - Involved in a violent single-car crash that nearly ends his life in winter. Spends six weeks in the hospital and over two years undergoing extensive plastic surgery on his face, shoulder and hands. Will not allow himself to be seen or photographed again until 1996. The first plastic surgeries reportedly leave his face distinctly darker than usual.
1994 - Releases his third solo album, Apostle, in the winter. Without any artist promotion, still manages to spend a combined 8 weeks atop the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart. Features the singles "Way of the Girl" (cheeseball keyboard and a chicken-scratch guitar to a hip-hop beat) and "Unsigned Letter" (shades of Bryan Adams).
1996 - Re-emerges into public view for the first time that winter with Triangle. Is dubbed "The New Prince" by "Out" magazine because of his new look and the fact that his music shows a move towards R&B - a distinct change in musical style from his past. "Driftin' Away" (fluffy, soft and sweet, with elements of R&B and country), "That's the Way I Remember It" (a bold step in the R&B direction), and "Snow in July" (gritty funk leaving some calling him the white Stevie Wonder and detractors calling him the black Steely Dan in reference to his plastic surgery), are the featured hits on the album.
1999 - Releases his Greatest Hits compilation, containing the songs "Lost In You" (a lightweight ballad about infatuation influenced by Tracey Chapman) and "Right Now" (a cover of The Youngbloods' "Let's Get Together" to a folk-disco beat combined with a spoken word piece), from his forthcoming concept album The Lamb