Tracy Lawrence

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Tracy Lawrence (born 27 January 1968) is an American country musician.

Tracy Lawrence was born in Atlanta, Texas and raised in Foreman, Arkansas. Lawrence played in his first band at the age of 16. He attended Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia, where he was a member of Sigma Pi Fraternity. In 1990 Lawrence left Arkansas and went to Nashville, Tennessee.

Lawrence took jobs as an ironworker and in phone sales while he tried to break into the Nashville music scene. He began participating in talent shows and earned enough money to live on. In 1991 he had a gig at the Bluebird Cafe and met Wayne Edwards who became his manager.

With Edwards assistance Lawrence signed with Atlantic Records and released his first album Sticks and Stones. On 31 May 1991 Lawrence walked his former girlfriend to the door of her hotel room and was confronted by three armed men. The men robbed them and attempted to force Lawrence and his friend into her motel room. Lawrence resisted and was shot four times, allowing his friend to escape. Two of the wounds were major and necessitated surgery. One of the bullets remains embedded in Lawrence's pelvis.

Lawrence's album shot up the charts to number one on the back of publicity from the shooting and spawned several Top 10 singles. Lawrence's second album Alibis went Platinum and generated three straight Number One singles.

Three years later, some teenagers were giving the star the finger, harrassing, and swerving into him while he was driving he retaliated by firing his.357 magnum in the air to scare them, then he followed them to there driveway and headed home, precipitating a $4.2 million civil suit.

Lawrence was Billboard's Top New Male Vocalist in 1992 and received the Academy of Country Music's Best New Artist and Top New Male Vocalist in 1993.

In 1994 Lawrence released his third album, I See It Now was also a Platinum album. Lawrence released a Live album in 1995 and another studio album entitled Time Marches On in 1996. In 1997 Lawrence released another album entitled Coast is Clear which he co-produced. All told, Lawrence generated 7 Number One singles by this time and every one of his albums at this point in his career had gone Platinum.

In March 1997, Lawrence married a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. But by September, they'd separated, and by December she'd filed charges against him in Nevada for allegedly throwing her into a wall, punching and threatening to kill her. Lawrence, who admitted to shoving his wife, was eventually convicted of misdemeanor battery and suspended by his record label until he got "his personal matters straight." He was ordered to pay a $500 fine to a women's shelter in Las Vegas.[1]

In 2005, he released the album "Then & Now: The Hits Collection" that had him singing new vocals on the majority of his hit songs, as well as two new songs, "Used to the Pain" and "If I Don't Make it Back." both of which charted on the Billboard Country Charts. The new recordings sounded very similar to the previous ones, although on some tracks, such as "I See It Now" and "If The World Had a Front Porch" Lawrence's maturity may have improved the vocals, giving them a little more depth. The main reason for re-recording the songs instead of just making a run of the mill greatest hits collection was that Lawrence had switched record labels and Universal Music Group, who he was recording for at the time, did not hold the rights to the old recordings.

In 2006, Lawrence launched Rocky Comfort Records (RCR), a partnership with his manager and brother Laney Lawrence. The label will operate as a joint venture with CO5 Nashville (a division of CO5 Music). His new single "Find Out Who Your Friends Are,” was released to radio August 21, 2006. On January 30, 2007 Rocky Comfort Records released "For The Love" Lawrence's first studio album in almost three years.

Lawrence is known to have a wide range with sounds ranging from neotraditional country to songs with a definite southern rock feel.

Lawrence has visited US troops involved in peacekeeping operations in Kosovo and annually participates in a golf tournament to raise funds for cystic fibrosis research. Lawrence has also purchased equipment for his hometown high school in Arkansas.

Lawrence has been inducted into the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame.

[edit] Singles

Year	Title	US Hot 100	US Country	Album
1992	"Sticks And Stones"		1	Sticks And Stones
1992	"Today's Lonely Fool"^A		3	Sticks And Stones
1992	"Runnin' Behind"		4	Sticks And Stones
1993	"Somebody Paints The Wall"		8	Sticks And Stones
1993	"Alibis"	72	1	Alibis
1993	"Can't Break It To My Heart"		1	Alibis
1993	"My Second Home"		1	Alibis
1994	"If The Good Die Young"		1	Alibis
1994	"Renegades, Rebels, And Rogues"		7	Maverick (soundtrack)
1994	"I See It Now"	84	2	I See It Now
1995	"As Any Fool Can See"		2	I See It Now
1995	"Texas Tornado"		1	I See It Now
1995	"If The World Had A Front Porch"		2	I See It Now
1996	"If You Loved Me"		4	Time Marches On
1996	"Time Marches On"		1	Time Marches On
1996	"Stars Over Texas"^A		2	Time Marches On
1997	"Is That A Tear"^A		2	Time Marches On
1997	"Better Man, Better Off"		2	Coast Is Clear
1997	"How A Cowgirl Says Goodbye"		4	Coast Is Clear
1997	"The Coast Is Clear"		26	Coast Is Clear
1998	"While You Sleep"		46	Coast Is Clear
2000	"Lessons Learned"	40	3	Lessons Learned
2000	"Lonely"		18	Lessons Learned
2001	"Unforgiven"		35	Lessons Learned
2001	"Life Don't Have To Be So Hard"		36	Tracy Lawrence
2002	"What A Memory"		53	Tracy Lawrence
2004	"Paint Me A Birmingham"	42	4	Strong
2004	"It's All How You Look At It"		36	Strong
2004	"Sawdust On Her Halo"		46	Strong
2005	"Used to the Pain"		35	Then and Now: The Hits Collection
2006	"If I Don't Make It Back"		42	Then and Now: The Hits Collection
2006	"Find Out Who Your Friends Are"^B		17	For The Love