Trace Adkins talks cornbread, karaoke, and his one-song set with Bryan West at CMA Fest 2025
Trace Adkins chats with Bryan West at CMA Fest 2025 and reveals his unexpected go-to karaoke pick
A week before celebrating 30 years in country music at the Ryman Auditorium, Trace Adkins was headed to Home Depot.
“I have to get some chain because I’m hanging a chandelier and we didn’t have enough chain,” he said nonchalantly.
The conversation was on brand for the Louisiana native. Even after three decades of hit songs, sold-out shows and movie roles, he still projects the same grounded personality that helped fans connect with him in the first place.
Trace Adkin’s journey to ‘Every Light in the House’
In January of 1996, Adkins signed with Capitol Records, home to country music powerhouse Garth Brooks. When the announcement came out, the Tennessean’s “Brad About You” entertainment column introduced readers to the six-foot-six crooner as “a new tower of singing power.”
“Talk about your big breaks,” columnist Brad Schmitt wrote.
Adkins had just celebrated his 34th birthday. His debut single had shown promise and his rapid rise felt imminent.
“Oh, well, you know, dream come true,” Adkins said when asked about that start of his career. “My first single, ‘There’s a Girl in Texas,’ I think it got in the top 20, something like that. And you know, I wasn’t disappointed with that. And then ‘Every Light in the House’ came out, went top five and then my next single — ‘(This Ain’t) No Thinkin’ Thing’ — went number one.”
For a moment, Adkins thought the climb might keep accelerating.
“I just thought, ‘Here we go,'” he said. “This is what I wanted to do and this is just how easy it is. Then it got harder.”
Looking back now, “be patient” is what he would tell that younger version of himself.
“I wanted it to stay on that trajectory and that was unrealistic,” Adkins said.
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‘Ladies Love Country Boys’
Three decades later, Adkins is now celebrating a career that includes 12 million albums sold, more than 2 billion streams, multiple Grammy nominations and a catalog packed with country staples like “You’re Gonna Miss This,” “Ladies Love Country Boys,” “Chrome,” “Songs About Me” and “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk.”
He confirms the two Ryman shows will lean heavily into the fan favorites. Jason Crabb will join him May 22 and Carolyn Dawn Johnson on May 23.
“I do a greatest hit show,” he said. “I want to give the fans what they know, what they want to hear. I don’t want them to leave going, ‘I wish he would have done that hit. If you go to a George Strait concert and he says, ‘I’m going to do my new album,’ it’s like, ‘No, man, I want to hear ‘The Chair’ and ‘Amarillo By Morning.'”
He said fans should not expect elaborate production or overcomplicated theatrics. The shows are designed around the music itself, his rich bass vocals and the catalog that carried him from a Tillie & Lucy’s pub singer to one of country music’s most recognizable stars.
He also keeps his pre-show routine remarkably simple.
“I used to smoke Marlboros and walk out on stage and I don’t do that anymore,” he said. “So now it’s just a cup of coffee and let’s go. I hear people that do the vocal warm-ups and the scales and everything before they go out. I’ve never been that guy. I just go out, kick off and run down the field.”
But fans may be surprised that Adkins still gets nervous performing at the Ryman and the Grand Ole Opry, where he has been a member since the late Little Jimmy Dickens famously stood on a stepladder to invite Adkins to become a member in 2003. Later that year, Adkins was officially inducted by one of his personal heroes, Ronnie Milsap.
“I have such reverence and respect for both those buildings and the history of it all,” he said. “It still makes me nervous, like I haven’t deserved to be there.”
‘Semper Fi’
The only performance that still rattles him more than those stages is singing the national anthem.
“If you screw that one up, you’re on YouTube for the rest of your life,” he said.
Because the Ryman performances fall near Memorial Day weekend, Adkins explained how veterans often approach him to share what songs like “Semper Fi” and “Arlington” mean to them.
“I don’t do ‘Arlington’ unless it’s in the right setting or the right time of year,” he said. “And Memorial Day is the day that I feel like ‘Arlington’ was written for. So that’ll be in the set list at the Ryman for sure.”
The Ryman performances may feature a surprise or two.
“It’s going to be a little different from just our standard touring show,” he said. “We’re home. We’ve got a lot of friends around here, some of the finest musicians in the world, and might coax them to come out.”
Bryan West is a music reporter at The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow him on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.
