A Personal Stand: Observations and Opinions from a Freethinking Roughneck, by Trace Adkins

My last book for my month of Biographies and Memoirs -
 

4 Stars!

ABOUT THE BOOK -

Country music superstar Trace Adkins isn’t exactly known for holding back what’s on his mind. And if the millions of albums he’s sold are any indication, when Trace talks, people listen. Now, in A Personal Stand, Trace Adkins delivers his maverick manifesto on politics, personal responsibility, fame, parenting, being true to yourself, hard work, and the way things oughta be.

In his inimitable pull-no-punches style, Trace gives us the state of the union as he sees it, from the lessons of his boyhood in small-town Louisiana to what he’s learned headlining concerts around the world. Trace has worked oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, been shot in the heart, been inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, and braved perhaps the greatest challenge of all: being the father of five daughters. And shaped by these experiences, he’s sounding off.

• I’m incredibly frustrated with the state of American politics. If there were a viable third party, I’d seriously consider joining it.
• If anybody wonders who the good guys are and who the bad guys are in this world, just look at the way we teach our children as opposed to the way the fundamentalist Muslims teach their children.
• Organized labor now exists for the sake of organized labor, and not for the workers it once protected.
• I believe the easiest way to solve the illegal immigration enforcement problem is to go after the employers who hire illegal aliens.
• As a society, we’re unwilling to sacrifice our luxuries and our conveniences in order to conserve. We won’t change until we’re forced to.
• The war on terror is like herpes. People can live with it, but it’ll flare up from time to time.

Brash, ballsy, persuasive, and controversial, A Personal Stand isn’t just the story of Trace Adkins’s life; it’s the story of what life can teach all of us.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR -

Trace Adkins was born Tracy Darrell Adkins in Springhill, Louisiana. He learned to play guitar at an early age and eventually played with the New Commitments. In the early 1990s he performed solo in honky-tonks, and after gaining some fame he moved to Nashville and signed with Capitol Records. He has released seven albums. His most recent, Dangerous Man, debuted at number 1 on the Billboard country chart. A member of the Grand Ole Opry, Trace Adkins has appeared on numerous television shows, including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Hannity & Colmes, and Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher. He lives in Nashville with his wife and five daughters.

MY REVIEW -

Well... Let me start by saying that I LOOOVE this man! LOL
Trace Adkins is my favorite male Country singer (maybe my favorite male altogether, except for maybe my hubby... well...).
This book was so funny! Trace just puts it all out there. He has an opinion about EVERYTHING and is not afraid to share it! Some of it I highly agreed with and some of it I did not but it was all very entertaining and fun to read if I agreed or not!
Trace talks about his time spent working on the offshore drilling rigs, his so many injuries and how he cheated death several times. His drinking problem, his failed marriages and his now successful one, his relationship with his 5 daughters, His years spent on the road playing Honky-tonks, and his career as a singer. But he also talks about - Wal-mart (he's a fan),

 "Wal-mart - You don't have to go anywhere else. Everything you need is in one big place! There's a rickety old man who smiles through yellow dentures, says hello when you walk through the door and shoves a basket at you. I mean, you can have your tires rotated, buy some groceries, get your hemorrhoid cream, pick up some golf balls, and fill a prescription all under one roof. Plus they sell more of my records and CDs, hands down, than anybody!"

the public school system, politics, airport security, playing overseas for the troops in the Persian Gulf, foreign policy, 9/11 (he was the first country singer to visit the disaster site), tobacco crops, oil and natural gas, and sooooo much more! See, I told you he has an opinion on everything!

"Honky-tonk-Badonkadonk" is one of his songs that is basically about women's behinds (you know - butts) -

"It was number two the same week Carrie Underwood went number one with "Jesus Take the Wheel". Right behind me, at number 3 was Brad Paisley's "When I get to Where I'm Going" a song about Heaven. So there I was, in a sticky position. I couldn't pray to the man upstairs, asking, "Lord, could you please make my 'ass' record number one instead of the two Jesus songs?" It would have been wrong. And that's probably why it didn't go number one. I has 'ass' and they had Jesus, and Jesus won, which I guess is the way it ought to be."

That's pretty much the way the whole book is. Its Trace just telling it like it is in his laid-back style. This won't win any literary awards, but it does make you feel like you are just sitting having a conversation with him.