Before They Were Famous

Before They Were Famous: Big Kenny Alphin
Before They Were Famous: Big Kenny Alphin
Before They Were Famous: Big Kenny Alphin
Big Kenny Alphin of Big and Rich might have the country record for most careers held before achieving success on Nashville's biggest stages. According to a 2005 article at Co-Opliving.com, the blond half of the duo held several jobs and ran several businesses before finishing high school. There was the T-shirt company, then he ran a logging crew...
Before They Were Famous: Kix Brooks
Before They Were Famous: Kix Brooks
Before They Were Famous: Kix Brooks
Kix Brooks enjoyed a colorful childhood that eventually included four years at military school before heading to Louisiana Tech University as a theater arts major. He was closer to 30 years old before he arrived in Nashville and scored a songwriting gig for Tree Publishing.
Before They Were Famous: Jason Aldean
Before They Were Famous: Jason Aldean
Before They Were Famous: Jason Aldean
Jason Aldean's country music dreams rode on the back of a Pepsi truck for years before he officially moved to Nashville. The singer began working at a Georgia Pepsi plant at age 17, and soon drove the delivery truck. "I was the guy that rode around in a truck and delivered drinks to all the convenience stores, so this was kind of my back-up plan," Aldean says. "The truck didn't have
Before They Were Famous: Zac Brown
Before They Were Famous: Zac Brown
Before They Were Famous: Zac Brown
Before singing 'Chicken Fried,' Zac Brown was making fried chicken. The Zac Brown Band singer owned his own restaurant (Zac's Place) near Lake Oconee in Georgia and did much of the cooking. He had experience on the stove from serving up catfish at a place called Wagon Wheel and Big Macs at McDonald's. Yep, at some point in his life, Brown likely asked someone: "Do you want fries with that?&qu
Before They Were Famous: Gretchen Wilson
Before They Were Famous: Gretchen Wilson
Before They Were Famous: Gretchen Wilson
Before taking her talents to Nashville, Gretchen Wilson paid her dues in bars and clubs around rural Illinois. Mostly it was just one bar, a dive called Big O's. By age 15 she had dropped out of school to tend bar and cook for the rowdy customers. She worked her way up to manager pretty quickly, and always kept a loaded 12-gauge shotgun near her for protection.

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