Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
Name	Daddy Yankee
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez
Alias	El CangriEl JefeThe Big BossKing Of Reggaeton
Born	February 03, 1977
Origin	San Juan, Puerto Rico
Genre	Reggaeton
Years active	1992–present
Label	El Cartel, Interscope, Sony Music Latin
Website	www.daddyyankee.com }}

Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez (February 3, 1977), known artistically as Daddy Yankee, is a Latin Grammy Award winning Puerto Rican reggaeton recording artist. Ayala was born in Río Piedras, the largest district of San Juan, where he became interested in music at a young age. In his youth he was interested in baseball, and aspired to become a Major League Baseball player. He was unable to continue this sport when he received an injury to one of his legs, leaving him unable to walk correctly. He then became involved in the underground rap movement that was in its early stages in Puerto Rico, later to be called reggaeton. After receiving lessons from several artists within the genre, he developed an independent career, first recording in a production titled ''Playero 37''. After this he began to produce independent albums. His first solo album was ''No Mercy''. He subsequently formed a duo with Nicky Jam, and then continued his solo career with the releases of ''El Cartel'' and ''El Cartel II''. This led him be one of many pioneers of the reggaeton genre earning him the nickname Papi Vaquero.

In 2002 ''El Cangri.com'' became Ayala's first album with international success, receiving coverage in the markets of New York and Miami. ''Barrio Fino'' was released in 2004, and the album received numerous awards, including a Premio Lo Nuestro and a Latin Billboard, as well as receiving nominations for the Latin Grammy and MTV Video Music Awards. ''Barrio Fino'' performed well in the sales charts of the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Japan. On June 5, 2007, El Cartel Records released ''El Cartel: The Big Boss'', which was ranked as the top-selling album in Latin music genres in 2007. He promoted the album with an international tour which began in the United States and continued through Latin America, breaking attendance records in Ecuador and Bolivia.

His performances have appeared on more than 70 albums, including compilations such as ''Mas Flow 2'' and ''Blin Blin vol.1''. Outside of his work as a musician, Ayala has also worked as an actor and producer. Throughout his career, he has been generally reluctant to discuss his personal life, but has publicly expressed the importance of his wife and children to him.

Early life

Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and was influenced by several musicians in his family, including his father and some of his mother's relatives. During his childhood he practiced singing and focused on lyrical improvisation. Although Ayala first aspired to join the ranks of baseball’s Major Leagues, he abandoned this goal after being involved in an incident—at age seventeen, he was caught in the crossfire of a barrio gun battle and received two bullet wounds. One bullet grazed his arm and the other, from an AK-47, hit him in the right thigh and left him with a permanent limp.

Following the incident, he became interested in the underground rap movement, which at the time was in an early organizational stage. He also took more interest in the events that took place in the neighborhood in which he was raised, a public housing project named Villa Kennedy. Early in his career he attempted to imitate the style of Vico C. He went on to emulate other artists in the genre, including DJ Playero, DJ Nelson, and DJ Goldy, taking elements from their styles in order to develop an original style. In doing so, he eventually abandoned the traditional model of rap and became one of the first artists to perform reggaeton. Ayala first recorded with DJ Playero as a featured artist in a production titled ''Playero 37'', which was released in 1992.

Musical career

Independent productions

His first album, titled ''No Mercy'', was produced in 1995 when Ayala was eighteen years old. The production did not sell well, and he continued his work within the genre for the rest of the decade, eventually forming a duo with Nicky Jam. One of the duo's songs, "Posición", was included in the soundtrack of ''One Tough Cop'', a movie directed by Bruno Barreto, that was released in 1998. Beginning in 2000, Ayala began concentrating more on his solo career, releasing albums produced outside studios. The first production he released was titled ''El Cartel'', featuring elements of the mixtape style. In 2001 ''El Cartel II'' was released, a direct sequel to the previous production, and influenced by similar genres.

In 2002 ''El Cangri.com'' was released, and became the first album in Ayala's career to sell well outside Puerto Rico, mostly in the United States. The album was produced by VI Music, an independent recording studio in Puerto Rico, and was not supported by a major label. The most successful single from the album was "Latigazo", which received significant play on radio stations in New York and Miami. The album reached #43 on Billboard's Top Latin Albums chart. Following the release of this disc, Ayala performed at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum before 12,000 fans. The following year VI Music produced ''Los Homerun-es''. The album became the leader in sales in Puerto Rico during a year in which several other reggaeton artists released significant productions, including Luny Tune's ''Mas Flow'', Don Omar's ''The Last Don'', and Tego Calderón's ''El Abayarde''. The album's success helped Ayala receive the publicity required for a crossover to the United States market, and marked the last album he released with VI music before signing a contract with Universal.

2004–2005

Ayala's next album, ''Barrio Fino'', was produced by Luny Tunes and released in July 2004 by El Cartel Records and VI Music. It was the most highly anticipated album in the reggaeton community. Ayala had enjoyed salsa music since he was young, and this led him to include music of genres besides reggaeton in the album. The most prominent of these cross-genre singles was "Melao", in which he performed with Andy Montañez. The album was described as his most complete, and with it he intended to introduce combinations of reggaeton and other genres to the English-speaking market. ''Barrio Fino'' was followed up by an international tour with performances in numerous countries including the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Honduras, Spain, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, and the United States. The album has sold over 500,000 copies in the United States alone and has sold well throughout Latin America and worldwide.

In 2005 Ayala won several international awards, making him one of the most recognized reggaeton artists within the music industry. The first award of the year was a Premio Lo Nuestro within the "Latin music" category, which he received for ''Barrio Fino''. In this event he performed "Gasolina" in a performance that was described as "innovative". ''Barrio Fino'' also won the "Reggaeton Album of the Year" award in the Latin Billboard that took place on April 28, 2005, where he performed a mix of three of his songs in a duo with P. Diddy. The album was promoted throughout Latin America, the United States, and Europe, reaching certified gold in Japan. Due to the album's success, Ayala received promotional contracts with radio stations and soda companies, including Pepsi. His single "Gasolina" received the majority of votes cast for the second edition of ''Premios Juventud'', in which it received eight nominations and won seven awards. Ayala also made a live presentation during the award ceremony. "Gasolina" received nominations in the Latin Grammy and MTV Video Music Awards.

The successful single, "Gasolina", was covered by artists from different music genres. This led to a controversy when Los Lagos, a Mexican banda group, did a cover with the original beat but changed the song's lyrics. The group's label had solicited the copyright permission to perform the single and translate it to a different music style, but did not receive consent to change the lyrics; legal action followed. Speaking for the artist, Ayala's lawyer stated that having his songs covered was an "honor, but it must be done the right way."

2006–present

On April 30, 2006, Ayala was named one of the 100 most influential people by ''Time'' magazine, which cited the 2 million copies of ''Barrio Fino'' sold, Ayala's $20 million contract with Interscope, and his Pepsi endorsement. During this period, Ayala and William Omar Landrón (more commonly known by his artistic name Don Omar) were involved in a rivalry within the genre, dubbed "tiraera". The rivalry received significant press coverage despite being denied early on by both artists. It originated with a lyrical conflict between the artists begun by Ayala's comments in a remix single, where he criticized Landron's common usage of the nickname "King of Kings". Don Omar responded to this in a song titled "Ahora Son Mejor", part of his album ''Los Rompediscotecas''.

''El Cartel: The Big Boss'' was released by Interscope on June 5, 2007. Ayala stated that the album marked a return to his hip-hop roots as opposed to being considered a strictly reggaeton album. The album was produced in 2006, and included the participation of will.i.am, Scott Storch, Tainy Tunes, Neli, and personnel from Ayala's label. Singles were produced with Hector El Father, Fergie, Nicole Scherzinger and Akon. The first single from the album was titled "Impacto", and was released prior to the completion of the album. The album was promoted by a tour throughout the United States, which continued throughout Latin America. He performed in Mexico, first in Monterrey, where 10,000 attended the concert, and later at San Luis Potosí coliseum, where the concert sold out, leaving hundreds of fans outside the building. Ayala performed in Chile as well, and established a record for attendance in Ecuador. He also performed in Bolivia, setting another record when 50,000 fans attended his Santa Cruz de la Sierra concert. This show was later described as "the best show with the biggest attendance in history" and as "something never seen in our country" by the local media. The show lasted for two hours, and the audience sang along with the artist.

According to ''Billboard'' magazine, ''El Cartel: The Big Boss'' was the top-selling album among all Latin music categories in 2007. At the moment of release, the album had sold 500,000 copies in the United States and 50,000 in Mexico. In an interview, Ayala said that he was happy that his album had sold more than those of Juan Luis Guerra and Juanes, and that this was an "official proof that reggaeton's principal exponent defeated the rest of the genres". Ayala made a guest appearance in an album titled "Caribbean Connection" released on June 24, 2008. The production included participation by other Latin American artists such as Wisin & Yandel, Don Omar and Héctor Delgado, along with Jamaican musicians such as Inner Circle, Bounty Killer, Elephant Man and Wayne Wonder. In July 2008, Ayala announced that as part of his work, he would produce a cover version of Thalía's song, Ten Paciencia. Prior to the album's release, Ayala scheduled several activities, including an in-store contract signing. On February 27, 2009, he performed at the Viña del Mar International Song Festival in Chile. In this event, the artists receive awards based on the public's reaction. After performing "Rompe", "Llamado de emergencia", "Tú me dejaste caer", "Gasolina", "Limpia parabrisas" and "Lo que pasó, pasó" over the course of two hours, Ayala received the "Silver Torch", "Gold Torch" and "Silver Seagull" recognitions. On April 24, 2009, he received the Spirit of Hope Award as part of the Latin Billboard Music Awards ceremony. The recognition is given to the artists that participate in community or social efforts throughout the year. The single "Grito Mundial" was released on October 8, 2009, in order to promote his ninth album, ''Mundial''. Despite releasing "El Ritmo No Perdona (Prende)" more than a month before, that single was not considered the first official promotional single.

Film and other career projects

Ayala has negotiated promotional deals with several companies outside of the music industry, releasing merchandise under his name. In 2005, he became the first Latin artist to sign a deal with Reebok, in order to produce accessories, including the licensed clothing line "DY", which was released in 2006. He also teamed up with the company to have his own shoes and sporting goods made, which were first distributed on May 23, 2006. Reebok continued the partnership with the introduction of the Travel Trainer collection in July 2007. In August 2007, Pepsi began an advertising campaign titled "Puertas", in which Ayala is depicted returning to his youth by opening a series of doors.

In 2008, Ayala participated in a campaign to promote voting in the 2008 general elections in Puerto Rico. This initiative included a concert titled "Vota o quédate callao". On August 25, 2008, Ayala endorsed John McCain's candidacy for President of the United States, stating that McCain "has been a fighter for the Hispanic community". As part of this campaign, Ayala moderated a debate titled “Vota o quédate callao: los candidatos responden a los jóvenes”, which was aired on October 9, 2008.

Ayala has worked in the film industry as both an actor and producer. His acting debut was the lead role of ''Vampiros'', a film directed by Eduardo Ortiz and filmed in Puerto Rico. The film premiered at the Festival of Latin American Cinema in New York, where it received a positive reaction. This led Image Entertainment to produce a DVD, internationally released in March 2005. Ayala played the main role "Edgar" in ''Talento de Barrio'', which was filmed in Puerto Rico and directed by José Iván Santiago. Ayala produced the film, which is based on his experience of growing up in a poor city neighborhood. While the film is not directly a biography, Ayala has stated that it mirrors his early life. ''Talento de Barrio's'' debut was scheduled for July 23, 2008, in New York's Latino Film Festival. After the premier, Ayala expressed satisfaction, saying that he had been invited to audition for other producers. On release, ''Talento de Barrio'' broke the record held by ''Maldeamores'' for the most tickets to a Puerto Rican movie sold in a single day in Caribbean Cinemas.

Ayala has been involved in the administration of three organizations, the first being El Cartel Records which he co-owns with Andres Hernandez. He also created the ''Fundación Corazón Guerrero'', a charitable organization in Puerto Rico which works with young incarcerated people. On April 26, 2008, he was presented with a "Latino of the Year Award" by the student organization ''Presencia Latina'' of Harvard College, receiving it for his work with Puerto Rican youth and creating ''Corazón Guerrero''. On February 6, 2008, Ayala announced in a Baloncesto Superior Nacional press conference that he had bought part of the Criollos de Caguas' ownership.

Personal life

Ayala married Mireddys González when he was seventeen years old. The couple have three children: Yamilette, Jeremy and Jesairis. Throughout his career Ayala has kept most of his personal life private, rarely speaking about it in interviews. He has said that he avoids doing so because such details are the only aspect of his life that are not public and that they are like a "little treasure". He made an exception in 2006 when he spoke about his relationship with his wife and children in an interview with María Celeste Arrarás in Al Rojo Vivo. He stated that his marriage is strong because he and his wife are "friends above anything", adding that he has tried to ignore other temptations because "weakness is the reason for the downfall of several artists." He also described his "very close" communication with his children, in which he tries to offer advice against drugs and negative influences. His first daughter was born when he was seventeen years old, which he has described as confusing at first, adding that raising a daughter at that age was a hard experience.

Studio albums

1995: ''No Mercy''

2002: ''El Cangri.com''

2004: ''Barrio Fino''

2007: ''El Cartel: The Big Boss''

2010: ''Daddy Yankee Mundial''

2011: ''Daddy Yankee Prestige''

Filmography

;Film

! Year	! Title	! Role	! Note
2005	''Vampiros''	Daddy Yankee - Himself
2008	''Talento de Barrio''	Edgar Dinero

;Television

! Year	! Title	! Role	! Note
2007		Daddy Yankee - Himself
2010	''The Bold and the Beautiful''	Daddy Yankee - Himself	6 episodes

See also

Latin American music

List of Caribbean music genres

List of famous Puerto Ricans

List of Puerto Rican songwriters

Urban contemporary

References

External links

Official site

Daddy Yankee's page on Reggaetonline

http://msnlatino.telemundo.com/entretenimiento/Premios_Billboard_2011/finalistas

Category:1977 births Category:Living people Category:American shooting survivors Category:People from San Juan, Puerto Rico Category:Puerto Rican rappers Category:Puerto Rican reggaeton artists Category:Puerto Rican singers Category:Puerto Rican male singers Category:Latin Grammy Award winners Category:Reggaeton musicians

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Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
Name	Mark Henry
Names	Mark Henry
Height
Weight
Birth date	June 12, 1971
Birth place	Silsbee, Texas
Resides	New York
Billed	Silsbee, Texas
Trainer	Leo BurkeHart family members
Debut	September 22, 1996
Retired	}}

}}

Mark Jerrold Henry (born June 12, 1971) is an American professional wrestler currently signed with WWE, where he performs on its SmackDown brand. Aside from wrestling, he is a 1992 Olympian, and winner of the 2002 Arnold Strongman Classic. Since joining the WWF/E in 1996, he has become a one-time WWF European Champion and a one-time world champion, having held the ECW Championship in 2008.

Before becoming a professional wrestler, Henry was a weightlifter, and competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, where he placed tenth in the super heavyweight division. Three years later, at the 1995 Pan American Games, Henry won a silver medal in the super heavyweight division. The following year, he became a North America, Central America, Caribbean Islands (NACACI) champion. Also in 1996, Henry signed a ten-year contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now known as WWE).

Henry was trained by former Canadian professional wrestlers Stu and Bret Hart and Leo Burke. He made his television wrestling debut match in September 1996. Two years later, Henry joined the stable Nation of Domination. After the disbandment of the group, he acquired the moniker "Sexual Chocolate", which led him to participate in controversial angles. In 2000, Henry was sent to the company's developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) in Louisville, Kentucky to improve his wrestling skills. That same year, he left wrestling and began focusing on weightlifting. Henry won a strongman competition, during the Arnold Classic in 2002.

In 2003, Henry returned to WWE, where he took part of the group "Thuggin' And Buggin' Enterprises", a group compiled of African Americans who worked a race angle in which they felt they were victims of racism and were being held down by the "white man". The following year, Henry tore his quadriceps muscle, and was unable to compete for over a year. Upon his return, he was briefly involved in feuds with Kurt Angle and The Undertaker, before suffering a knee injury. After it healed, he continued to feud with The Undertaker, before being moved to the ECW brand in June 2008, where he gained Tony Atlas as a manager. In June 2008, he won the ECW Championship and he held it for three months. He was traded to the Raw brand in June 2009, and drafted back to SmackDown two years later in April 2011 during the WWE Draft.

Weightlifting career

During his time in high school, Henry was a three-time state champion with state records in the squat at , bench press at and deadlift at . At the Texas high school powerlifting championships in April 1990, Terry Todd, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Texas at Austin and former weightlifter, spotted Henry and persuaded him to go to Austin after he graduated to train in the Olympic style of weightlifting. Henry broke four national junior records in weightlifting after eight months of training in Olympic style weightlifting. In April 1991, he placed fourth at the United States Nationals, and finished sixth at the World Junior Weightlifting Championships in Germany two months later. In Henry's first year of competing, he broke the three junior (20 and under) American records 12 times, and became the United States' top superheavyweight, surpassing Mario Martinez. Henry was billed as the "World's Strongest Man" after he qualified for the weightlifting competition at the 1992 Summer Olympics, where he finished tenth in the super heavyweight class. After the Nation disbanded, he engaged in a short feud with The Rock, defeating him at Judgment Day: In Your House with help from Brown, and then forming a permanent team with Brown, gaining Ivory as a manager. During the next year, Henry gave himself the nickname "Sexual Chocolate", and was involved in controversial angles with Chyna and a transvestite. The next night, Henry was awarded the European title by Jarrett in return for his help. Henry dropped the title one month later to Brown at the Unforgiven pay-per-view.

After this, Henry turned into a fan favorite, and was seen on television romancing WWF women from Chyna to Mae Young as part of the "Sexual Chocolate" character. Young would go on to give birth to a hand. Along with this, Henry was made part of various other embarrassing and infamous storylines, including the admission that he was a sex addict.

Brand switches (2002–2004)

Henry returned to the WWF the next month and was sent to the SmackDown! brand, where he developed an in-ring persona of performing "tests of strength" while other wrestlers took bets on the tests, but the gimmick met with little success. During this time he competed against such superstars as Chris Jericho and Christian. After defeating Booker T twice, once in a street fight and once in a six-man tag team match, he lost to Booker T at the Armageddon pay-per-view in December 2003. At a practice session in OVW in February 2004, Henry tore his quadriceps muscle, and was out for over a year after undergoing surgery. A week later on ''SmackDown!'', Henry got in a confrontation with the World Heavyweight Champion, Batista, and went on to interfere in a steel cage match between MNM and the team of Mysterio and Batista, helping MNM to retain their titles. Henry then had another match with Batista at a live event where Batista received a severely torn triceps that required surgery, forcing him to vacate his title. On the January 10, 2006 episode of ''SmackDown!'', Henry was involved in a battle royal for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship. He was finally tossed out by Kurt Angle, who won the title.

A week later, Henry received assistance from Daivari, who turned on Angle and announced that he was the manager of Henry. With Daivari at his side, Henry would face Kurt Angle for the World Heavyweight title at the 2006 Royal Rumble in January, which he lost when Angle hit him with a chair (without the referee seeing) and pinned Henry with a roll-up.

On the March 10 episode of ''SmackDown!'', after putting Kurt Angle through a table with a diving splash, Henry was then challenged to a casket match by The Undertaker at WrestleMania 22. Henry vowed to defeat The Undertaker and end his streak at WrestleMania, but was unsuccessful in this quest as The Undertaker would defeat Henry at the event. Henry would get a rematch against the Undertaker on the April 7 episode of ''SmackDown!'', however it ended in a no contest when Daivari announced his new client, The Great Khali, who was also making his debut. Khali then went to the ring and started to attack the Undertaker, thus ending the feud between them.

During the rest of April and May, Henry gained a pinfall victory over the World Heavyweight Champion, Rey Mysterio in a non-title match. Henry would also enter the King of the Ring tournament, in which he was defeated by Bobby Lashley in the first round. He later cost Kurt Angle his World Heavyweight Championship opportunity against Mysterio, when he jumped off the top rope and crushed Angle through a table. Henry was then challenged by Angle to face off at Judgment Day, Henry then sent a "message" to Angle by defeating Paul Burchill. At Judgment Day, Henry defeated Angle by countout. Although winning, Angle got his revenge after the match by hitting Henry with a chair and putting him through a table.

Henry later went on what was referred to as a "path of destruction", causing injuries to numerous superstars. Henry "took out" Chris Benoit and Paul Burchill on this path of destruction, and attacked Rey Mysterio and Chavo Guerrero. These events led up to a feud with the returning Batista, whom Henry had put out of action with a legitimate injury several months beforehand. When Batista returned he and Henry were scheduled to face one another at The Great American Bash in July. Weeks before that event, however, on the July 15, 2006 edition of ''Saturday Night's Main Event'', Henry was involved in a six-man tag team match with King Booker and Finlay against Batista, Rey Mysterio, and Bobby Lashley. During the match, Henry was injured, canceling the scheduled match at The Great American Bash, as Henry needed surgery. Doctors later found that Henry completely tore his patella tendon off the bone and split his patella completely in two.

Return and various feuds (2007–2008)

Henry returned on the May 11, 2007 episode of ''SmackDown!'', after weeks of vignettes hyping his return. He attacked The Undertaker after a World Heavyweight Championship steel cage match with Batista, allowing Edge to take advantage of the situation and use his Money in the Bank contract. Henry then began a short feud with Kane, defeating him in a Lumberjack Match at One Night Stand. Shortly after, Henry made an open challenge to the ''SmackDown!'' locker room, which nobody ever accepted. In the coming weeks he faced various jobbers—wrestlers who consistently lose to make their opponents look stronger—and quickly defeated them all. On August 3, he claimed that nobody accepted the open challenge to step into the ring with him because of what he had done to The Undertaker, presenting footage of his assault on the Undertaker. The Undertaker responded over the following weeks, playing various mind games with Henry. Henry finally faced The Undertaker again at Unforgiven in September, losing to him after being given a Last Ride. Two weeks later, Henry lost a rematch to The Undertaker after The Undertaker performed a chokeslam on Henry.

After a short hiatus, Henry returned to WWE programming on the October 23 episode of ''ECW'', attacking Kane, along with The Great Khali and Big Daddy V. Henry then began teaming with Big Daddy V against Kane and CM Punk, and was briefly managed by Big Daddy V's manager, Matt Striker. At Armageddon, Henry and Big Daddy V defeated Kane and Punk. Before WrestleMania XXIV aired, Henry participated in a 24-man battle royal to determine the number one contender for the ECW Championship, but failed to win.

ECW (2008–2009)

As part of the 2008 WWE Supplemental Draft, Henry was drafted to the ECW brand. At Night of Champions, Henry defeated Kane and Big Show in a Triple Threat match to capture the ECW Championship in his debut match as an ECW superstar. Upon winning the title, it was made exclusive to the ECW brand once again. Henry's title win came nearly a full decade after he was awarded the European Championship, which was back in 1999 and the last title he held in WWE. A few weeks later, Hall of Famer Tony Atlas returned to WWE to act as Henry's manager. A month after Henry's title win, ECW General Manager, Theodore Long, unveiled a new, entirely platinum ECW Championship belt design. Henry would lose the title at Unforgiven in the Championship Scramble match to Matt Hardy.

Henry attempted to regain the championship throughout the end of 2008, including a match against Hardy at No Mercy, but was unsuccessful. Henry and Atlas then engaged in a scripted rivalry against Finlay and Hornswoggle, which included Henry losing a Belfast Brawl at Armageddon. At the start of 2009, Henry qualified for the Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania XXV, and was involved in a series of matches with the other competitors on ''Raw'', ''SmackDown'', and ''ECW''. He was unsuccessful at WrestleMania, however, as CM Punk won the match. In May, Henry began a rivalry with Evan Bourne, which began after Bourne defeated Henry by countout on the May 26 episode of ''ECW''.

Return to Raw (2009–2011)

On June 29, Henry was traded to the Raw brand, and made his redebut for the brand that night as the third opponent in a three-on-one gauntlet match against Randy Orton, which he won, turning Henry into a fan favorite in the process. In August 2009, Henry formed a tag team with Montel Vontavious Porter, and the two challenged the Unified WWE Tag Team Champions Chris Jericho and The Big Show for the title at Breaking Point, but were unsuccessful. They stopped teaming afterwards, becoming involved in separate storylines, until the February 15, 2010 episode of ''Raw'' in which they defeated the Unified WWE Tag Team Champions The Big Show and The Miz in a non-title match. The next week they challenged The Big Show and The Miz in a title match but were unsuccessful. At Extreme Rules, Henry and MVP fought for a chance to become number one contenders to the Unified WWE Tag Team Championships, but were the second team eliminated in a gauntlet match by The Big Show and The Miz. The match would be won by The Hart Dynasty (Tyson Kidd and David Hart Smith).

It was later announced that Henry would mentor Lucky Cannon in the second season of ''WWE NXT''. Cannon was eliminated on the August 10 episode of ''NXT''. In September, Henry began teaming with Evan Bourne, starting at the Night of Champions pay-per-view, where they entered a Tag Team Turmoil for the WWE Tag Team Championship. They made it to the final two before being defeated by Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre. The team came to an end in October when Bourne suffered an injury and was taken out of action. Henry then formed a team with Yoshi Tatsu on the November 29 episode of ''Raw'', defeating WWE Tag Team Champions Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater, after a distraction by John Cena. They received a shot at the championship the next week, in a fatal four-way elimination tag team match, which also included The Usos and Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov. Henry and Tatsu were the first team eliminated in the match.

Return to SmackDown and pursuit of World Heavyweight Championship (2011)

On April 25, 2011, Mark Henry returned to the SmackDown brand as part of the 2011 WWE Draft. In the main event of the night, Henry attacked his teammates, John Cena and Christian, turning into a heel for the first time since June 2009. On May 27, Henry participated in a triple threat match against Sheamus and Christian to determine the number one contender for Randy Orton's World Heavyweight Championship, which was ultimately won by Sheamus. Henry then began feuding with The Big Show, attacking him before matches and backstage. On the July 1 edition of ''SmackDown'', if Henry defeated Randy Orton, he would receive a World Heavyweight Championship match in the near future, however Orton defeated Henry via countout after being distracted by Show's entrance theme and music. As a consequence, Henry destroyed the production set.

On July 9, it was announced by WWE that he would face Big Show at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view. At the pay-per-view, Henry defeated Big Show and after the match, he assaulted him with a steel chair, thus making Big Show leave the Pay-Per-View via stretcher. Then on ''SmackDown!'', Henry attacked Kane who lost a match to Randy Orton, and injured his leg, just like he did to Big Show.After Henry easily defeated Bobby Howard, a local wrestler, Theodore Long announced that Henry will no longer compete since no one wants to face him as of late. Sheamus interrupted Long, stating that he (Sheamus) is not afraid of anyone, including Henry, slapping him in the face.

On August 5, Henry snapped the leg of Vladimir Kozlov, who would later be released from his WWE contract that same night, just like he did with The Big Show and Kane in the previous weeks. He then focused on his rivalry with Sheamus. At SummerSlam, Henry defeated Sheamus by countout. On the August 19 edition of ''SmackDown!'', Henry won a 20-Man Over The Top Rope Battle Royal to become the number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship and face Randy Orton for the World Heavyweight Championship . On the August 24 taping of August 26 it was announced that Henry would get his title shot on the next edition of ''SmackDown!'' by guest General Manager Bret Hart. Later that night he lost a match to Sheamus resulting in a countout. After the match, Henry delivered the World's Strongest Slam to Sheamus onto the steel steps.

Personal life

He is the cousin of former Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end Kevin Henry. Henry's father, Ernest, died of complications from diabetes when Henry was twelve. He has an older brother, Pat. When Henry was fourteen, he was diagnosed with dyslexia. Henry played American football in high school, until his senior year, when he strained ligaments in his wrist.

Henry currently lives in New York with his wife Jana and his son Jacob. He still drives the Hummer that he won in the 2002 Arnold Strongman Classic.

MotoGP racer Nicky Hayden has been a fan of Henry for years, which explains why Hayden met up with Henry at the Catalunya Circuit. Henry also cites Hayden as his favourite MotoGP racer, which also explains why Hayden cites Henry as his (Hayden's) favourite WWE superstar.

In wrestling

Finishing moves

''World's Strongest Slam'' (High-angle falling powerslam)

Signature moves

Bearhug

Body avalanche

Military press slam

Running splash

Scoop powerslam

Managers

Mae Young

Nicknames

"The World's Strongest Man"

"Sexual Chocolate"

"The King of the Jungle"

"The Silverback"

Entrance themes

"Power" by Jim Johnston (1998)

"Sexual Chocolate" performed by Stevan Swann and composed by Jim Johnston (1998–2000; November 15, 2010)

"Some Bodies Gonna Get It" by Three 6 Mafia (May 21, 2006–present)

Championships and accomplishments

Powerlifting

All-time world former raw (unequipped) squat world record holder (430 Kilograms)

Professional wrestling

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

PWI ranked him #41 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2006

World Wrestling Federation / World Wrestling Entertainment

ECW Championship (1 time)

WWF European Championship (1 time)

Strongman athletics

Arnold Classic

*Arnold Classic Strongest Man (2002)

Weightlifting

Olympic Games

*Olympic Games team member (1992, 1996)

Pan American Games

*Pan American Games Silver Medalist (1995)

Senior American record holder in Snatch, Clean and jerk, and Total (1993–1997)

Senior National Championship (1993, 1994, 1996)

References

External links

WWE profile

Official website

Category:1971 births Category:African American professional wrestlers Category:American strength athletes Category:American weightlifters Category:Living people Category:Olympic athletes who wrestled professionally Category:Olympic weightlifters of the United States Category:People from Silsbee, Texas Category:Powerlifters Category:Weightlifters at the 1992 Summer Olympics Category:Weightlifters at the 1996 Summer Olympics Category:Weightlifters at the 1995 Pan American Games

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Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
name	Tom Waits
background	solo_singer
birth name	Thomas Alan Waits
born	December 07, 1949Pomona, California, United States
instrument	Vocals, piano, guitar
genre	rock, experimental music
occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician, actor, composer
years active	1972–present
label	Asylum Records, Island Records, ANTI-
website	tomwaits.com }}

Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car." With this trademark growl, his incorporation of pre-rock music styles such as blues, jazz, and vaudeville, and experimental tendencies verging on industrial music, Waits has built up a distinctive musical persona. He has worked as a composer for movies and musical plays and as a supporting actor in films, including ''Down By Law'' and ''Bram Stoker's Dracula''. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his soundtrack work on ''One from the Heart''.

Lyrically, Waits' songs frequently present atmospheric portrayals of grotesque, often seedy characters and places – although he has also shown a penchant for more conventional ballads. He has a cult following and has influenced subsequent songwriters despite having little radio or music video support. His songs are best-known to the general public in the form of cover versions by more visible artists: "Jersey Girl", performed by Bruce Springsteen, "Ol' '55", performed by the Eagles, and "Downtown Train", performed by Rod Stewart. Although Waits' albums have met with mixed commercial success in his native United States, they have occasionally achieved gold album sales status in other countries. He has been nominated for a number of major music awards and has won Grammy Awards for two albums, ''Bone Machine'' and ''Mule Variations''. In 2011, Waits was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Waits currently lives in Sonoma County, California with his wife, Kathleen Brennan, and three children.

Origins and musical beginnings

Waits was born at Park Avenue Hospital in Pomona, California to Jesse Frank Waits and Alma Johnson McMurray, both schoolteachers. His father was of Scots-Irish descent and his mother was Norwegian American. After Waits' parents divorced in 1960, he lived with his mother in Whittier, and then moved to National City, in San Diego County, near the Mexico–United States border. Waits, who taught himself how to play the piano on a neighbor's instrument, often took trips to Mexico with his father, who taught Spanish; he would later say that he found his love of music during these trips through a Mexican ballad that was "probably a Ranchera, you know, on the car radio with my dad."

By 1965, while attending Hilltop High School within the Sweetwater Union High School District, Chula Vista, Waits was playing in an R&B/soul band called The Systems and had begun his first job at Napoleone Pizza House in National City (about which he would later sing on "I Can't Wait to Get Off Work (And See My Baby on Montgomery Avenue)" from ''Small Change'' and "The Ghosts of Saturday Night (After Hours at Napoleone's Pizza House)" on ''The Heart of Saturday Night''). He later admitted that he was not a fan of the 1960s music scene, stating, "I wasn't thrilled by Blue Cheer, so I found an alternative, even if it was Bing Crosby." Five years later, he was working as a doorman at the Heritage nightclub in San Diego—where artists of every genre performed—when he did his first paid gig for $25. A fan of Bob Dylan, Lord Buckley, Jack Kerouac, Louis Armstrong, Howlin' Wolf, and Charles Bukowski, Waits began developing his own idiosyncratic musical style.

After serving with the United States Coast Guard, he took his newly formed act to Monday nights at The Troubadour in Los Angeles, where musicians would line up all day for the opportunity to perform on stage that night. In 1971, Waits moved to the Echo Park neighborhood of L.A. (at the time, also home to musicians Glenn Frey of the Eagles, J. D. Souther, Jackson Browne, and Frank Zappa) and signed with Herb Cohen at the age of 21. From August to December 1971, Waits made a series of demo recordings for Cohen's Bizarre/Straight label, including many songs for which he would later become known. These early tracks were eventually to be released twenty years later on ''The Early Years, Volume One'' and ''Volume Two''.

1970s

Waits signed to Asylum Records in 1972, and after numerous abortive recording sessions, his first record — the jazzy, folk-tinged ''Closing Time'' — was released in 1973. The album, which was produced and arranged by former Lovin' Spoonful member Jerry Yester, received positive reviews, but Waits did not gain widespread attention until a number of the album's tracks were covered by more prominent artists. Later in 1973, Tim Buckley released the album ''Sefronia'', which contained a cover version of Waits' song "Martha" from ''Closing Time'', the first-ever cover of a Tom Waits song by a known artist. This cover later appeared in the 1995 compilation ''Step Right Up: The Songs of Tom Waits''. The album's opening track, "Ol' '55", was recorded by the Eagles in 1974 for their ''On the Border'' album.

He began touring and opening for such artists as Charlie Rich, Martha and the Vandellas, and Frank Zappa. Waits received increasing critical acclaim and gathered a loyal cult following with his subsequent albums. ''The Heart of Saturday Night'' (1974), featuring the song "(Looking for) The Heart of Saturday Night", revealed Waits's roots as a nightclub performer, with half-spoken and half-crooned ballads often accompanied by a jazz backup band. Waits described the album as:

...a comprehensive study of a number of aspects of this search for the center of Saturday night, which Jack Kerouac relentlessly chased from one end of this country to the other, and I've attempted to scoop up a few diamonds of this magic that I see.

In 1975, Waits moved to the Tropicana Motel on Santa Monica Boulevard and released the double album ''Nighthawks at the Diner'', recorded in a studio with a small audience in order to capture the ambience of a live show. The record exemplifies this phase of his career, including the lengthy spoken interludes between songs that punctuated his live act. That year, he also contributed backing vocals to Bonnie Raitt's "Your Sweet and Shiny Eyes", from her album ''Home Plate''.

By this time, Waits was drinking heavily, and life on the road was starting to take its toll. Waits, looking back at the period, has said,

I was sick through that whole period [...] It was starting to wear on me, all the touring. I'd been traveling quite a bit, living in hotels, eating bad food, drinking a lot — too much. There's a lifestyle that's there before you arrive and you're introduced to it. It's unavoidable.

In reaction to these hardships, Waits recorded ''Small Change'' (1976), which finds him in a much more cynical and pessimistic mood, lyrically, with many songs such as "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) (An Evening With Pete King)" and "Bad Liver and a Broken Heart (In Lowell)". With the album, Waits asserted that he "tried to resolve a few things as far as this cocktail lounge, maudlin, crying-in-your-beer image that I have. There ain't nothin' funny about a drunk [...] I was really starting to believe that there was something amusing and wonderfully American about being a drunk. I ended up telling myself to cut that shit out." The album, which also included long-time fan favorite "Tom Traubert's Blues (Four Sheets to the Wind in Copenhagen)", featured famed drummer Shelly Manne and was, like his previous albums, heavily influenced by jazz.

''Small Change'', which was accompanied by the double A-side single "Step Right Up"/"The Piano Has Been Drinking", was a critical and commercial success and far outsold any of Waits's previous albums. With it, Waits broke onto ''Billboard'''s Top 100 Albums chart for the first time in his career (a feat Waits would not repeat until 1999 with the release of ''Mule Variations''). This resulted in a much higher public profile, which brought with it interviews and articles in ''Time'', ''Newsweek'', and ''Vogue''. Waits put together a regular touring band, The Nocturnal Emissions, which featured Frank Vicari on tenor saxophone, Fitzgerald Jenkins on bass guitar, and Chip White on drums and vibraphone. Tom Waits and the Nocturnal Emissions toured the United States and Europe extensively from October 1976 until May 1977, including a performance of "The Piano Has Been Drinking" on cult BBC2 television music show the ''Old Grey Whistle Test'' in May 1976.

''Foreign Affairs'' (1977) was musically in a similar vein to ''Small Change'', but showed further artistic refinement and exploration into jazz and blues styles. Particularly noteworthy is the long cinematic spoken-word piece, "Potter's Field", set to an orchestral score. The album also features Bette Midler singing a duet with Waits on "I Never Talk to Strangers." The album ''Blue Valentine'' (1978) displayed Waits's biggest musical departure to date, with much more focus on electric guitar and keyboards than on previous albums and hardly any strings (with the exception of album-opener "Somewhere" — a cover of Leonard Bernstein's song from ''West Side Story'' — and "Kentucky Avenue") for a darker, more blues-oriented sound. The song "Blue Valentines" was also unique for Waits in that it featured a desolate arrangement of solo electric guitar played by Ray Crawford, accompanied by Waits' vocal. Around this time, Waits had a relationship with Rickie Lee Jones (who appears on the sleeve art of the ''Blue Valentine'' album). In 1978, Waits also appeared in his first film role, in ''Paradise Alley'' as Mumbles the pianist, and contributed the original compositions "(Meet Me in) Paradise Alley" and "Annie's Back in Town" to the film's soundtrack.

''Heartattack and Vine'', Waits's last studio album for Asylum, was released in 1980, featuring a developing sound that included both ballads ("Jersey Girl") and rougher-edged rhythm and blues. The same year, he began a long working relationship with Francis Ford Coppola, who asked Waits to provide music for his film ''One from the Heart''. For Coppola's film, Waits originally wanted to work with Bette Midler; she was unavailable due to prior engagements, however. Waits ended up working with singer/songwriter Crystal Gayle as his vocal foil for the album.

1980s

In August 1980, Waits married Kathleen Brennan, a screenwriter, whom he had met while working on the set of the Francis Ford Coppola movie ''One from the Heart''. Brennan is regularly credited as co-author of many songs in his later albums, and Waits often cites her as a major influence on his work. She introduced him to the music of Captain Beefheart. Despite having shared a manager with Beefheart in the 1970s, Waits says, "I became more acquainted with him when I got married." Waits would later describe his relationship with Brennan as a paradigm shift in his musical development. After leaving Asylum, the label released the first Tom Waits "Best of" album in 1981, a collection called ''Bounced Checks'', notable for including an alternate, stripped down version of "Jersey Girl" and the otherwise unreleased "Mr. Henry", as well as an alternate master of "Whistlin' Past the Graveyard" and a live performance of "The Piano Has Been Drinking". During this period, Waits appeared in a series of minor movie roles, including a cameo role in ''Wolfen'' (1981) as an inebriated piano player, and his song "Jitterbug Boy" also appeared on the movie's soundtrack. ''One from the Heart'' received its official theatrical release in 1982, with Waits appearing in a cameo as a trumpet player as well as receiving an Oscar nomination for Original Song Score (eventually losing out to ''Victor Victoria'', by Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse). This marked the first in a series of collaborations between Waits and Coppola, with Waits appearing in cameos in Coppola's movies ''The Outsiders'' (1983), ''Rumble Fish'' (1983), and ''The Cotton Club'' (1984), and a major role in ''Bram Stoker's Dracula''. Waits also contributed two songs to the documentary ''Streetwise'' (1984), "Rat's Theme" and "Take Care of All My Children".

After leaving Asylum for Island Records, Waits released ''Swordfishtrombones'' in 1983, a record that marked a sharp turn in his musical direction. While Waits had before played either piano or guitar, he now gravitated towards less common instruments, saying, "Your hands are like dogs, going to the same places they've been. You have to be careful when playing is no longer in the mind but in the fingers, going to happy places. You have to break them of their habits or you don't explore; you only play what is confident and pleasing. I'm learning to break those habits by playing instruments I know absolutely nothing about, like a bassoon or a waterphone." ''Swordfishtrombones'' also introduced instruments such as bagpipes ("Town with No Cheer") and marimba ("Shore Leave") to Waits' repertoire, as well as pump organs, percussion (sometimes reminiscent of the music of Harry Partch), horn sections (often featuring Ralph Carney playing in the style of brass bands or soul music), experimental guitar, and obsolete instruments (many of Waits' albums have featured a damaged, unpredictable Chamberlin, and more recent albums have included the little-used Stroh violin).

His songwriting shifted as well, moving away from the traditional piano-and-strings ballad sound of his 1970s output towards a number of styles largely ignored in pop music, including primal blues, cabaret stylings, rumbas, theatrical approaches in the style of Kurt Weill, tango music, early country music and European folk music as well as the Tin Pan Alley-era songs that influenced his early output. He also recorded a spoken word piece, "Frank's Wild Years", influenced by Ken Nordine's "word jazz" records of the 1950s. Apart from Captain Beefheart and some of Dr. John's early output, there was little precedent in popular music.

Waits's new emphasis on experimenting with various styles and instrumentation continued on 1985's ''Rain Dogs'', a sprawling, 19-song collection which received glowing reviews (the album was ranked #21 on ''Rolling Stone'''s list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s. In 2003, the album was ranked number 397 on ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.) Contributions from guitarists Marc Ribot, Robert Quine, and Keith Richards accompanied Waits' move away from piano-based songs, in juxtaposition with an increased emphasis on instruments such as marimba, accordion, double bass, trombone, and banjo. The album also spawned the 12" single "Downtown Train/Tango Till They're Sore/Jockey Full of Bourbon", with Jean Baptiste Mondino filming a promotional music video for "Downtown Train" (which would later become a hit for Rod Stewart), featuring a cameo from boxing legend Jake LaMotta. The album peaked at #188 on Billboard's Top 200 albums chart; however, its reputation has come to far outshine low initial sales.

''Franks Wild Years'', a musical play by Waits and Brennan, was staged as an Off-Broadway musical in 1986, directed by Gary Sinise, in a successful run at Chicago's famed Steppenwolf Theater. Waits himself played the lead role. Waits developed his acting career with several supporting roles and a lead role in Jim Jarmusch's ''Down by Law'' in 1986, which also featured two of Waits's songs from ''Rain Dogs'' in the soundtrack. In the same year, Waits also contributed vocals to the song "Harlem Shuffle" on The Rolling Stones' album ''Dirty Work''.

In 1987, he released ''Franks Wild Years'' (subtitled "Un Operachi Romantico in Two Acts"), which included studio versions from Waits' play of the same name. ''Rolling Stone'' summed up the album's myriad styles this way: "Everything from sleazy strip-show blues to cheesy waltzes to supercilious lounge lizardry is given spare, jarring arrangements using various combinations of squawking horns, bashed drums, plucked banjo, snaky double bass, carnival organ and jaunty accordion." Waits also continued to further his acting career with a supporting role as Rudy the Kraut in ''Ironweed'' (an adaptation of William Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel) alongside Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep, in which Waits performed the song "Big Rock Candy Mountain", as well as a part in Robert Frank's ''Candy Mountain'', in which Waits also performed "Once More Before I Go." In 1988, Waits performed in ''Big Time'', a surreal concert movie and soundtrack which he cowrote with his wife.

In 1989, Waits appeared in his final theatrical stage role to date, appearing as Curly in Thomas Babe's ''Demon Wine'', alongside Bill Pullman, Philip Baker Hall, Carol Kane, and Bud Cort. The play opened at the Los Angeles Theater Center in February 1989 to mixed reviews, although Waits' performance was singled out by a number of critics, including John C. Mahoney, who described it as "mesmerizing." Waits finished the decade with appearances in three movies: as the voice of a radio DJ in Jim Jarmusch's ''Mystery Train''; as Kenny the Hitman in Robert Dornhelm's ''Cold Feet''; and the lead role of Punch & Judy man Silva in ''Bearskin: An Urban Fairytale''. His only musical output of the year consisted of contributing his cover of Phil Phillips' "Sea of Love" to the soundtrack of the Al Pacino movie of the same name and contributing vocals to The Replacements song "Date to Church", which appeared as a B-side to their single "I'll Be You".

1990s

''The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets'' — a theatrical collaboration of Waits, director Robert Wilson, and writer William S. Burroughs — premiered at Hamburg's Thalia Theatre on March 31, 1990. The project was based on a German folktale called ''Der Freischütz'', with Wilson responsible for the design and direction, Burroughs for writing the book, and Waits for music and lyrics, which were heavily influenced by the works of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. In the same year, Waits contributed a cover of Cole Porter's "It's All Right with Me" to ''Red Hot + Blue'', the first in the series of compilation albums from the Red Hot Organization — one of the first major AIDS benefits in the music business — which sold over a million copies worldwide. Jim Jarmusch directed a promotional music video for the song. Waits also collaborated with photographer Sylvia Plachy in the same year; her book ''Sylvia Plachy's Unguided Tour'' includes a short Waits record to accompany the photographs and text.

The following year, Waits was extremely busy working on movie soundtracks, acting, and contributing to a number of music projects by other artists. First, Waits appeared on the Primus album ''Sailing the Seas of Cheese'' as the voice of "Tommy the Cat", which exposed him to a new audience in alternative rock. This was the first of several collaborations between Waits and the group; Frontman Les Claypool would appear on several subsequent Waits releases. The same year saw Waits provide spoken word contributions to ''Devout Catalyst'', an album by one of Waits' greatest influences, Ken Nordine, on the songs "A Thousand Bing Bangs" and "The Movie." Waits also contributed vocals to a duet with singer Bob Forrest on the song "Adios Lounge" on the Thelonious Monster album ''Beautiful Mess''. He also contributed vocals to two songs ("Little Man" and "I'm Not Your Fool Anymore") on jazz tenor saxophonist Teddy Edwards' album ''Mississippi Lad''. Edwards was extremely complimentary of Waits' contributions, saying:

Tom Waits is the one who got me my contract with PolyGram. He's wonderful, he's America's best lyricist since Johnny Mercer. He came down to the studio on the ''Mississippi Lad'' album, that's the first one I did for PolyGram, and he sang two of my songs, wouldn't accept any money, just trying to give me the best boost that he could.

The only collection of exclusively Waits-performed material of 1991 appeared when Waits composed and conducted the almost exclusively instrumental music for Jim Jarmusch's 1991 film ''Night on Earth'', which was released as an album the following year. In July 1991, Screamin' Jay Hawkins released the album ''Black Music for White People'', which features covers of two Waits compositions: "Heartattack & Vine" (which later that year was used in a European Levi's advertisement without Waits' permission, resulting in a lawsuit) and "Ice Cream Man". Waits continued to appear in movie acting roles, the most significant of which was his uncredited cameo as a disabled veteran in Terry Gilliam's ''The Fisher King''. He also appeared alongside Kevin Bacon, John Malkovich, and Jamie Lee Curtis in Steve Rash's ''Queens Logic'', and opposite Tom Berenger and Kathy Bates in Hector Babenco's film ''At Play in the Fields of the Lord'', adapted from Peter Matthiessen's 1965 novel.

''Bone Machine'', Waits's first studio album in five years, was released in 1992. The stark record featured a great deal of percussion and guitar (with little piano or sax), marking another change in Waits' sound. Critic Steve Huey calls it "perhaps Tom Waits's most cohesive album... a morbid, sinister nightmare, one that applied the quirks of his experimental '80s classics to stunningly evocative — and often harrowing — effect... Waits' most affecting and powerful recording, even if it isn't his most accessible." ''Bone Machine'' was awarded a Grammy in the Best Alternative Album category. On December 19, 1992 ''Alice'', Waits's second theatrical project with Robert Wilson, premiered at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg. Paul Schmidt adapted the text from the works of Lewis Carroll (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and ''Through the Looking-Glass'', in particular), with songs by Waits and Kathleen Brennan presented as intersections with the text rather than as expansions of the story, as would be the case in conventional musical theater. These songs would be recorded by Waits as a studio album 10 years later on ''Alice''. 1992 also saw Waits featuring in Francis Ford Coppola's film ''Bram Stoker's Dracula'', as the possessed lunatic Renfield.

In 1993, he released ''The Black Rider'', which contained studio versions of the songs that Waits had written for the musical of the same name three years previously, with the exceptions of "Chase the Clouds Away" and "In the Morning", which appeared in the theatrical production but not on the studio album. William S. Burroughs also guests on vocals on "'Tain't No Sin". In the same year, Waits lent his vocals to Gavin Bryars' 75-minute reworking of his 1971 classical music piece ''Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet''; appeared in Robert Altman's film version of Raymond Carver's stories ''Short Cuts'' and Jim Jarmusch's ''Coffee and Cigarettes: Somewhere in California'', a short black-and-white movie with Iggy Pop; and his third child, Sullivan, was born. In 1997, Waits and Brennan wrote and performed the music for ''Bunny'' the animated short film by 20th Century Fox's Blue Sky Studios, which was awarded Best Animated Short Film by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In 1995, Holly Cole released ''Temptation'', a tribute album consisting entirely of Waits covers.

Another Waits cover was released in 1996, as Meat Loaf covered ''Martha'' for his concept album ''Welcome to the Neighborhood''.

In 1998, after Island Records released the compilation ''Beautiful Maladies: The Island Years'', Waits left the label for Epitaph, whose president, Andy Kaulkin, said the label was "...blown away that Tom would even consider us. We are huge fans." Waits himself was full of praise for the label, saying "Epitaph is rare for being owned and operated by musicians. They have good taste and a load of enthusiasm, plus they're nice people. And they gave me a brand-new Cadillac, of course."

Waits's first album on his new label, ''Mule Variations'', was issued in 1999. ''Billboard'' described the album as musically melding "backwoods blues, skewed gospel, and unruly art stomp into a sublime piece of junkyard sound sculpture." The album was Waits' first release to feature a turntablist. The album won a Grammy in 2000; as an indicator of how difficult it is to classify Waits's music, he was nominated simultaneously for Best Contemporary Folk Album (which he won) and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance (for the song "Hold On"), both different from the genre for which he won his previous Grammy. The album was also his highest-charting album in the U.S. to date, reaching #30.

The same year, Waits made a foray into producing music for other artists, teaming up with his old friend Chuck E. Weiss to coproduce (with his wife, Kathleen Brennan) ''Extremely Cool'', as well as appearing on the record as a guest vocalist and guitarist. He also contributed a cover of Skip Spence's "Books of Moses" to ''More Oar: A Tribute to the Skip Spence Album'', a collection of covers of the singer's songs on Birdman Records. The same year, Waits appeared in the comedy ''Mystery Men''.

2000s

John Hammond's ''Wicked Grin'', a collection of Waits cover songs, was released in 2001. Waits appears on most songs, playing guitar, piano, and/or offering backing vocals. The album also includes the traditional hymn "I Know I've Been Changed", performed as a duet by Hammond and Waits.

Tori Amos included a cover of the song "Time", from ''Rain Dogs'' on her 2001 album ''Strange Little Girls''. In 2002, Waits simultaneously released two albums, ''Alice'' and ''Blood Money''. Both collections had been written almost 10 years previously and were based on theatrical collaborations with Robert Wilson; the former a musical play about Lewis Carroll, and the latter an interpretation of Georg Büchner's play fragment ''Woyzeck''. Both albums revisit the tango, Tin Pan Alley, and spoken-word influences of ''Swordfishtrombones'', while the lyrics are both profoundly cynical and melancholic, exemplified by "Misery is the River of the World" and "Everything Goes to Hell." "Diamond in Your Mind", which Waits wrote for Wilson's ''Woyzeck'', did not appear on ''Blood Money''; however, it did emerge on Solomon Burke's album ''Don't Give Up on Me'' of the same year. While Waits has played the song live a number of times, an official version would not be released until 2007. The same year, Waits contributed a version of "The Return of Jackie and Judy" by The Ramones to the compilation album ''We're a Happy Family - A Tribute to Ramones'', which was released in 2003 on Columbia Records. That same year, Waits was also a judge for the 2nd annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers. Waits was also a judge for the 10th annual Independent Music Awards.

Waits released ''Real Gone'', his first nontheatrical studio album since ''Mule Variations'', in 2004. It is Waits's only album to date to feature absolutely no piano on any of its tracks. Waits beatboxes on the opening track, "Top of the Hill", and most of the album's songs begin with Waits's "vocal percussion" improvisations. It is also more rock-oriented, with less blues influence than he has previously demonstrated. The same year, Waits contributed backing vocals to the track "Go Tell It on the Mountain" on the Grammy Award (Best Traditional Gospel Album)-winning album of the same name by The Blind Boys of Alabama. He also contributed a version of Daniel Johnston's "King Kong" to the tribute album ''The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered'', released on Gammon Records.

At this time, Waits made a return to acting after a five-year break, marked at first by the re-release of his 1993 Jim Jarmusch-directed short ''Coffee and Cigarettes: Somewhere in California'', costarring Iggy Pop, compiled in ''Coffee and Cigarettes''. In 2005, Waits appeared in the Tony Scott film ''Domino'' as a soothsayer. In the same year, Waits appeared as himself in Roberto Benigni's romantic comedy ''La Tigre e la Neve'', set in occupied Baghdad during the Iraq War. In the movie, Waits appears in a dream scene as himself, singing the ballad "You Can Never Hold Back Spring" and accompanying himself at the piano.

A 54-song three-disc box set of rarities, unreleased tracks, and brand-new compositions called ''Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards'' was released in November 2006. The three discs are subdivided relating to their content: "Brawlers" features Waits's more upbeat rock and blues songs; "Bawlers", his ballads and love songs; and "Bastards", songs that fit in neither category, including a number of spoken-word tracks. A video for the song "Lie to Me" was produced as a promotion for the collection. ''Orphans'' also continues Waits's newfound interest in politics with "Road to Peace", a song about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The album is also notable for containing a number of covers of songs by other artists, including The Ramones ("The Return of Jackie and Judy" and "Danny Says"), Daniel Johnston ("King Kong"), Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht ("What Keeps Mankind Alive"), and Leadbelly ("Ain't Goin' Down to the Well" and "Goodnight Irene"), as well as renditions of works by poets and authors admired by Waits, such as Charles Bukowski and Jack Kerouac and a previously released duet with Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse entitled "Dog Door". Waits' albums ''Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards'' and ''Alice'' are both included in metacritic.com's list of the "Top 200: Best-Reviewed Albums" since 2000 at #10 and #20, respectively (as of November 2009). The same years, Waits appeared on Sparklehorse's album ''Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain'', playing piano on the track "Morning Hollow."

Five different versions of Waits's song "Way Down in the Hole" have been used as the opening theme songs for the HBO television show ''The Wire''. Waits's own version, from ''Frank's Wild Years'', was used for season two. The other versions used for the series were performed by, in season order, The Blind Boys of Alabama, The Neville Brothers, "DoMaJe" and Steve Earle.

Waits made a number of high-profile television and concert appearances between 2006 and 2010. In November 2006, Waits appeared on ''The Daily Show'' and performed "The Day After Tomorrow." This was significant for his having been only the third performing guest on the show, the first being Tenacious D and the second The White Stripes. On May 4, 2007, Waits performed "Lucinda" and "Ain't Goin' Down to the Well" from ''Orphans'' on the last show of a week ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' spent in San Francisco. There was a short interview after the last performance. Waits also played in the Bridge School Benefit on October 27–28, 2007 with Kronos Quartet.

On July 10, 2007, Waits released the download-only digital single "Diamond In Your Mind". The version of the song was recorded with Kronos Quartet, with Greg Cohen, Philip Glass, and The Dalai Lama at the benefit concert "Healing The Divide: A Concert for Peace and Reconciliation" at Avery Fisher Hall, recorded on September 21, 2003.

Waits's song "Trampled Rose" (from ''Real Gone'') appeared on the critically acclaimed album ''Raising Sand'', a collaboration between Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Waits also provided guest vocals on the song "Pray" by fellow ANTI- artists The Book of Knots on their album ''Traineater''.

He played the role of Kneller in the film ''Wristcutters: A Love Story'', which opened in November 2007.

On January 22, 2008, Waits made a rare live appearance in Los Angeles, performing at a benefit for Bet Tzedek Legal Services—The House of Justice, a nonprofit poverty law center.

On May 7, 2008, Waits announced the Glitter and Doom Tour starting in June 2008, touring cities in the southern United States and subsequently announced a series of dates in the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe. Waits was awarded the key to the city of El Paso, Texas during a concert on June 20, 2008. In his generally positive review of the opening show of the tour, ''The Wall Street Journal'' critic Jim Fusilli described Waits' music thus: }}

On May 20, 2008 Scarlett Johansson's debut album, entitled ''Anywhere I Lay My Head'', featured covers of ten Tom Waits songs. Waits made an appearance on the album ''The Spirit of Apollo'' by alternative hip hop project N.A.S.A., on the track "Spacious Thoughts."

Waits wrote the following introduction for the Tompkins Square compilation ''People Take Warning – Murder Ballads & Disaster Songs, 1913–1938'':

In late 2009, Terry Gilliam's film ''The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus'' was released, with Waits in the role of Mr. Nick. Production began in December 2007 in London. Star Heath Ledger's death in January 2008 cast doubt on the film's future, but the production was salvaged with the addition of new actors playing his character in scenes he did not complete.

2010s

Waits played the role of "The Engineer" in the film ''The Book of Eli'', opposite Denzel Washington, which opened in January 2010.

He is currently working on a new stage musical with director and long-time collaborator Robert Wilson and playwright Martin McDonagh.

In early 2011, Tom Waits completed a set of 23 poems entitled ''Seeds on Hard Ground'', which were inspired by Michael O'Brien's portraits of the homeless in his upcoming book, ''Hard Ground'', which will include the poems alongside the portraits. In anticipation of the book release, Waits and Anti- printed limited edition chapbooks of the poems to raise money for Redwood Empire Food Bank, a homeless referral and family support service in Sonoma County, California. As of January 26, 2011, four editions, each limited to a thousand copies costing $24.99US each, sold out, raising $90,000 for the food bank.

It was announced on February 9, 2011, that Waits was to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Neil Young. The ceremony was held at the Waldorf-Astoria on Monday, March 14, 2011, at 8:30pm EST. Waits accepted the award with his customary humor, stating, "They say I have no hits and that I'm difficult to work with... like it's a bad thing."

On February 24, 2011, it was announced via Waits' official website that he has begun work on his next studio album.

Waits said through his website that on August 23 he would "set the record straight" in regards to rumors of a new release. On August 23, the title of the new album was revealed to be ''Bad as Me'', and a new single, also titled "Bad as Me," started being offered via Amazon.com and other sites.

Record companies

Waits has often switched to smaller independent record companies over the years; he signed to Asylum Records before they were bought out by Elektra Records and Warner Bros. During his time with Island Records, that label expanded from a small company to a music industry giant. He then signed to Anti Records, a division of Epitaph Records.

Lawsuits

Waits has steadfastly refused to allow the use of his songs in commercials and has joked about other artists who do (commenting "If Michael Jackson wants to work for Pepsi, why doesn't he just get himself a suit and an office in their headquarters and be done with it?"). He has filed several lawsuits against advertisers who used his material without permission. He has been quoted as saying, "Apparently, the highest compliment our culture grants artists nowadays is to be in an ad — ideally, naked and purring on the hood of a new car", he said in a statement, referring to the Mercury Cougar. "I have adamantly and repeatedly refused this dubious honor."

Waits filed his first lawsuit in 1988 against Frito-Lay. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an award of $2.375-million in his favor (''Waits v. Frito-Lay'', 978 F. 2d 1093 (9th Cir. 1992)). Frito-Lay had approached Waits to use one of his songs in an advertisement. Waits declined the offer, and Frito-Lay hired a Waits soundalike to sing a jingle similar to ''Small Change'''s "Step Right Up", which is, ironically, a song Waits has called "an indictment of advertising". Waits won the lawsuit, becoming one of the first artists to successfully sue a company for using an impersonator without permission.

In 1993, Levi's used Screamin' Jay Hawkins' version of Waits' "Heartattack and Vine" in a commercial. Waits sued, and Levi's agreed to cease all use of the song and offered a full page apology in ''Billboard''. Waits found himself in a situation similar to his earlier one with Frito Lay in 2000 when Audi approached him, asking to use "Innocent When You Dream" (from ''Franks Wild Years'') for a commercial broadcast in Spain. Waits declined, but the commercial ultimately featured music very similar to that song. Waits undertook legal action, and a Spanish court recognized that there had been a violation of Waits's moral rights in addition to the infringement of copyright. The production company, Tandem Campany Guasch, was ordered to pay compensation to Waits through his Spanish publisher. Waits was later quoted as jokingly saying the company got the name of the song wrong, thinking it was called "Innocent When You Scheme".

In 2005, Waits sued Adam Opel AG, claiming that, after having failed to sign him to sing in their Scandinavian commercials, they had hired a sound-alike singer. In 2007, the suit was settled, and Waits gave the sum to charity.

Waits has also filed a lawsuit unrelated to his music. He was arrested in 1977 outside Duke's Tropicana Coffee Shop in Los Angeles. Waits and a friend were trying to stop some men from bullying other patrons. The men were plainclothes police, and Waits and his friend were taken into custody and charged with disturbing the peace. The jury found Waits not guilty; he took the police department to court and was awarded $7,500 compensation.

Discography and filmography

Tours

1973: ''Closing Time'' touring

1974–1975: ''The Heart of Saturday Night'' touring

1975–1976: ''Small Change'' touring

1977: ''Foreign Affairs'' touring

1978–1979: ''Blue Valentine'' touring

1980–1982: ''Heartattack and Vine'' touring

1985: ''Rain Dogs'' touring

1987: ''Big Time'' touring

1999: ''Get Behind the Mule Tour''

2004: ''Real Gone Tour''

2006: ''The Orphans Tour''

2008: ''Glitter and Doom Tour''

Further reading

References

External links

Discography at the Tom Waits Library

Interview with Amanda Petrusich, Pitchfork Media, November 27, 2006

Interview with Jon Stewart, ''The Daily Show'', November 28, 2006

Tom Waits at NPR Music, contains interviews

Category:1949 births Category:Living people Category:American people of Norwegian descent Category:American composers Category:American film actors Category:American male singers Category:American multi-instrumentalists Category:American musicians of Norwegian descent Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent Category:American rock singers Category:American blues singers Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Eels (band) members Category:English-language singers Category:Epitaph Records artists Category:Grammy Award winners Category:People from Chula Vista, California Category:People from Pomona, California Category:People from the San Fernando Valley Category:People from Sonoma County, California Category:Singers from California Category:Songwriters from California Category:Writers from California Category:Sebastopol, California Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:People from Echo Park, Los Angeles

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Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
name	Trick Daddy
background	solo_singer
birth name	Maurice Young
born	September 27, 1973
origin	Miami, Florida, United States
genre	Hip Hop, Southern Rap, Crunk
occupation	Rapper, Producer, Songwriter, Actor
years active	1994–present
label	Slip-n-Slide Records, Warlock Records, Trick Daddy Music Group
associated acts	Gorilla Tek, Scarface, Luther Campbell, Ying Yang Twins, Bigg D, Diplo, DJ Khaled, Brisco, Young Buck
website	www.trickdaddy.com }}

Maurice Young (born September 27, 1973), better known by his stage name Trick Daddy, is a certified platinum American rapper and producer from Miami, Florida.

Music career

Young appeared on the track "Scarred" by former 2 Live Crew member, Luther "Luke" Campbell, Produced by Darren "Dj Spin" Rudnick, from Luke's 1996 album ''Uncle Luke''. The song became a hit and immediately caught the attention of fans and record producers alike. Ted Lucas, a former concert promoter and then-CEO of Slip-n-Slide Records, signed the rapper to the newly formed record label. Slip-n-Slide released Trick Daddy Dollars's debut album ''Based on a True Story'' in 1997; the album was popular in the Miami area.

In 1998, when his next album ''www.thug.com'' came out, Young removed "Dollars" from his stage name. Club-oriented track "Nann Nigga", featuring Trina, became a national hit, peaking at the third spot of the ''Billboard'' Hot Rap Singles chart. Atlantic Records signed Trick Daddy to the label in 2000 and released ''Book of Thugs: Chapter AK Verse 47'' that year. "Shut Up", which Jason Birchmeier of allmusic considered "a rowdy club hit similar to 'Nann Nigga'", followed "Nann" as the next single; featured guests on "Shut Up" were Deuce Poppito, Trina, and Co.

''Thugs Are Us'', released in 2001, featured the hit single "I'm a Thug", which reached #17 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. His fifth album ''Thug Holiday'' boasted "In da Wind", which Birchmeier believed was Trick Daddy's most creative single. In 2004, ''Thug Matrimony: Married To The Streets'' was released, with hit single "Let's Go", produced by Lil Jon, featuring Twista, and sampling the guitar riffs from the Ozzy Osbourne hit "Crazy Train". That year, Trick Daddy guest-performed on the Ying Yang Twins' "What's Happnin!", which reached #30 on the Hot 100, #7 on the Rhythmic Top 40, and #9 on the Hot Rap Singles. "Let's Go" peaked on #7 on the Hot 100, #4 on the Rhythmic Top 40, and #4 on Hot Rap Tracks. ''Back By Thug Demand'' followed in 2006, with singles "Bet That" and "Tuck Ya Ice" charting at the bottom of the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks chart.

Following ''Back By Thug Demand'', Trick Daddy appeared on several singles by DJ Khaled: "Born-N-Raised" in 2006 from ''Listennn... the Album'' in 2006, "I'm So Hood" from ''We the Best'', and "Out Here Grindin'" from ''We Global'' in 2008, all among numerous other rappers. "Born-N-Raised" peaked at #83 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles, and "I'm So Hood" peaked at #19 on the Hot 100 and #5 on the Hot Rap Tracks. He appeared on Pitbull's 2007 album ''The Boatlift''. Trick Daddy left Slip-n-Slide in 2008 and released his 8th studio album ''Finally Famous: Born a Thug Die a Thug'' on September 25, 2009, under his own Dunk Ryder Records. In late 2010 Trick Daddy formed a new label Trick Daddy Music Group, bringing his fellow Dunk Ryder artists with him, Bad Guy, Fully, Dutch Dirty, and Chocolate City. Trick Daddy is currently working on a new album to be released in 2011 under his new label.

Film career

In 2009 Trick Daddy appeared in the film ''Just Another Day'' playing Roman, a shifty and unpredictable drug dealer. The film is about the intersecting lives of an aspiring rapper and an old successful rapper over the course of one day.

Personal life

Trick Daddy announced that he has lupus, which has affected his skin, and that he has stopped taking medication to combat the disease. The rapper's rationale for refusing treatment was that "Because for every medicine they gave me I had to take a test or another medicine every thirty days or so to make sure that medicine wasn’t causing side effects dealing with kidney or liver failure…I just said all together I ain’t taking no medicine."

Discography

1997: ''Based on a True Story''

1998: ''www.thug.com''

2000: ''Book of Thugs: Chapter AK Verse 47''

2001: ''Thugs Are Us''

2002: ''Thug Holiday''

2004: ''Thug Matrimony: Married to the Streets''

2006: ''Back by Thug Demand''

2009: ''Finally Famous: Born a Thug, Still a Thug''

TBA: ''www.thug.com2''

See also

List of Miami rappers

References

External links

Official website

Trick Daddy at Atlantic Records

Category:1973 births Category:Living people Category:African American rappers Category:People with lupus

de:Trick Daddy es:Trick Daddy fr:Trick Daddy it:Trick Daddy he:טריק דאדי pl:Trick Daddy fi:Trick Daddy sv:Trick Daddy

Coordinates	55°45′06″N37°37′04″N
name	Tracy Lawrence
background	solo_singer
born	January 27, 1968
origin	Foreman, Arkansas, U.S.
instrument	VocalsAcoustic guitar
genre	Country
occupation	Singer-songwriter
years active	1991–present
label	AtlanticWarner Bros.DreamWorks NashvilleMercury NashvilleRocky ComfortBamaJam
associated acts	Flip Anderson, Larry Boone, Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, James Stroud, Elbert West
website	http://www.tracylawrence.com }}

Tracy Lawrence (born January 27, 1968) is an American country music artist. Signed to Atlantic Records in 1991, Lawrence debuted that year with the album ''Sticks and Stones'', which produced his first chart single and first Number One hit in its title track. Five more studio albums, as well as a live album and a compilation album, followed throughout the 1990s and into 2000 on Atlantic before the label's country division was closed in 2001. Afterward, he recorded for Warner Bros. Records, DreamWorks Records, Mercury Records Nashville and his own label, Rocky Comfort Records.

Lawrence has released nine studio albums, three compilations, a live album, and a Christmas album. His studio albums have accounted for more than thirty singles on the ''Billboard'' country music charts. Of these, eight have reached number one: "Sticks and Stones" (1991), "Alibis", "Can't Break It to My Heart", "My Second Home"(all 1993), "If the Good Die Young" (1994), "Texas Tornado" (1995), "Time Marches On" (1996) and "Find Out Who Your Friends Are" (2006).

Biography

Tracy Lawrence was born in Atlanta, Texas, and lived most of his early life in Foreman, Arkansas. He played in his first band at the age of sixteen and later attended Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia, Arkansas, where he was a member of the Epsilon Kappa chapter of Sigma Pi Fraternity. In 1990 Lawrence left Arkansas for Nashville, Tennessee where he planned to find success as a recording artist.

Lawrence worked as an ironworker and in phone sales while he tried to break into the music business. He began participating in talent shows and earned enough money to live on. He began working with Wanda Collier, a music publisher, doing some shows and co-writing some songs, while learning his way around the music scene in Nashville. He had a gig at the Bluebird Cafe and met Wayne Edwards who became his manager.

Musical career

1991-1993: ''Sticks and Stones'' and robbery

With Edwards' assistance, Lawrence signed with Atlantic Records and began recording his first album ''Sticks and Stones''. On May 31, 1991, before the album's release, 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.

''Sticks and Stones'', upon its late-1991 release, accounted for four singles on the ''Billboard'' country charts. First was the album's title track, which spent a week at Number One in January 1992. Following it were, in order: "Today's Lonely Fool", "Runnin' Behind" and "Somebody Paints the Wall." ''Sticks and Stones'' was also certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of one million copies. In 1992, he was also named by ''Billboard'' as Top New Male Vocalist.

1993-1994: ''Alibis''

His second album, ''Alibis'', also produced four singles. The first of these, which was the title track, was his second number-one, as well as his first entry on the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at number 72. After this song came "Can't Break It to My Heart", "My Second Home" and "If the Good Die Young", all of which went to number-one. The album was certified 2× Multi-Platinum by the RIAA. In 1994, he contributed the song "Renegades, Rebels, and Rogues" to the soundtrack of the film ''Maverick''. This song became a Top Ten hit for him as well, and in 1993, he was awarded as Top New Male Vocalist by the Academy of Country Music.

1994-1995: ''I See It Now''

Lawrence's third album, the platinum-certified ''I See It Now'', produced two consecutive number 2 hits in its title track and "As Any Fool Can See", the former of which was a number 84 on the Hot 100. The Bobby Braddock-penned "Texas Tornado" became his sixth number-one hit in mid-1995, followed by another number 2 in "If the World Had a Front Porch". Later in 1995, he released a live acoustic album, ''Tracy Lawrence Live and Unplugged''.

1995-1997: ''Time Marches On''

''Time Marches On'', his fourth album, was released in 1996. Its lead-off single was "If You Loved Me", which reached a peak of number 4 in early 1996. Following this song was Lawrence's longest-lasting number-one hit, "Time Marches On", also written by Braddock. After this song came "Stars over Texas" and "Is That a Tear", both peaking at number 2. ''Time Marches On'' was certified double platinum by the RIAA.

1997-1998: ''The Coast Is Clear'' and charges

Lawrence's fifth studio album, ''The Coast Is Clear'', was issued in 1997. This album produced consecutive Top Five hits in the #2 "Better Man, Better Off" and #4 "How a Cowgirl Says Goodbye". The title track, however, became the first single of his career to miss Top Ten, peaking at #26, and the final single, "While You Sleep", fell short of Top 40. Nonetheless, ''The Coast Is Clear'' was certified gold.

In March 1997, Lawrence married his 2nd wife Stacie Drew, a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. By December she had filed charges against him. He 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.

1999-2001: ''Lessons Learned''

In late 1999-early 2000, Lawrence returned to the charts with "Lessons Learned". This was the title track to his sixth album, 2000's ''Lessons Learned''. "Lessons Learned" was Lawrence's only Top 40 hit on the pop charts, peaking at number 40 there. Despite this single's success, however, the other singles from the album ("Lonely" and "Unforgiven") did not peak as highly, reaching number 18 and number 35 respectively. By the end of 2000, Atlantic closed its Nashville division, and several acts on its roster, including Lawrence, were transferred to Warner Bros. Records. His only release for that label, ''Tracy Lawrence'', produced only two low-charting singles in "Life Don't Have to Be So Hard" and "What a Memory" before he exited the label.

2003-2004: ''Strong''

Lawrence did not chart again until late 2003 with the release of "Paint Me a Birmingham". This song, which had also been a number 53-peaking single for Ken Mellons earlier that year, went on to peak at number 4 for Lawrence in early 2004. It was the first release from ''Strong'', his only album for DreamWorks Records. Following this song were "It's All How You Look at It" and "Sawdust on Her Halo", at number 36 and number 48 respectively.

2005-2006: Label change and ''Then & Now: The Hits Collection''

Lawrence transferred to Mercury Nashville in 2005, where he released the compilation ''Then & Now: The Hits Collection''. His only release for the label, this album included fifteen of his previous hits, all of which (except "Paint Me a Birmingham") had to be newly recorded as the label did not own the rights to his Warner Bros. and Atlantic releases. Two new tracks were included as well: "Used to the Pain", previously a single in 1998 for its co-writer, Mark Nesler, and "If I Don't Make It Back". These two new songs were both issued as singles, but after the release of the latter, Lawrence exited Mercury's roster.

2006-2008: Business ventures and ''For the Love''

In 2006, Lawrence started his own record label, Rocky Comfort Records. A partnership with his manager and brother, Laney, Rocky Comfort operates as a joint venture with CO5 Nashville. His first single for the label was "Find Out Who Your Friends Are", which was released in August 2006 from his album ''For the Love''. This song did not enter Top 40 on the country charts until January 2007, when the album was released, and in June of the same year, it became his first Number One in eleven years. The song reached the top of the country charts in its forty-first week, setting a new record for the slowest-climbing Number One country single, and the second-slowest on any ''Billboard'' singles chart. It was also the first time that any artist had reached Number One with the first release from a self-owned label. The song's chart performance was aided by an alternate recording on the album which featured guest vocals from Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney, although only Lawrence was credited on the charts. The re-recorded version received Musical Event of the Year honors at the 2007 CMA Awards, Lawrence's first award from that association. Following this song was "Til I Was a Daddy Too" at #32, and "You Can't Hide Redneck", the third single. Shortly before the latter, Lawrence also issued a Christmas album entitled ''All Wrapped Up in Christmas'', the title track of which peaked at #57 based on Christmas season airplay. Chad Brock and Zona Jones also signed to the Rocky Comfort label, although Brock never released anything for it.

2009: ''The Rock''

Lawrence released the single "Up to Him" in early 2009. This is the first single for a studio album entitled ''The Rock'', which was released in June 2009. The album is composed entirely of Christian music and has been nominated for a Grammy in the best southern, country or bluegrass gospel album category.

2011: ''The Singer''

Lawrence released the single "The Singer" in 2011.

Discography

References

External links

Tracy Lawrence Official Website

Category:1968 births Category:Living people Category:American country singers Category:American male singers Category:Musicians from Texas Category:Southern Arkansas University alumni Category:Mercury Records artists Category:Atlantic Records artists Category:DreamWorks Records artists Category:Warner Bros. Records artists

de:Tracy Lawrence pt:Tracy Lawrence