Gretchen Frances Wilson (born June 26, 1973) is an American country music artist. She made her debut in 2004 with the Grammy Award-winning single "Redneck Woman", a number-one hit on the Billboard country charts. The song served as the lead-off single of her debut album, Here for the Party. Wilson followed this album one year later with All Jacked Up, the title track of which became the highest-debuting single for a female country artist upon its 2005 release. A third album, One of the Boys, was released in 2007.
Overall, Wilson has charted 13 singles on the Billboard country charts, of which five have reached Top Ten: the Number One "Redneck Woman", as well as "Here for the Party" (#3, 2004), "When I Think About Cheatin'" (#4, 2004), "Homewrecker" (#2, 2005), and "All Jacked Up" (#8, 2005). The album Here for the Party was certified 5× Multi-Platinum by the RIAA for sales of five million copies, while All Jacked Up was certified platinum. She has sold over 8 million records worldwide.
Gretchen Wilson was born in Pocahontas, Illinois, to a 16-year-old mother. Her father left before she was two years old, and she and her mother lived in trailer parks and relative poverty. Wilson's mother worked as a waitress, and Wilson herself dropped out of the 9th grade at age 15 to work as a cook and bartender in rural Illinois.
Wilson began singing in small bars around the St. Louis, Missouri area at age 15. In 1991, Susie Osburn, a bar manager from Springfield, Missouri, went to St. Louis to find a new house band for her bar, the Townhouse. She found 18-year-old Wilson singing Patsy Cline covers so well that Osburn initially thought the singing was coming from a jukebox. Recognizing Wilson's talent, Osburn immediately convinced her and her band, Sam-A-Lama, to move to Springfield and play at the Townhouse. In her biography, Wilson says it was the offer of a lifetime. After playing the Townhouse for two years at six nights a week, Wilson moved back home to Pocahontas before continuing on to Nashville.
While a country singer first and foremost, Gretchen Wilson has also attracted favorable attention[3] for her rendition of classic rock songs by Heart - a group which she sees as "one of the biggest influences on my musical career.".[4] She has appeared several times on the same stage as lead singer Ann Wilson and guitarist Nancy Wilson, once describing the experience as "beyond a dream come true".[5] She has sung "Straight On",[4] "Crazy on You",[6] and - most notably - "Barracuda",[7] which she performed with Alice in Chains and Nancy Wilson on guitar at the 2007 VH1 Rock Honors.
Birth name Gretchen Frances Wilson
Born June 26, 1973 (age 39)[1]
Pocahontas, Illinois[1]
Genres Country, Country-rock
Occupations Singer-songwriter
Instruments Vocals
Acoustic guitar
Years active 2004–present
Labels Epic Nashville
Columbia Nashville
Redneck Records
Associated acts MuzikMafia
Big & Rich, Kenny Chesney, Kid Rock
Website GretchenWilson.com
Thanx YouTube |
