Interview: Trace Adkins

The Celebrity Apprentice, multi-platinum country music star, writer, and amazing hair. That’s Trace Adkins. I had a chance to sit down with the country superstar yesterday. I have to admit that I was taken back by how small I was compared to him. He was 6’6” and a whole lot of man! I ran through his legs two times looking for him and then I looked up. But, I have to say that he was awesome. Check him out on The Celebrity Apprentice tonight, Thursday at 9/8c

Nads: Is Trace your given name ? Does anyone ever call you Tracy?

Trace: Actually, my mom still calls me Tracy. But, growing up everyone called me Trace, and there were already two Tracys in country music, so the name Trace just stuck.

Nads: Let’s talk about your book, A PERSONAL STAND: Observations and Opinions of a Freethinking Roughneck. Did you write that book all on your own?

Trace: I did have a little help. I went through a long interview process of trying to find the right fit. So, I ended up hiring these twin brothers, Keith Zimmerman, and Kent Zimmerman. When I met them, and talked them, I knew that they were the right guys to work with me on the book. It’s so funny because they actually have that “twin psychic” thing going on too.

Nads: Are they the little twins that do infomercial about real estate?

Trace: (lol) no, not like that. I meant, they would literally be sitting the same way, with their legs crossed exactly the same. Meanwhile, they’re on opposite sides of the room. These guys were incredible, I sat down with them for about 40 hours, and they came back to me with an outline, and I went to work.

From there I just literally sat behind my computer and just wrote, and wrote.

Nads: Did you feel like you were purging while you were writing, and did you find it therapeutic?

Trace: Absolutely. That’s exactly what it felt like, it was so cathartic to write. I never thought it would be such a long cathartic process. I certainly purged a lot during the writing process, but it was a good.

Nads: You also have a new Greatest Hits CD with three new songs on it, American Man, Greatest Hits Volume II, which actually my favorite song you sing, Honky Tonk Badonkadonk. Did you coin that phrase for rappers, Badonkadonk?

Trace: (lol) I did not coin the phrase. Although I have to tell you that song has become such a popular ring tone. I never would have thought that the song would make such a comeback with ring tones.

Nads: Let’s talk about Apprentice now. Who was your favorite, least favorite…How was Nadia?

Trace: You know what’s so funny, I had such a crush on her back in her gold medal days, and all of the sudden I was doing this show with her. And I finally got to tell her about my old crush. She got kicked off last week, it’s too bad she was really nice.

Nads: Think it was the language barrier?

Trace: (lol) Oh yeah, I’m sure she would have done just fine if people could understand her.

Nads: I think she’s better off just doing cartwheels and not talking.

In all seriousness, was The Celebrity Apprentice something you wanted to do?

Trace: At first no, because I have a strong career, and I was iffy about being on a reality series. But then I saw it as an opportunity to raise money for my charity, FAAN (Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network). I really believe in what they’re doing. We have too many food allergies in this country, and FAAN does a lot of research for this, because there has to be a way to get to the bottom of this problem.

I have a 6-year old daughter and she had life-threatening reactions to peanut butter. She also had so many allergies to food and milk. Just recently I read about this guy who gets fed through a feeding tube because he’s allergic to everything. There has to be a way to fix that. Our country is doing something wrong somewhere down the line. FAAN is a great organization, and I’m so happy to be on The Apprentice raising money for them.

Nads: You are one of 12 people remaining, and your task tonight will be to operate a mobile printing station for Kodak, then the Kodak executives will decide on the winning team, who wins? Can you tell me if you’re going to be on the show next week?

Trace: I can’t tell you anything, I will say that I was not the project manager.

Nads: The Project manager gets the raw end of the stick, all the time!

Trace: Oh yeah, once you become the project manager, your butt is on the line.

Nads: What’s the boardroom like? Even more so, what’s Donald’s hair like?

Trace: Ha. The boardroom is a very stressful place! It’s smaller than it looks on television, there are lots of lights. I think they turn up the heat just to get us to sweat and look more stressed out. (lol) But, truthfully, it is hard, and I’ve had to learn to behave on the show because I’m there for my charity. You better believe if I was really on it (as a reality star), things would be a lot different, and I’d be more vocal about everything.

Nads: Do you feel when you go in front of executives of all of these companies, its like going on stage and showcasing all over again?

Trace: Yeah in a way. I used to be a gospel singer, and then crossed over to country. I actually have a gospel show coming up at the Opry that they’re going to televise on February 9th.

Nads: I can’t wait to watch that, now that I’ve met you! But let’s get back to Trump’s hair.

Trace: (lol) Truthfully, Donald Trump loved my hair. Any opportunity he had he would ask me to take off my hat to show off my hair. And, for the record, Donald Trump’s hair is real.

Nads: NO WAY! That’s hilarious.

Trace: Oh yeah, he did a great job of always showing how his hair was real and would say (as he was pulling it), “Look!” I don’t know if they’ll show him doing that after the edit, but I hope they left one of those moments in there.

Nads: Well, I say one thing, you do have great hair Trace. I’ll be the judge of Donald Trump’s hair. One last question, how was Gene Simmons?

Trace: Omg, I loved Gene. He was a lot of fun. If anything, I’m so glad I met him out of the show. He was a riot.

Nads: So, do you and Gene go neck and neck on the show towards the end, kind of like a rock vs. country?

Trace: I can’t tell you what happens, you’ll just have to watch and see. There was no rivalry, it was an honor to work with Gene and I have a lot of respect for him. I truly had a great time on the show. We really worked hard while we were there. I would go back to my hotel every night exhausted. But it was all worth it.

I want to thank Trace for taking to time to talk to me! For the record, he has great hair. And, a great sense of humor and was a lot of fun. Check him out on The Celebrity Apprentice tonight, Thursday at 9/8c

Check out his book:
A Personal Stand: Observations and Opinions from a Freethinking Roughneck

And his CD:
American Man, Greatest Hits Volume II