Currington, Billy

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Billy Currington

Singer, songwriter

One of the new breed of country singers who is probably as famous for his good looks as for his hit songs "Walk a Little Straighter" and "Good Directions," Billy Currington is a singer-songwriter in the Kenny Chesney mold. Capable of rocking a fast song or crooning a tearjerking ballad, the Georgia native sports a knack for radio-ready songs. At his career's early peak, he boldly took an extended break to deal with the traumas of his childhood days.

Born on November 19, 1973, in Savannah, Georgia, Billy Currington grew up in nearby Rincon, where he was raised by his mother along with Larry Currington, who became his stepfather when he was still an infant. According to the singer-songwriter, the hard-drinking elder Currington violently abused him, and ended up as the inspiration for the 2003 song "Walk a Little Straighter." "He'd get drunk and a little crazy," Currington recalled to CMT.com. Eventually, young Billy began acting out. "I started showing symptoms of trauma in grade school by getting into fights," he recalled in People. "When you are taught to hate, you carry that with you."

As a child, Currington heard the likes of Luther Vandross and John Cougar Mellancamp, and enjoyed the way a local church choir blended country with gospel. Slowly, he began to adopt country as his music of choice. Willie Nelson, Keith Whitley, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, and particularly Kenny Rogers soon became his favorite performers. During the summer between 11th and 12th grade, the youngster abandoned his football ambitions, bought a guitar from a Savannah pawnshop for $120, began to write songs, and set his sights on becoming a professional country singer.

Currington failed an audition for the Opryland theme park stage show in Nashville, Tennessee, but the experience convinced him to keep working toward his goal of a musical career. After graduation he worked briefly at a Rincon paper plant before making his first tentative move to Nashville. That lasted only a year. Returning home and living with his grandmother, he started his own country band before venturing back to Music City eight months later. For the first couple of years, he supported himself working in a Nashville pawnshop. He later earned a better living working 16 hours a day at a local cement plant, pouring concrete, driving trucks, and working in the warehouse. Fellow aspiring songwriters advised him to find a less demanding line of work so he could have time and energy to concentrate on music. Subsequently working part-time as a personal trainer, he met publishing executive Gary Voorhies, who eventually secured a publishing deal for the young singer-songwriter.

Once his foot was in the door, career opportunities quickly arose. After Currington co-wrote a song with established country star Mark Willis, Willis introduced the young singer to producer/songwriter Carson Chamberlain, and the two began to write and record song demos together. Mercury Records honcho Larry Lewis heard the demos and signed Currington to the label, paving the way for his 2003 debut album, Billy Currington.

Boasting a surprisingly spare sound for a modern country album, Currington's first album featured ten of the songs he co-wrote with Chamberlin and others. Twangy guitars, subtle pedal steel, and fiddle created a tight sound on such honky-tonk rockers as "Off My Rocker," "Where the Girls Are," and the nostalgic anthem "Growing Up Down There." However, it was the more sensitive hook songs that garnered the attention of country radio. The anti-drinking ode inspired by his stepfather, "Walk a Little Straighter," proved to be an old-school tearjerker that modern mainstream audiences could appreciate. Peaking at number eight on the country charts, the single surprisingly rose to number 67 on Billboard's pop charts. Currington's stepdad wasn't around to hear the recording, as he had died from complications of cancer in 1997.

Already a rising star with his second hit single, the twangy female-friendly hook song "I Got a Feelin'," Currington's next big break came when superstar labelmate Shania Twain tapped him as a duet partner for the song "Party for Two." Bolstered by a CMA Award-nominated video that featured Currington swinging from a chandelier, the record became a top five country hit. After they performed "Party for Two" live on the 2004 Country Music Association Awards telecast, USA Today named him an "On the Verge Artist." Both events provided a powerful lead-in for Currington's second album.

Doin' Something Right (2005) featured a far heavier, contemporary production and fewer Currington compositions. Singing with more confidence, Currington oozed sensuality on such ballads as the Jackson Browne-inflected "Little Bit Lonely," the laid back "Here I Am," and "She's Got a Way with Me," the latter prominently featuring guest vocalist Michael MacDonald. Although Currington burned through such Kenny Chesney-style Southern rockers as "I Wanna Be a Hillbilly" and "She Knows What to Do With a Saturday Night," the album's biggest success came with the romantic Adult Contemporary love boast "Must Be Doin' Somethin' Right," which became the singer's first number one country hit and first entry into the pop top 40. Smartly, Mercury followed up with a more country-oriented ditty, the dobro-laden paean to romantic fate, "Good Directions," Currington's second number one country hit.

From the start, Currington had been featured on posters and magazine layouts. Indeed, Nashville Lifestyles magazine proclaimed him one of its "25 Most Beautiful People." Men's Fitness Magazine named him one of its "25 Fittest Guys." Country Weekly declared him to be "one of country music's hottest bachelors." "I don't look at it that way," he told The Herald Standard. "If people think that, it's great. Hopefully, they like the music too."

For the Record …

Born William Matthew Currington, November 19, 1973, in Savannah, Georgia.

Began writing songs as a teenager; worked at a concrete company and as a personal trainer; signed by Mercury Records, 2002; released first album, Billy Currington, which spawned the country hits "Walk a Little Straighter" and "I Got A Feelin," 2003; with labelmate Shania Twain, sang hit duet "Party for Two," 2004; released second album, Doin' Something Right, 2005; appeared on cover of Playgirl Magazine, 2005; appeared on such television programs as Foxworthy's Big Night Out, The Tonight Show Starring Jay Leno, CMT Insider, and CMT: The Greatest - Sexiest Southern Men.

Awards: CMT Music Awards, Hottest Video of the Year, for "Must Be Doin' Somethin' Right," 2006.

Addresses: Record company—Mercury Records, 54 Music Square East, Nashville, TN 37203, Web site: http://www.umgnashville.com. Management—William Morris Agency, 1600 Division St., Ste. 300, Nashville, TN 37203, phone: 615-963-3000, fax: 615-963-3090, Web site: http://www.wma.com/agency/contact.aspx, Web site—Billy Currington Official Web site: http://www.billycurrington.com.

Perhaps the most outlandish tribute to Currington's physical attributes was the March 2005 cover story for Playgirl magazine, in which he stayed mostly clothed. "Playgirl was something I didn't actually decide to do," Currington explained to CMT.com. "It was out of the blue. I get this call from someone at my label [who] says, ‘Hey, you know Playgirl wants you to do this four-page article. And they want to put you on the cover of the magazine.’ … I ended up feeling like it was OK to do, and it's been really good for the career in a small way. I constantly feel like I sign more of those magazines than I do my own merchandise."

Currington's tours with the likes of Brad Paisley, Jo Dee Messina, and Trace Adkins led to appearances on network and cable television shows. At the peak of his early career, however, the singer-songwriter took time off to enter a 30-day trauma recovery program at Arizona's Sierra Tucson, and traveled to Hawaii to work with two therapists specializing in childhood trauma. "My life was in an unhealthy place," he told the Tennessean in an article from the Great American Country Web site. "I feel fortunate that I was in the right place to be able to take that short break and look at my inner self to begin a journey to fix what I felt was broken."

Currington returned to touring in May of 2008 and reportedly is working on his third album.