Trace Adkins

Trace Adkins, a country music legend with six gold and platinum albums, sat down with Theo Von to talk about his 30-year career, growing up in small-town Louisiana, getting shot by his wife, and why he still wants to make records. The conversation ranged from Napoleonic law and the death of rural towns to the advice Buck Owens gave him about his singing voice.

Louisiana Roots and the Death of a Town

Adkins grew up in Sarepta, Louisiana, a small town that has been shrinking for decades. His mother, Peggy, is still the mayor because "nobody else wants to do it." The town's decline began when the local mill shut down, and the population has decreased every year since. Adkins described how the school system consolidated, forcing kids to go to another town, which "took away some tradition." When the school went, so did the community's anchor — "all the kids in town went to that school, so the whole community was always behind the school, supported the school at every ball game." He pointed out that this pattern has repeated across the country: when industry leaves, the population follows, and the downtown energy dissipates. "You can see like an energy that once was," he said.

Louisiana's Napoleonic Law