Tracy Lawrence: The Star is a Down-Home Daddy

As sporadic fires rage, potentially diseased flood waters snake through the streets and New Orleans officials threaten forceful removal of hold-outs, Tracy Lawrence is on the road, but his heart is in the South.

In the midst of a hot fall tour, press for his new release Then and Now: The Hits Collection and keeping up with his wife Becca and two daughters, the country singer has the victims of Hurricane Katrina on his mind.

Two days after the August 29 disaster began ripping through Louisiana and Mississippi, the Atlanta, TX native had yet to hear from some of his friends in the weather ravaged area due, primarily, to cell phone tower damage.

"My buddy, who is the entertainment director for a lot of those casinos down there, I haven't talked to him since all of this stuff started because we can't get through on the cell phones. Some casinos were ripped from their tie-downs and one of them landed on top of a hotel in Gulfport, Mississippi. It's terrible. There are miles and miles of just leveled subdivisions where there's nothing left."

Since he couldn't physically be there, he sent prayers from the road to them instead.

It's his own love of friends and family that allows Lawrence to keep his head on straight despite fifteen often tumultuous years in the music industry. He considers the people he deals with on a daily basis in the music industry friends, not just business associates. Lawrence has ridden both the highs and lows of life as a country music artist, so he appreciates things others may not even give a second thought to.

"I've worked very hard and I've developed a lot of relationships because you are dealing with a huge monster when you're dealing with the business side of it. Dreamworks [my new label] was sold into the Universal Music Group, so now I"m part of this big conglomerate."

Amazingly, the business side of the industry gets him going almost as much as the performing side does. It's a "game" he is adept at playing and one that he thoroughly enjoys.

"I've had to network throughout the whole machine, which is a difficult thing because the business is ever-changing and evolving. You spend nine months developing a relationship with someone and have a great rapport and friendship with someone, and then all the sudden they're not there anymore. You've got all this time put into this and now you've got to start all over again. That's the corporate world we're living in, it's stressful and you shouldn't ever take it for granted. For every artist that is successful, there are at least fifteen who want to step into your shoes."

Someday, in fact, Lawrence dreams of using his extensive history in the music business to help some talented young up and comer climb the charts a little faster, a little less painfully, than he has. He helps out behind the scenes of award shows, sits on several focus groups and generally tries to learn every single aspect of the business he's grown to love.

First, of course, he's got to raise his own kids, daughter Mary Keagan (2) and Skylar JoAnn (4). He schedules his off time to coincide with their school vacations whenever possible, but even when he's plugging away at the country star life, he tries to get home every night for dinner and prayers with the girls and wife Becca. Though he doesn't reside inside Nashville, his home of Mt. Juliet is only about a half hour drive, so even if meetings run long or the unexpected crops up, Lawrence can count on being home in time to tuck the kids in for the night.

The irony is that the more successful he becomes, the more time he has to spend away from his family.

"You know, as long as I've been in the business, I do have a lot of control and I know how to lay out the scheudle," he noted.

"When I sit donw at the beginning of the year, my wife and I look at the books and the first thing we do is find out when school breaks are, etc. and I block that time for my family. They're non-negotiable. I try to get in about four weeks off during the whole year before I burn out and when I need to spend time with my family. I'm never away from them for too long. The longest stretch I've ever been away from them was two weeks and that was at the end of July. The rest of the time, I'm out there and gone for two or three days, then I'm home again. Sometimes, my wife wants me to be there and sometimes she just wants me to get on that bus and get the hell away from her because I"m driving her crazy."

Seemingly unaffected by the various forces tugging at his watch, Lawrence said he uses the gym as a stress reliever instead of turning to some of the vices that others get caught up in. The more stress he encounters in his business or personal life - everything from building a new home to working on new material - the more miles he does on the treadmill.

Having an outlet means less down time in general, which makes juggling the demands of family and career a lot easier. Plus, all that cardio helps keep him fit for high energy live shows, which averaged as many as 150 a year for the past fifteen years. From the time he first started performing in his mid-teens, Lawrence has tried hard not to let anything stand in the way of his dreams. Memories of a colorful past came flooding back during the recording of Then and Now: The Hits Collection. In one headphone, he piped previous recordings from Sticks and Stones (1991), Alibis (1993), Live and Unplugged (1995), Time Marches On (1996), The Coast is Clear (1997), Lessons Learned (2000), Tracy Lawrence (2001) and Strong (2004) while he listened to himself live in the other side. The trip down memory lane was a humbling experience.

"It's a unique process. I think the most fun for me was that we were able to go back in somewhat of a chronological order, so it was like a whole journey for us. A lot of the guys who played on the remake were the guys who were on the origiinal record, so we had all these stories, what was going on during hte recoridng of the first one, what other records we were working on at the time."

Realizing his personal progression was as cathartic as tracking his professional one through the headphones.

"It was a really great experience. I really got to hear my progression as an artist too. You can hear things from a certain period where there was a lot of stress in my life or I was forcing things. Most people woulnd't be able to hear that in the music, but when you hear it yourself, you remember. Whether it was a divorce or whatever, I could hear it in my voice.

It helped me get a better overview of who I am as an artist. For me, it was a very healthy experience."

Fans who are anxious to hear new material may have to wait a bit longer as he continues to work on an original album, but he hopes they will be saited - at least for now - hearing some of their favorites from his lengthy career. The singles Sticks and Stones, Runnin' Behind, Today's Lonely Fool, Somebody Paints the Wall, Can't BReak It to My Heart, My Second Home, If the Good Die Young, As Any Fool Can See, Texas Tornado and many more will sound almost exactly the same, but with an edge brought on by years in the music industry. Years spent pickin', performin' and prayin'. Lawrence insisted it's the backstage part of the business that takes most of the work - being on stage and recording in the studio are the fun parts of the job.

"I had some ups and some downs, fell on my face, made mistakes, but at this point in my life, I really appreciate it more. Not just having my name on a marquee, because that's really about getting comfortable in my own skin, but I just love being in this business. I think it's given me a place beyond being an artist. It's a unique thing. It's a fun world to be in."

For more information on Tracy Lawrence, go to www.tracylawrence.com.