Rodney Atkins

Rodney Atkins
Rodney Atkins performing on December 1, 2007 at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio.
Background information
Birth name	Rodney Allan Atkins
Born	(1969-03-28) March 28, 1969 (age 47) Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.
Origin	Cumberland Gap, Tennessee, U.S.
Genres	Country
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	1996–1997 2002–present
Labels	Curb
Associated acts	Ted Hewitt Rose Falcon
Website	http://www.rodneyatkins.com/

Rodney Allan Atkins (born March 28, 1969) is an American country music artist. Signed to Curb Records in 1996, he charted his first single on the Billboard country chart in 1997, but did not release an album until 2003's Honesty, which included the number 4 hit "Honesty (Write Me a List)".

If You're Going Through Hell, his second album, was released in 2006. Its first two singles, "If You're Going Through Hell (Before the Devil Even Knows)" and "Watching You", each spent four weeks at the top of the country music chart, and were respectively ranked as the top country songs of 2006 and 2007 according to Billboard Year-End. The album, which has since been certified platinum in the United States, produced two more number 1 singles in "These Are My People" and "Cleaning This Gun (Come On In Boy)". It's America (2009) included the number 1 single "It's America" and the top 5 hit "Farmer's Daughter", which was added to a later reissue of the album. Take a Back Road (2011) produced his sixth number 1 in its title track. Atkins has received six nominations from the Academy of Country Music and two from the Country Music Association, winning Top New Male Vocalist from the former in 2006.

Rodney Atkins was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. His biological mother, who was 19 at the time, became pregnant with him after a "traumatic first date". She hid the pregnancy from her parents and put him up for adoption at the Holston United Methodist Home for Children in Greeneville, Tennessee. His first adoptive parents, Charles Hutchins and Linda Weems, returned him to the home after he developed a major respiratory infection. Allan and Margaret Atkins, who had lost a newborn about a year prior, inquired after the child, but decided not to proceed due to surgery that Margaret had just undergone. Meanwhile, another couple adopted him, but also returned him soon after when he developed colic. After Margaret Atkins recovered, she proceeded to adopt him. Atkins did not meet his biological mother until 2008, and has never revealed her identity.