77 Facts About Dwight Yoakam

Dwight David Yoakam was born on October 23,1956 and is an American singer-songwriter, actor, and film director.

Dwight Yoakam first achieved mainstream attention in 1986 with the release of his debut album Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc.

Dwight Yoakam has two number-one singles on Hot Country Songs with "Streets of Bakersfield" and "I Sang Dixie", and twelve additional top-ten hits.

Dwight Yoakam has won two Grammy Awards and one Academy of Country Music award.

Dwight Yoakam is known for his distinctive tenor singing voice, unconventional musical image, and the lead guitar work of his longtime producer and bandleader Pete Anderson.

Dwight Yoakam writes most of his own songs while holding a large number of successes with cover songs.

Dwight David Yoakam was born October 23,1956, in Pikeville, Kentucky.

Dwight Yoakam is the oldest of three children to David Yoakam and Ruth Ann Tibbs.

Dwight Yoakam's father had acquired a guitar manufactured by the Kay Musical Instrument Company while in the Army, and gave it to Dwight Yoakam after being unable to learn to play it himself.

Dwight Yoakam himself stated that he took influence from rock and roll acts he had seen on television, such as Elvis Presley.

The Dwight Yoakam family moved to another neighborhood of Columbus in 1968, where Dwight Yoakam attended high school.

Dwight Yoakam's mother encouraged all three of her children to join the school's band, in which Yoakam played drums.

Dwight Yoakam attended drama class, which led to him playing the role of Charlie in a production of Flowers for Algernon.

Dwight Yoakam later attributed this performance as giving him more confidence performing in front of others.

Dwight Yoakam attended Ohio State University, but quickly dropped out in order to focus on his musical career.

Dwight Yoakam faced difficulty in the Nashville music scene, as his style was more indebted to honky-tonk and bluegrass music at a time when such sounds were not popular compared to country pop and Nashville sound.

Dwight Yoakam then moved to Los Angeles, California, at the encouragement of Billy Alves, a former member of the Greaser Band.

Dwight Yoakam served as producer and lead guitarist on the project, roles he would serve throughout most of Yoakam's career.

Later in the year Dwight Yoakam was chosen to serve as an opening act for The Blasters.

Dwight Yoakam won Top New Male Vocalist at the 1986 Academy of Country Music awards.

Dwight Yoakam's review noted the number of personal songs written by Yoakam himself, as well as the cover versions of "Ring of Fire" and Ray Price's "Heartaches by the Number".

Dwight Yoakam ended the 1980s with his first greatest hits album, Just Lookin' for a Hit.

In 1990, Dwight Yoakam entered the Billboard country charts for the thirteenth time with "Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose", which peaked at number eleven.

Unlike his previous albums, Dwight Yoakam co-wrote several tracks on If There Was a Way with other writers.

Dwight Yoakam wrote with Roger Miller on "It Only Hurts When I Cry", a song to which Miller contributed backing vocals.

Dwight Yoakam had met Miller at the Grammy Awards and presented him with the title, and Miller agreed to co-write the song after Dwight Yoakam stated he was a fan of Miller's music.

Record producer Tony Brown had sent Kostas' demo of the song to Pete Anderson because he thought the song sounded like Dwight Yoakam had written it.

Dwight Yoakam had written "You're the One" in 1978 about a woman with whom he had ended a relationship.

Dwight Yoakam performed Mellencamp's composition "Common Day Man"; the two joined Joe Ely, John Prine, and James McMurtry on the track "Sweet Suzanne".

Later in the year, Dwight Yoakam covered Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds" for the soundtrack of Honeymoon in Vegas.

Finally, Dwight Yoakam released an album titled La Croix d'Amour for the European market in 1992.

In July 1994, Dwight Yoakam began the This Time Tour, a 75-city tour which featured Alison Krauss and Union Station as an opening act.

Dwight Yoakam wrote the entire album, collaborating with Kostas on two songs.

Between 1995 and 1997, Dwight Yoakam received three consecutive Grammy nominations in the category of Best Male Country Vocal Performance.

Dwight Yoakam received three consecutive nominations for Best Country Album between 1996 and 1998, with the nominations going to Dwight Live, Gone, and Under the Covers.

Dwight Yoakam wrote the entire project by himself, making it his first not to have any co-writers or cover songs.

Dwight Yoakam was one of several artists featured on the album's closing track "Same Old Train", an original composition by Marty Stuart.

The only exception was a re-recording of "Guitars, Cadillacs", which Dwight Yoakam performed a cappella.

Dwight Yoakam said that he was inspired to do such an album due to the success of similar acoustic renditions in his concerts.

Dwight Yoakam had originally planned to release the album through his website until representatives of Reprise Records thought the album had sales potential.

Dwight Yoakam praised the guitar work of Pete Anderson and compared Yoakam's lyrical style to that of Hank Williams.

Dwight Yoakam received his final CMA nomination in 2001, when that institution nominated "Alright, I'm Wrong" for Vocal Event of the Year.

Dwight Yoakam founded a new record label called Electrodisc after his contract with Reprise expired.

Between 2003 and 2004, Dwight Yoakam released three more compilations of covers albums to fulfill contractual obligations with his labels.

The oldest track was a cover of the Grateful Dead's "Truckin'", which Dwight Yoakam cut in 1991.

In 2005, Dwight Yoakam signed with New West Records, an Americana music label based out of California.

Dwight Yoakam said that he had contacted a number of producers until Gattis encouraged him to produce by himself.

Dwight Yoakam recorded the project with his touring band, which at the time included then-former Mavericks member Eddie Perez on lead guitar.

Dwight Yoakam stated that he and the band listened to Owens' originals to draw inspiration from the recordings.

Dwight Yoakam performed at the CMA Music Festival in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2008, where he was joined by Faith Hill.

Dwight Yoakam otherwise performed very few concerts in 2009 and 2010, citing the Great Recession and the rise of digital music distribution as a reason behind the slower pace of his career at the time.

In 2016 Dwight Yoakam was contacted by a label executive of Sugar Hill Records, who wanted him to record a bluegrass music album for them.

Dwight Yoakam chose to cover the song the day Prince died, as he had seen the news of the musician's death on television prior to recording.

Also in 2016, Dwight Yoakam released covers of The Monkees' "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day" and Johnny Rivers' "Mountain of Love" on limited edition vinyl through Third Man Records, a label owned by Jack White.

In 2017, Dwight Yoakam covered "Wichita Lineman" at a tribute ceremony to songwriter Jimmy Webb held at Carnegie Hall.

In 2018, Dwight Yoakam was selected by SiriusXM satellite radio to curate his own show, Bakersfield Beat, on that company's Prime Country channel.

The success of this led to Dwight Yoakam receiving his own channel named Bakersfield Beat, in which he plays his own songs as well as those in the genres of Bakersfield sound, cowpunk, and country rock.

Dwight Yoakam performed a concert with Old Crow Medicine Show in 2022 to honor the 30th anniversary of Hillbilly Deluxe.

Dwight Yoakam holds several acting roles in both film and television.

Dwight Yoakam had been recommended the role by his manager, and told the website Country Daily in 2016 that Sling Blade was the first role in his acting career which he thought would have a lasting impact.

Dwight Yoakam appeared in the 1998 Richard Linklater film The Newton Boys, and wrote most of the songs for his album A Long Way Home at this film's shooting locations throughout Austin, Texas.

In 2002, Dwight Yoakam had a role in the David Fincher movie Panic Room.

In 2014, Dwight Yoakam had a recurring role in season two of the CBS science fiction series Under the Dome.

Dwight Yoakam reunited with Thornton for season one of the Amazon Prime Video original series Goliath.

Dwight Yoakam's style is defined by a variety of influences both inside and outside country music.

Dwight Yoakam told Al Caudell of American Songwriter that he usually wrote songs by coming up with a melody and then determining the intended mood.

Dwight Yoakam stated that he preferred not to write in a linear fashion, as he thought writing a song in one sitting would cause him to feel creatively burnt out.

Dwight Yoakam received negative attention from the Nashville music scene early in his career due to his constant criticism of the genre.

Leonard Running of the Rapid City Journal referred to Dwight Yoakam's singing style as a "plaintive, yodel-edged voice".

Dwight Yoakam appeared alongside her at that year's Academy Awards ceremony.

Dwight Yoakam denied these rumors and stated that the two only dated for five weeks.

Dwight Yoakam met MTV personality Karen Duffy at a party in 1994 and began dating soon afterward.

Dwight Yoakam married Emily Joyce on May 4,2020, in Santa Monica, California.

The lawsuit claimed that by failing to perform these concerts, Dwight Yoakam had cost Anderson over $44,000 in salary.

Dwight Yoakam filed a lawsuit against Warner Music in 2021 when the label withdrew several of his songs from streaming services due to expiration of contract.

Dwight Yoakam claimed that the label was denying his reclamation of copyright toward the songs.

Dwight Yoakam has won two Grammy Awards and one Academy of Country Music award.