46 Fun Facts About 90s Country Music

Which song, a country number one in 1993, was Toby Keith's debut single?

'Should've Been a Cowboy' nods to Gunsmoke's Marshal Dillon and Miss Kitty; Keith wrote it after seeing a cowgirl turn down an older man in his party, then take the floor with a young cowboy.

Which 1996 Deana Carter hit recalls a first love during a summer on her grandparents' farm?

'Strawberry Wine' drew on co-writer Matraca Berg's own teenage summers on her grandparents' Wisconsin dairy farm; Carter's recording was the CMA's Single of the Year in 1997.

Where is that superstar from?

Oklahoma is his home state: he was born in Tulsa on February 7, 1962, grew up in Yukon and studied advertising at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater before moving to Nashville.

Which 1991 Garth Brooks single had a video about domestic violence that TNN and CMT refused to air?

'The Thunder Rolls' was pulled by both networks over its domestic-violence storyline, yet the video went on to win the CMA's Video of the Year award that October.

Which 1990 Garth Brooks album, featuring 'Unanswered Prayers', became his best-selling studio album?

No Fences, his second album, has shipped 18 million copies in the US; its 'Unanswered Prayers' retells Brooks, out with his wife Sandy, running into his old high-school flame.

Which 1991 Garth Brooks album was the first country album to enter the Billboard 200 at number one?

Ropin' the Wind arrived at number one in September 1991, knocking Metallica's self-titled album off the top, and spent 18 weeks there in all.

Which rock star, writer of the Garth Brooks hit 'Shameless', joined Brooks on stage in Central Park in 1997?

Billy Joel walked on as a special guest and sang 'New York State of Mind' with Brooks at the free show on August 7, 1997; estimates of the crowd range from 250,000 to more than a million.

What was the name of the rock alter ego Garth Brooks adopted in 1999?

Chris Gaines was the brooding Australian rock star he played on the 1999 album In the Life of Chris Gaines, billed as a pre-soundtrack for a film, The Lamb, that was never made.

Why did Garth Brooks announce his retirement from recording and touring in October 2000?

To raise his daughters, Taylor, August and Allie, he stepped back after the 2001 album Scarecrow and said he would not tour again until the youngest had finished high school.

Shania Twain, born Eilleen Edwards, took her surname from whom?

Her stepfather, Jerry Twain, an Ojibwa forestry worker, adopted Eilleen and her siblings when she was a small child and had their surname legally changed to his.

Which 1997 country album is the best-selling studio album ever released by a female solo artist?

Come On Over, by Shania Twain, has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide, helped by singles that crossed from country to pop radio, three of them reaching the top ten of the Hot 100.

Which rock producer phoned Shania Twain after hearing her debut, then co-wrote her hits and married her in 1993?

Mutt Lange, producer of AC/DC's Back in Black and Def Leppard's Hysteria, wrote with her by telephone for months before they met at Nashville's Fan Fair in June 1993; they married that December.

Which Shania Twain ballad won Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance at the 1999 Grammys?

'You're Still the One' answered those who said her marriage would not last; it also reached number two on the Hot 100, her biggest pop hit.

Which Shania Twain video gender-flips Robert Palmer's 'Addicted to Love', with male models as her band?

'Man! I Feel Like a Woman!' won her a second straight Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance, and she opened her 2003 Super Bowl halftime set with it.

Which 1992 single by Billy Ray Cyrus set off a nationwide line dance craze?

'Achy Breaky Heart', written by Don Von Tress, reached number one on the country chart in 1992, and its video, built around a choreographed dance, is credited with taking line dancing mainstream.

Which country duo bowed out with a 1991 farewell tour after Naomi, its elder half, was diagnosed with hepatitis C?

The Judds, mother Naomi and daughter Wynonna, closed their Farewell Tour with a pay-per-view concert in December 1991; Wynonna launched her solo career the following year.

Which band's 1999 ballad 'Amazed' later became the first country hit to top the Hot 100 since 'Islands in the Stream'?

Lonestar spent eight weeks atop the country chart with 'Amazed' in 1999; a pop remix then carried it to number one on the Hot 100 in 2000.

How are Dixie Chicks founders Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer related?

Sisters, born Martie and Emily Erwin, they founded the band in 1989 on fiddle and banjo, and later recorded as a duo under the name Court Yard Hounds.

Who became the Dixie Chicks' lead singer in 1995, shortly before they signed a major-label deal?

Natalie Maines was recommended by her father, steel guitarist Lloyd Maines, who had played on the band's earlier albums; she replaced Laura Lynch as lead singer.

Which Dixie Chicks single, written by Dennis Linde, has two friends poison an abusive husband?

'Goodbye Earl' has best friends Mary Ann and Wanda poison Earl's black-eyed peas; the band Sons of the Desert had recorded it first, but their version was never released.

What did the Dixie Chicks do at the 2007 Grammy Awards?

Swept all five nominations, including Album, Record and Song of the Year, four years after many country stations dropped them over their singer's criticism of President Bush.

Which Garth Brooks ballad's video shows figures who died chasing their dreams, including President Kennedy and Martin Luther King?

'The Dance' was written by Tony Arata, who recalls that Brooks, still unsigned, heard it at a songwriters' night and swore to record it if he ever got a deal; it won the ACM's Song and Video of the Year awards.

Which Reba McEntire hit, a Bobbie Gentry cover, follows a poor girl sent out by her mother in a red dress?

'Fancy' first charted for Bobbie Gentry in 1969; in the lyric the dying mother spends her last money on the dress and a locket engraved 'To thine own self be true'.

George Strait began singing country in an Army band while stationed in which state?

Hawaii is where Strait, an Army enlistee, auditioned in 1973 and won the singer's spot in a country band on base; back home he studied agriculture and kept performing.

What is the singer's nickname?

The King of Country Music is his standing nickname, earned across forty years of number one singles and arena tours with his Ace in the Hole Band; the title had belonged to Roy Acuff before him.

In which 1992 film did George Strait play the lead?

Pure Country cast him as Dusty Chandler, a star who walks away from his overblown stage show; its soundtrack went on to become the biggest-selling album of his career.

In which state was George Strait born?

Texas: born in Poteet and raised in Pearsall, he played in a high-school rock garage band inspired by the Beatles before he ever sang country.

Where was Alan Jackson born?

Newnan, Georgia, is where Alan Jackson was born in 1958; after moving to Nashville in the mid-1980s he worked in the mailroom of The Nashville Network while honing his songwriting.

In Alan Jackson's 'Midnight in Montgomery', the singer visits a grave and meets the ghost of which country legend?

Hank Williams died on New Year's Day 1953 on the way to a show and is buried in Montgomery, Alabama; the song has Jackson stop at the grave on New Year's Eve.

Which Alan Jackson single, a 1993 number one, is named after a Georgia river?

'Chattahoochee', written with Jim McBride, won the CMA's Single and Song of the Year awards, and one of its lines gave Jackson's album its title, A Lot About Livin' (And a Little 'bout Love).

Which 1958 Eddie Cochran rock hit did Alan Jackson take to number one country in 1994?

'Summertime Blues' was written by Eddie Cochran and Jerry Capehart and first planned as a B-side; Jackson made it the lead single of his album Who I Am.

Which Alan Jackson album, released in 1991, produced four Billboard country number one singles?

Don't Rock the Jukebox sent four singles to number one on Billboard's country chart; the title track's video ends with a cameo from George Jones, the singer its lyric asks to hear.

Billy Ray Cyrus later played the father of which Disney Channel title character?

Hannah Montana ran from 2006 to 2011 with Cyrus as the father of a schoolgirl leading a double life as a pop star; the sitcom made his real daughter Miley, who played her, a star.

Shania Twain was born in Windsor and raised in the northern town of Timmins, both in which Canadian province?

Ontario: her family struggled for money in Timmins, and she toured the province with a country cover band before a manager took her to Nashville to record.

Which 1999 Dixie Chicks album, their second to be certified diamond, includes 'Cowboy Take Me Away' and 'Ready to Run'?

Fly entered the Billboard 200 at number one in September 1999, and its diamond award in 2002 made the Chicks the only country group with two ten-million sellers.

Which singer won CMA Entertainer of the Year in both 1993 and 1994?

Vince Gill won it back to back and hosted the CMA Awards every year from 1992 to 2003; earlier he had turned down Mark Knopfler's invitation to join Dire Straits to stay in country music.

What was Billy Ray Cyrus's debut album called?

Some Gave All, released in May 1992, spent 17 consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard 200, carried there by a lead single that set off a line-dancing craze.

Tim McGraw learned at age 11 that his father was Tug McGraw, a star in which sport?

Baseball: Tug McGraw pitched for the Mets and the Phillies; Tim found his own birth certificate, asked his mother about it, and only then met his father.

Which duo's 1992 single 'Boot Scootin' Boogie' helped repopularize line dancing in the US?

Brooks & Dunn were two solo hopefuls until Arista Nashville chief Tim DuBois urged Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn to team up; their debut album produced four straight country number ones.

Which 1990 Garth Brooks single won Single of the Year from both the CMA and the ACM?

'Friends in Low Places' began when co-writer Earl Bud Lee, unable to pay for a Nashville lunch, joked that he had friends in low places because he knew the cook.

LeAnn Rimes's 1996 hit 'Blue' was long rumoured to have been written for which star, a claim writer Bill Mack denied?

Patsy Cline was the name attached to 'Blue' in its publicity, but Bill Mack, who wrote it and first released it in 1958, insisted he never wrote a song for anybody.

In which city were the Dixie Chicks founded?

Dallas is where the band began in 1989 as a four-piece bluegrass act; it took six years, a new lead singer and a turn to mainstream country to land a major-label deal.

What was Tim McGraw's first country number one, from his 1994 album Not a Moment Too Soon?

'Don't Take the Girl' gave Tim McGraw his first country number one in 1994, straight after 'Indian Outlaw', a novelty hit that some radio stations refused to play.

Which 1995 album was Shania Twain's commercial breakthrough?

The Woman in Me sold 12 million copies in the US even though she chose not to tour behind it, promoting it through music videos and television appearances instead.

A 1991 plane crash that killed members of Reba McEntire's band happened near which city?

San Diego: taking off after a show there in March 1991, a chartered jet carrying seven band members and her tour manager struck a mountain; she recorded For My Broken Heart in tribute.

A chance meeting between Alan Jackson's flight-attendant wife and which star led to his first Nashville songwriting job?

Glen Campbell met Denise Jackson in 1985 and pointed her husband to his own publishing company, where Jackson became a staff songwriter before Arista Nashville signed him as its first artist.