Biography:
Aaron Tippin was part of the commercial explosion of new traditionalist country in the early `90s, making his name with a mixture of macho, rowdy honky tonkers, sentimental ballads, and patriotic working-man`s anthems. Tippin was born in Pensacola, FL, in 1958 and grew up mostly on a family farm near Greer, SC, where he first started singing to pass the time while doing chores. He started playing guitar at age ten but also inherited a love of flying from his father, who`d worked as a pilot prior to becoming a farmer. Tippin himself earned his pilot`s license at 15 and began flying professionally before the age of 20. He was studying to become a commercial airline pilot when the industry took a major downturn, which convinced him to return to music. He played the local honky tonk circuit and worked on his songwriting while holding a series of blue-collar day jobs. Unfortunately, his marriage broke up, and with nothing to lose, he finally moved to Nashville in 1986. He landed a job as a staff songwriter at the legendary Acuff-Rose firm, where his compositions were recorded by the likes of Charley Pride, Mark Collie, and David Ball, among others. In 1990, his demo tape landed him a contract with RCA.
Tippin`s debut album, You`ve Got to Stand for Something, was released in 1991; its title cut became a Top Ten smash in the wake of the Persian Gulf War, and Tippin was invited along on Bob Hope`s USO tour. His second album, 1992`s Read Between the Lines, was a million-selling Top Ten smash, producing three Top Ten singles in "I Wouldn`t Have It Any Other Way," "My Blue Angel," and his first number one, "There Ain`t Nothing Wrong With the Radio." 1993`s The Call of the Wild underlined Tippin`s penchant for rabble-rousing anthems like "Honky Tonk Superman," the Top Ten "Working Man`s Ph.D.," and the Top 20 title cut. The following year`s Lookin` Back at Myself was less successful, but 1995`s Tool Box returned him to the top of the singles charts with "That`s as Close as I`ll Get to Loving You." Tippin also remarried that year.
When Tippin`s follow-up singles failed to duplicate their predecessor`s popularity, his relationship with RCA began to fray. They eventually parted ways, and it wasn`t until 1998 that Tippin managed to score another deal, this time with Disney subsidiary Lyric Street Records. He co-produced his label debut, What This Country Needs, which was released later that year and returned him to the Top Ten via the single "For You I Will." The follow-up, 2000s People Like Us, became the first Tippin album to make the country Top Five, thanks to the number one smash "Kiss This," a song co-written by Tippin`s wife Thea. The Christmas album A December to Remember followed in 2001, and Tippin returned with a proper follow-up, Stars & Stripes, in 2002. The post-September 11 anthem "Where the Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Fly" was a crossover smash, not only reaching number two on the country charts but also climbing into the pop Top 20. An album of trucking songs, In Overdrive, appeared in 2009.
