Trace Adkins is revisiting the night a bullet tore through his heart and both lungs, saying his second wife may have believed the towering country singer was, in his words, indestructible.
The Nashville-based country star discussed the near-fatal shooting during a late-July appearance on comedian Theo Von’s podcast, according to WSMV. The full conversation appears in a This Past Weekend episode, where Adkins spoke about Julie Lauren Curtis, his second wife, and the gunshot that nearly killed him.
The Date In The New Account Does Not Match Older Coverage
WSMV identifies the shooting as Feb. 21, 1991, but that date conflicts with earlier accounts. A 1997 report from the Nashville Scene and a 2007 interview republished by the Vindy Archives both place the shooting in 1994, after Adkins and Curtis had been married for about three years.
A Gunshot That Nearly Ended His Life
Adkins said the bullet passed through his heart and both lungs, sending him to the floor before he blacked out and woke up at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He credited LifeFlight and Vanderbilt with saving his life, and said he later needed another surgery because a hole in his heart had not fully healed, as WSMV reported.
Adkins described the shooting as “uncalled for,” but said he did not believe Curtis intended to kill or seriously injure him. He also said Curtis apologized afterward and suggested she had not understood what the gun could do, telling Von, “She thought I was indestructible.”
From Near-Fatal Shooting To Grand Ole Opry Member
The shooting happened before Adkins became a national country star, when his career was still taking shape in and around Nashville. His official Grand Ole Opry biography lists his Opry debut in 1996 and his induction into the institution in 2003, milestones that came after the personal crisis he now describes in unusually stark detail.
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