Gretchen Wilson Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Gretchen Wilson
OCCUPATION: Singer
BIRTH DATE: June 26, 1973 (Age: 39)
PLACE OF BIRTH: Pocahontas, Illinois
ZODIAC SIGN: Cancer

Best Known For

Gretchen Wilson is best known for her successful country music albums Here for the Party and All Jacked Up.

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Gretchen Renee Wilson

APA Style

Gretchen Renee Wilson. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 11:28, May 18, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/gretchen-wilson-193219.

Harvard Style

Gretchen Renee Wilson. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/gretchen-wilson-193219 [Accessed 18 May 2013].

MLA Style

"Gretchen Renee Wilson." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 18 2013, 11:28 http://www.biography.com/people/gretchen-wilson-193219.

MHRA Style

"Gretchen Renee Wilson," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/gretchen-wilson-193219 [accessed May 18, 2013].

Chicago Style

"Gretchen Renee Wilson," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/gretchen-wilson-193219 (accessed May 18, 2013).

CBE/CSE Style

Gretchen Renee Wilson [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 18] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/gretchen-wilson-193219.

Bluebook Style

Gretchen Renee Wilson, http://www.biography.com/people/gretchen-wilson-193219 (last visited May 18, 2013).

AMA Style

Gretchen Renee Wilson. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/gretchen-wilson-193219. Accessed May 18, 2013.

Synopsis

Gretchen Wilson was born June 26, 1973 in Pocahontas, Illinois. She was raised by her single mother in a trailer park and leaving high school in the ninth grade. Wilson moved to Nashville to pursue a musical career and was eventually discovered by Big and Rich. She went to have two platinum selling albums in 2003 and 2005.

Quotes

I don't really think about having had a hard life. It was just my life, and it's all I knew. It made me who I am - all the good and bad - and it's where all of the songs on Here For The Party came from. I've lived them all.

– Gretchen Wilson

Profile

Country music singer. Born Gretchen Renée Wilson on June 26, 1973 in Pocahontas, Illinois. Raised in a trailer park by a single mother, Wilson left home and dropped out of school in ninth grade. She tended bar and worked in the kitchen at local clubs, singing for extra tips to pay the bills.

In 1996, after performing for several months as lead singer for a local cover band, Wilson moved to Nashville to pursue a career in music. But it wasn't the overnight success she had dreamed of. For four years, she worked in bars waiting for her big break. It came in the form of singer-songwriters Big & Rich, who heard her sing one night and, impressed by her talent, introduced her to the Nashville music community.

Wilson eventually signed with Sony Music Nashville in 2003. Her debut album, Here for the Party, was certified quadruple platinum thanks in no small part to the chart-topping single "Redneck Woman." Her 2005 follow-up, All Jacked Up, debuted at No. 1 and was also certified platinum.

Wilson has continued to nurture her career by performing with such country music legends as Brooks & Dunn and Montgomery Gentry. In 2004, she won a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance and CMA's coveted Horizon Award. A year later, CMA named her Female Vocalist of the Year.

Wilson and former boyfriend Michael Penner have a daughter, Grace Frances. They reside in Lebanon, Tennessee.