Vince Gill

Vincent Grant Gill (born April 12, 1957) is an American country music singer, songwriter and musician.

He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman of the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s and as a solo artist beginning in 1983, where his talents as a vocalist and musician have placed him in high demand as a guest vocalist and a duet partner.

He has recorded more than 20 studio albums, charted over 40 singles on the U.S. Billboard charts as Hot Country Songs, and has sold more than 26 million albums.

He has been honored by the Country Music Association with 18 CMA Awards, including two Entertainer of the Year awards and five Male Vocalist Awards.

As of 2022, Gill has also earned 22 Grammy Awards, more than any other male country music artist.

After graduating from high school in 1975, he moved to Louisville, Kentucky, to join the band Bluegrass Alliance.

Afterwards he spent a brief amount of time in Ricky Skaggs's Boone Creek band before moving to Los Angeles to join Sundance, a bluegrass group fronted by fiddler Byron Berline.

Gill debuted on the national scene with the country rock band Pure Prairie League in 1979, appearing on that band's album Can't Hold Back.

He is the lead singer on their song "Let Me Love You Tonight".

Mark Knopfler once invited him to join Dire Straits, but he declined the offer (although he sang backup on the Dire Straits' album On Every Street).

Gill left Pure Prairie League in 1981 to join Cherry Bombs, the stage band that backed Rodney Crowell.

There he worked with Tony Brown and Emory Gordy Jr.., both of whom would later produce many of his albums.

He recorded a bluegrass album, Here Today, with David Grisman and friends before signing a solo deal with RCA with whom he achieved some success including the singles, "Victim of Life's Circumstance" (U.S. Country Top 40) and Country Top Ten with "If It Weren't for Him", "Oklahoma Borderline" and "Cinderella".

However his albums achieved only moderate sales and in 1989, Gill left RCA to sign with MCA Records.

Here, reunited with Tony Brown as producer, he sold over a million copies of his label debut, 1989's When I Call Your Name, of which several songs, including the title track, made the U.S. Country charts' Top Ten / Top Twenty.

Throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s Gill continued to release highly successful albums, capitalizing on the virtuoso quality of his electric and acoustic guitar playing, his pure, high and soulful tenor voice, and the excellent quality of his songwriting.

This was followed by the similarly successful albums, Pocket Full of Gold (1991) and I Still Believe in You, of which the title track went to U.S. Country No. 1.

Gill has been a member of the Grand Ole Opry since August 10, 1991.

In 1997, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.

In 2007 he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

In 2010, Gill officially joined the country swing group The Time Jumpers.

In July 2011, Gill appeared as a guest on NPR's news quiz show Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me.

Also in 2011, he appeared on the second of two bluegrass tribute albums for the British rock band the Moody Blues: Moody Bluegrass TWO... Much Love (2011). In May 2011, Carrie Underwood was one of the seven women to be honored by the Academy of Country Music at the Girls' Night Out: Superstar Women of Country special.

At the ceremony, Gill introduced Underwood and presented her with the special award.

He sang one of her hits, "Jesus, Take The Wheel", and joined Underwood on a rendition performance of "How Great Thou Art".

The video of the performance went viral within two days.

He was recruited for the show at the 11th hour when singer LeAnn Rimes canceled the day before the opening.

Gill drove up from Nashville that night with only his guitar and played to repeated standing ovations from a standing-room only house.

In February 2012, Gill announced, "For the first time in 30 years, I don't have a record deal. Don't know that I want one."

In March 2012, he performed at the Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center in Bowling Green, Kentucky, for its opening night.

In 2016, Gill was inducted into the Guitar Center Rock Walk by Joe Walsh of the Eagles.

He celebrated his 25th Opry anniversary with a tribute show on August 13, 2016.

In 2017, he and Deacon Frey were hired by the Eagles in place of the late Glenn Frey.

Gill was born in Norman, Oklahoma.

He had an elder maternal half-brother, Bob Coen.

His father, J. Stanley Gill, was a lawyer and administrative law judge who played in a country music band part-time and encouraged Gill to pursue a music career.

His father encouraged him to learn to play banjo and guitar, which he did along with bass, mandolin, Dobro and fiddle.

Gill attended high school at Oklahoma City's Northwest Classen High School.

While there he played on the golf team and performed bluegrass in the band Mountain Smoke, which built a strong local following.

According to his biography on AllMusic, Gill has won more CMA Awards than any performer in history, and as of 2018 has also won 21 Grammy Awards, which represents the most ever by a country artist.