Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 22, 1992 TAG: 9202220127
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
TRACY LAWRENCE IS BACK, BLAZIN'
Tracy Lawrence isn't carrying a .32 anymore."I'm just not going to live like that," says Lawrence, who was shot four times during a holdup last May outside a Nashville hotel. "There are too many positive things happening right now to let something like that bring me down."
Like a No. 1 country song, "Sticks and Stones," for example.
But for awhile, the pistol was a comfort.
It helped him cope with the recurring nightmare running through his memory: when three teen-age gunman nearly killed him on what should have been one of the happiest nights of his life.
The rising country star talked about the shooting in a telephone interview earlier this week from Corpus Christi, Texas, where he was readying to shoot a video.
Lawrence had just finished the final vocal on his debut album and went out to celebrate with a boyhood friend, Sonya Wilkerson, who was in Nashville visiting from their hometown of Foreman, Ark.
In the early morning hours of May 31, when he went to drop her off at her hotel, three youths with guns surrounded them in the parking lot. First they took their money, credit cards and keys and then told Lawrence to lead them to Wilkerson's room.
Lawrence says he believed the group planned to rape his friend, and then probably kill them both. So, rather than die without a fight, he grabbed for one of the guns and yelled for Wilkerson to run.
The gun fired, shooting him in the finger, and then the other two gunmen fired, hitting him in his knee, arm and hip, where the bullet barely missed a main artery.
"Out at 3:30 in the morning, shooting guns, making their mommas real proud," says Lawrence, 24. He says the youths never were caught.
Taken to Nashville's Vanderbilt Hospital, Lawrence was told it would take a year for him to recover completely, which meant the release of his album and any accompanying tours would have to be postponed.
However, he spent only three days in the hospital and was walking on crutches at his manager's farm a week later. Months of physical therapy followed, in which Lawrence progressed faster than predicted.
So, the album was released in the fall, and its first single, "Sticks and Stones," peaked at No. 1 this month.
And Lawrence is performing again. He will appear Sunday at the Top Rail in Salem for two shows at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $8.
"It makes you appreciate things a lot more," he says. "I'm also not so careless when I'm out anymore. I always kind of check over my shoulder now."
He doesn't mind talking about the incident, either. There have been lots of rumors, he says, and he likes any opportunity to clear the record. "I've heard everything from what kind of surgeries I've had to people hiding me away from killers, just all kinds of stuff, man. You wouldn't believe it."
Meanwhile, the shooting aside, Lawrence continues to be the envy of Nashville. He was signed to a record contract after only five months of trying, which is unheard of anymore in the music business.
"It was really weird," he says.
Less than a year earlier, he had been playing with a regional Top 40 band in Rusten, La., called Phoenix, when he packed up his car and moved to Nashville.
"I didn't know anybody," he says.
Soon afterwards, he landed a job as one of 10 singers showcased a night at Libby's, a 700-seat theater outside town. From there, he met and became fast friends with Atlantic Records executive Jeff Carver, who is now his manager.
"A lot of people probably don't feel like I've paid my dues," he says. And he can understand why. "There are a lot of real talented people in Nashville delivering pizzas."
So, he can't complain, he says. "There are probably less than 10 people that can actually give you a record deal. It's just like a political career. To get in that inner circle, you have to meet the right people at the right time."
Today, boosted by the success of "Sticks and Stones," Lawrence is booking opening spots with the likes of Ricky Van Shelton, Alabama, Lorrie Morgan and Mark Chesnut on the arena circuit, while still playing a few nightclubs.
But he soon may have to give up the clubs.
"It's getting to the point where I can't play anywhere where I have to walk through the crowd to get to the stage," he says. Supposedly, the women try to tear his clothes off. "It's wild."
In Corpus Christi, he was getting set to shoot his second video, for "Today's Lonely Fool," his follow-up to "Sticks and Stones." He didn't know yet what it would be about. "To be honest, I've been on the road so much, I haven't seen the script."
Lawrence says he will be home only six days in March and less than that in April. Work on his second album is scheduled to begin in November.
His hopes are high. He would like to become a headliner, maybe win some awards and hit No. 1 again. He even jokes about what happened. "My managers tell me that for the next album, they're going to have me shot again."
SUNDAY: Tracy Lawrence at the Top Rail, 1106 Kessler Mill Road, Salem. Two shows Sunday, 7 and 9:30 p.m. Tickets, $8. 389-0917.