About Clay Walker
Ernest Clayton Walker Jr. is an American country music artist. He made his debut in 1993 with the single "What's It to You", which reached Number One on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, as did its follow-up, 1994's "Live Until I Die". Both singles were included on his self-titled debut album, released in 1993 via Giant Records. He stayed with the label until its 2001 closure, later recording for Warner Bros. Records, RCA Records Nashville, and Curb Records.
Clay Walker has released a total of eleven studio albums, including a greatest hits package and an album of Christmas music. His first four studio albums all achieved platinum certification in the United States and his greatest hits collection and fifth studio album were each certified gold. He has charted more than thirty singles on Hot Country Songs, of which six have reached number one: "What's It to You", "Live Until I Die", "Dreaming with My Eyes Open", "If I Could Make a Living", "This Woman and This Man", and "Rumor Has It".
Ernest Clayton Walker Jr. was born on August 19, 1969, in Beaumont, Texas, to Ernest and Danna Walker. The oldest of five children, Walker lived in Vidor with his mother and stepfather. His father, Clay Sr., gave him a guitar when he was nine years old. Walker began entering talent competitions at age 15. After leaving his shift as nighttime desk clerk at a Super 8 Motel, he stopped at a local radio station to deliver a tape of a song that he had written. Although the morning disc jockey told him that the station's policies prohibited playing self-submitted tapes, he played Walker's song and said that it was "too good to pass up."
After graduating from Vidor High School in 1986, Walker began working at a Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company plant. At 19, he also began touring as a musician, playing various local clubs and eventually finding work as the house singer at a bar in Beaumont called the Neon Armadillo. In November 1992, he was discovered by James Stroud, a record producer who was also the president of Warner Music Group subsidiary Giant Records.
Walker released his self-titled debut album in 1993 under Stroud's production. Its first single was "What's It to You"; written by Robert Ellis Orrall and Curtis Wright, this song reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts and number 73 on the Billboard Hot 100. Its followup "Live Until I Die" , was released late in the year and became his second consecutive No. 1 in early 1994. After those two singles came the number 11 "Where Do I Fit in the Picture", which was originally the B-side of "What's It to You." The album accounted for a third No. 1 hit in "Dreaming with My Eyes Open", a song that was also featured on the soundtrack to the 1993 film The Thing Called Love. An additional cut from the album, "White Palace," charted at number 67 on the country charts without being released as a single.
Clay Walker was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of one million copies. It peaked at number 8 on Top Country Albums, number 2 on Top Heatseekers and number 52 on the Billboard 200. Larry Powell of Allmusic gave the album a four-and-a-half star rating, saying that Walker had a "high-energy" voice reminiscent of Conway Twitty. Walker also received two award nominations in 1994: Favorite Country New Artist from the American Music Awards and Top New Male Vocalist from the Academy of Country Music, as well as a nomination in 1995 at the TNN/Music City News Country Awards for Male Star of Tomorrow.
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