Rising country star Jimmy Wayne returns to Augusta for a concert at 8 p.m. Tuesday in the Imperial Theatre as part of the Kickin' Country Nights music series.
His first Augusta appearance was in November 2003 in Bell Auditorium for the WKXC-FM Million Pennies for Kids Guitar Pull, where he pretty much stole the show with his sense of humor and strong vocals.
When Mr. Wayne was 12, his mother went to prison. She was in and out of his life as he and his siblings grew up dirt-poor in several places in North Carolina.
Her choice in men resulted in Mr. Wayne's biological father abandoning his family, he said. Moreover, his stepfather, whom his mother married when Mr. Wayne was 9, used the family's food stamps to buy drugs.
His stepfather nearly shot Mr. Wayne in a family dispute when the boy was 13. He saved himself by knocking away the gun pointing at his head just seconds before his stepfather fired.
When he called last week, he had just received an emotional telephone call from his mother.
"My mom called me last night, man, and she was on the phone telling me how proud she is of me," said the vocalist, who turns 33 next month. "That's the first time she's really told me that.
"She went on for about 10 minutes telling me how proud of me she is," he continued. "It made me feel good. I tried to let her know that I'm not trying to hold a grudge against her.
"I hope that she can believe me and move on, because all I try to do is move forward and not keep digging up the past and throwing it in her face. I don't want to live like that.
"The way I look at it, man, it would be more harmful to me to carry around a grudge. And you know what, if anybody had a reason to carry around a grudge, it would be Jesus, and the only thing he carried was a cross."
He turned many of his painful childhood memories into songs that can be found on his self-titled 2003 debut. The second single off the CD, I Love You This Much, was based on a chance encounter with his real father.
The last cut on his CD is a very disturbing song called The Rabbit, based on the gun incident. The rabbit is Mr. Wayne as he sings, "When the tables turn, and they will turn mark my words, it ain't gonna be fun when the rabbit gets the gun."
Several fortunate things turned his life around. He tells audiences "there is absolutely nothing that can stand between you and your dream but you."
His first stroke of good luck came at 16, when he was taken in by an elderly couple, Russell and Beatrice Costner, of Bessemer City, N.C., who became role models. They are dead now, but always in his thoughts.
His second break was having an inmate from Gaston Correctional Facility in Gastonia, N.C., talk at his high school about drugs. The inmate also played a guitar and sang something he had composed. About a week later, Mr. Wayne bought a guitar for $30 at a yard sale and taught himself how to play it.
The inmate speaker apparently inspired another young man at Mr. Wayne's school.
"Not long after this inmate came to my school, I was talking in a parking lot of a grocery store with this guy named Kevin Millwood, who was in a grade below me," he said. "He was a popular hot shot in high school and the best baseball player there.
"Years later, on the very day I got my record deal in Nashville, I went down to the Longhorn Restaurant and celebrated my record deal just by myself. I was eating a sweet potato, and I looked up on a TV in the corner of the restaurant and saw him pitching for the Atlanta Braves. "I was thinking, 'How awesome is that?' We both come from a very small, small town. It just goes to show you, man, that people's dreams do come true. All you got to do is go after them."
Don Rhodes has written about country music for 34 years. He can be reached at (706) 823-3214 or at don.rhodes@morris.com.
Onstage
Who: Jimmy Wayne
When: 8 p.m. Tuesday
Where: The Imperial Theatre, 745 Broad St.
Coming concerts: Billy Dean on Oct. 28; Jedd Hughes with Patrick Davis on Nov. 22
Cost: $25 each
Information: 722-8341 or order online at imperial theatre.com; all concerts start at 8 p.m.
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