Trace Adkins Opens Up About Wife Shooting Him in 1994: ‘Took It a Little Far’

Country singer Trace Adkins recently opened up about a violent moment from more than thirty years ago. In February 1994, while married to his second wife Julie Curtis, the two argued about his binge drinking. During the fight, Curtis grabbed a .38-caliber pistol and pointed it at him.

Adkins reached for the weapon to disarm her. The gun discharged. The bullet entered under one arm, passed through his heart and both lungs, and exited beneath the other. Because it was fired at extremely close range, the round did not expand inside him. That fact, he has said, helped him survive.

“Yeah, that took it a little far, I thought,” Adkins told podcast host Theo Von with characteristic dry humor. He described the act as “totally uncalled for” and added, “Just leave, you know. Let’s just call it quits. We don’t have to go that far.” He has maintained that Curtis “thought it was a toy” and “I don’t think she meant to do it.”

Adkins remembered getting off the floor, taking a few steps, and then collapsing. He felt no immediate pain. He never pressed charges. The couple divorced the same year. Two years later he released his debut single “There’s a Girl in Texas” and began the career that made him a household name.

Looking back in 2022, Adkins told People magazine that physical pain—including the bullet wounds—never really bothered him. “It’s the broken hearts that left the deepest scars,” he said. He has long treated the episode with restraint and occasional humor, framing it as both tragedy and warning. He later remarried and is now wed to actress Victoria Pratt.