American singer-songwriter, musician, and actor, known for his pioneering style of country-western music close to his hillbilly past. When he tried to sell his style to Nashville music producers in the country music capital, they complained he was too country for their tastes. Yoakam found his niche in Los Angeles playing alongside punk recording bands on the Sunset Strip. First becoming popular in the mid-1980s, Yoakam has recorded more than 20 albums and compilations, charted more than 30 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, and sold more than 30 million records. He has recorded five Billboard No. 1 albums, twelve gold albums, and nine platinum albums, including the triple-platinum This Time.
Yoakam was a serious student in rural Pike Floyd Holler, Kentucky. As a child, he often stayed late in the library reading encyclopedias. The family moved to Columbus, Ohio where his father owned a gas station and his mother worked as a key punch operator. Dwight was the oldest of three children. At two, he picked up his daddy’s guitar. He slowly started teaching himself how to play by strumming along to his parents’ Hank William records. He wrote his first song when he was eight years old. He later attended Ohio State University for two years and moonlighted on the honky tonk circuit.
Yoakam dropped out of college and tried his luck in Nashville. After he was turned down by record companies, he packed his belongings and moved to Los Angeles in 1978. He wrote songs and tried to make ends meet by delivering packages, driving a truck and working on a loading dock. Though the punk movement was in full swing, Yoakam found people interested in his country music. He felt that the punk scene helped to develop the Los Angeles cowpunk movement combining gritty rock with traditional country elements. In 1985, “The Blasters” went on a concert tour with Yoakam as the band’s opening act. He was signed to a record contract with Warner Bros. records.
In March 1986, his debut album Guitars, Cadillac’s, Etc., Etc., appeared in the record stores. The album began to climb the country music charts and soon admirers like Buck Owens and Keith Richards were phoning their approval to the record company. His first album was nominated for a Grammy award as best country-western recording. In the next four years, Yoakam went on to produce records and sell over six million albums. He landed film roles in Red Rock West (1993) and Painted Hero (1995). After releasing his sixth album, he starred in a limited run play, Southern Rapture, directed by his friend Peter Fonda in Los Angeles.
Yoakum lives a solitary and introspective life. He met actress Sharon Stone while shooting ad pictures for Ebel watches. The couple had a four-week relationship that ended on a sour note. After escorting Stone to the Academy Awards the actress commented, “A dirt sandwich is better than Dwight Yoakam.”
He lives in a spotless, clean Spanish style Hollywood Hills home. A neat-freak, the singer must have his kitchen and pantry tidy and orderly. He watches his weight and wears skin-tight ripped Levi jeans of which he owns over 40 pairs along with an assortment of country boy Stetson hats. Yoakam collects the paintings of renowned Southwestern painter, C.J. Wells. He owns a 24-acre ranch in the Ventura mountains where he boards his 11 horses. His favorite pastime is horseback riding. He does not smoke, drink alcohol or eat red meat.
In late 1997, Yoakam began dating actress Bridget Fonda. While filming Panic Room (2002), he accidentally cracked some ribs and burst bursa sacs in his elbow. The star of the film, Jodie Foster, said he was “an accident waiting to happen.”
He played a police detective in The Minus Man (1999) and the sheriff in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005). He appeared in a supporting role as Doc Miles, the doctor for Chev Chelios, in Crank (2006) and its sequel, Crank: High Voltage (2009).
Yoakam began dating photographer Emily Joyce in late 2010. They became engaged in 2011 and married in a small ceremony in Santa Monica, California, in March 2020. Their son, Dalton Loren Yoakam, was born at 9:19 AM on 16 August 2020 in the Los Angeles area.
Link to Wikipedia biography