Trace Adkins Opens Up About Forgiving Ex-Wife Who Shot Him Decades Ago
Country music star Trace Adkins is getting real about one of
the darkest chapters of his life — and revealing that he's made peace with it.
The 64-year-old "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" hitmaker
sat down for a candid conversation on the podcast "This Past
Weekend," where he opened up about the night in 1994 when his then-wife,
Julie Curtis, shot him during a heated argument a moment that nearly cost him
his life. True to his personality, Adkins didn't shy away from injecting some
dark humor into the story. "That took it a little far, I thought," he
joked on the show. "That was uncalled for. Totally uncalled for. Just
leave. Let's just call it quits. We don't have to go that far."
How the Shooting
Happened
According to Adkins, the bullet entered under his left arm
and exited under his right, passing straight through his body as he reached
out, trying to get his wife to hand over the weapon. He described it as a
"kill shot," adding that the only reason he made it out alive was
because the bullet was traveling at point-blank velocity when it passed through
him.
Strangely, he says he never felt the pain in the moment —
his body went into shock almost immediately.
The Backstory, In His
Own Words
Adkins first shared a deeper account of that night in his
2007 memoir, "A Personal Stand." In it, he explained that his
drinking had pushed his marriage with Curtis to a breaking point. The night of
the shooting, she came home from work, smelled alcohol on him, and reached her
limit — demanding he leave the house. But Adkins refused to go without his two
young daughters from a previous marriage, who were asleep upstairs at the time.
He recalled telling her plainly: those were his kids, and if anyone was walking
out that door, it would be her — not him.
He stepped away to the bathroom to cool off. When he
returned to the kitchen, his wife was pointing a gun at him. In what he later
called "the stupidest thing I'd ever done," Adkins tried to disarm
her himself. That's when the gun went off. He was rushed to the hospital, where
doctors reportedly gave him little chance of survival and advised his loved
ones to say their goodbyes. He ended up spending a full month recovering in the
hospital.
Why He Never Pressed
Charges
Adkins made the decision not to file charges against Curtis.
In his memoir, he explained that his attorney warned him that pursuing legal
action could backfire — Curtis could argue she feared for her life, a defense
that carried extra weight given the national conversation around domestic
violence and self-defense during the O.J. Simpson trial era. Instead, Adkins
chose to move forward with a straightforward, uncontested divorce.
Forgiveness, Years
Later
Reflecting on it all these years later, Adkins told podcast
host Theo Von that Curtis eventually apologized for what happened — and that
he's chosen to forgive her, believing she never intended to hurt him.
"I just don't think that she thought it was going to
hurt me," he said. "She thought I was indestructible."
A Look at Adkins' Marriages
Curtis wasn't Adkins' only marriage. Before her, he was
married to Barbara Lewis. After his split from Curtis, he married Rhonda
Forlaw, with that marriage ending in divorce in 2014. Since 2019, Adkins has
been happily married to Victoria Pratt.