Trace Adkins recalls being shot, nearly killed by ex-wife
Trace Adkins recalls being shot, nearly killed by ex-wife
Brendan Morrow, USA TODAYWed, July 29, 2026 at 12:35 PM UTC
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Country singer Trace Adkins says he has forgiven his ex-wife Julie Curtis, who shot and nearly killed him.
During an appearance on the "This Past Weekend" podcast released July 28, Adkins, 64, reflected on the incident where he was shot by his ex-wife during an argument in 1994.
"That took it a little far, I thought," he joked. "That was uncalled for. That was totally uncalled for. Just leave. Let's just call it quits. We don't have to go that far."
Adkins described how Curtis put the gun "under my left arm, and the bullet came out under my right arm, so it went straight through," while he was putting his arm out to tell her to give him the gun. He called the shot a "kill shot," noting the "only reason I survived was because the bullet went through at point blank velocity."
But it wasn't painful because he went into "shock" and didn't feel "anything," he said.
Adkins previously described the shooting in greater detail in his 2007 autobiography "A Personal Stand." The "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" singer wrote in the book that Curtis had "reached the end of her rope with my drinking," so one night when she got home from work and smelled beer on him, she "exploded" and told him to "get out of this house." He said this was "just another of the many volatile arguments I'd had with Julie."
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"Well, my two daughters (now five and eight) from my first marriage were upstairs asleep," he wrote. "So I told Julie, 'I'm not leaving here without my kids. Those are my kids. So if anybody's leaving right now, it's gonna be you.' I left the room and went to the bathroom. When I came back out and walked into the kitchen, the next thing I knew my own wife was pointing a pistol at me."
Adkins continued that he "did the stupidest thing I'd ever done in my life" by trying to disarm her, and when he stuck his arm out, she pulled the trigger. At the hospital, doctors "held little hope that I would survive and told my family and friends to go in and say goodbye." He was hospitalized for a month.
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Adkins did not press charges against Curtis. He wrote in his book that his lawyer told him that if he did, she would make the case that she was "scared you were going to kill her," and "with the mood of the country right now" with the O.J. Simpson case, "it ain't gonna be good." So he decided to simply pursue a "good, clean divorce."
Speaking on "This Past Weekend," Adkins told host Theo Von that Curtis apologized for shooting him, and he has forgiven her because he doesn't "think she meant to do it." He added, "I just don't think that she thought it was going to hurt me. She thought I was indestructible."
Trace Adkin wives through the years
Prior to Curtis, Adkins was married to Barbara Lewis, and after his divorce from Curtis, he went on to marry Rhonda Forlaw. He and Forlaw divorced in 2014, and since 2019, Adkins has been married to Victoria Pratt.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trace Adkins recalls being shot, nearly killed by ex-wife
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