Trace Adkins'life an open book with 'A Personal Stand'

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - He worked as an oil rig roughneck, nearly drank himself to death and was shot in the chest by his ex-wife.

Friends always told country star Trace Adkins his life would make a good book. And so it has.

''A Personal Stand: Observations and Opinions from a Freethinking Roughneck'' is part autobiography, part opinion. And regardless of where you stand on issues like the Iraq war or illegal immigration, it's entertaining because Adkins' life plays out like one long country song.

Released last month, the book is the first in a one-two punch for the 6-foot-6 singer with the deep baritone voice. His ''American Man, Greatest Hits Volume II'' came out this week.

''I'm not out to change the world or change anybody's opinions or whatever,'' he says. ''I wanted to answer some questions that I get asked frequently once and for all.''

Adkins, 45, doesn't hold back in his book. He discusses his alcoholism (he's been sober five years), his failed marriages (he's on his third) and his differences with his longtime record label Capitol Records Nashville.

And he discusses that night a bullet pierced his heart.

But the ordeal did have a silver lining (sorry, for that you'll have to read the book).