Trace Adkins reflects on being shot by his second wife during argument: ‘That took it a little far’

Ryan ColemanTue, July 28, 2026 at 9:49 PM UTC

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Trace AdkinsCredit: Terry Wyatt/NBC via GettyKey Points -

Country singer Trace Adkins is looking back on being shot by his second wife, Julie Lauren Curtis.

“That took things a little far,” Adkins joked about the incident on This Past Weekend With Theo Von.

Curtis delivered the “kill shot” during a 1994 argument, forcing Adkins to be airlifted to the hospital and undergo open-heart surgery.

Trace Adkins met his maker and lived to tell the tale — even to joke through it.

The “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” singer was shot by his second wife, Julie Lauren Curtis, in 1994. The couple were married in 1991 and broke things off shortly after the incident. Adkins had two daughters with his previous wife, Barbara Lewis, and three with his third wife, Rhonda Forlaw.

Though the marriage to Curtis was the shortest, it certainly made an impact that Adkins has never been able to forget. Still, when looking back on the shooting on Tuesday’s episode of This Past Weekend With Theo Von, Adkins managed to crack a few jokes and even smile through the telling.

Trace Adkins performing in Nashville in 2003Credit: Rusty Russell/Getty

“That took things a little far, I thought. That was uncalled for. That was totally uncalled for. Just leave,” Adkins joked. “Let’s just call it quits. We don’t have to go that far, you know.”

Adkins recalled an argument just before Curtis pulled the trigger. “She was mad. She wanted me to leave and I wasn’t going to leave,” he explained. “She put it under my left arm and the bullet came out under my right arm. So, it went straight through... I told her to give me the gun. She just shot me.”

What does Adkins think about Curtis’ motives now, with over three decades behind the incident? “I don’t think she even had any idea what that gun was going to do. I’d never seen her hold a gun. I’d never seen her shoot a gun. I knew she had one, but I’d never seen her use it,” he said. “I just, I don’t think she knew what was about to happen when she pulled that trigger. She thought it was a toy.”

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to a representative for Adkins for comment.

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Adkins has detailed the incident on several previous occasions. In a 1997 interview with PEOPLE, the country star elaborated that the shooting was actually preceded by a shoving match over his failed promise to stop drinking. After she grabbed the family’s .38-caliber pistol off the top of the fridge, Adkins recalled, “Being a macho guy like I am, I tried to scare it out of her hand... I said, ‘Give me the gun, or I’m gonna take it away from you and beat your damn brains out with it! I would never have done that, but I told her in hopes that it would scare her.’”

It didn’t. Instead, she shot him.

In a 2022 follow-up with the magazine, Adkins noted that he declined to press charges against Curtis, and with a songwriter’s poetry, quipped that the “broken bones and surgeries... never really bothered me. I have a high tolerance for it. It’s the broken hearts that left the deepest scars.”

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Adkins underwent emergency trauma surgery upon arriving at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, and later had to endure open-heart surgery. “The doctor said the only reason I survived was because the bullet went through at point-blank velocity at muzzle velocity,” he explained. Though it should have been a “kill shot,” he “walked out of the hospital the next day.”

You can watch Adkins’ full interview on This Past Weekend with Theo Von above.

on Entertainment Weekly

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