NBC.com

TRACE ADKINS

Country Music Star

Interview

Let's put the million-dollar question out there first. You've achieved fame and success in your life. Why put yourself through the often-brutal Apprentice process?

I wasn't going to do it. I really wasn't. It took some people to talk me into it, but once I was convinced it would be an unprecedented opportunity to raise awareness for a charity that truly is a personal thing for myself and my family, I decided to do it, and that was the only reason I did.

The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network is a really important charity. My six-year-old daughter is cursed with horrific food allergies to nuts, dairy, eggs... it's a constant struggle as a family, day to day, and it's a very dangerous, deadly thing to deal with and we do the best we can.

People don't know that three million school-age children are afflicted with food allergies in this country and the numbers are increasing; we have to figure out what we're doing to our babies to cause this.

You are considered as bit of a rebel in country music; how do you think that attitude helped you on Celebrity Apprentice?

It doesn't at all really. The Apprentice was an exercise in restraint for me the likes of which I've never experienced in my adult life. I've never had to.

In the past, when I've gotten into situations where there were people I didn't enjoy being around or couldn't tolerate, I'd just disengage. But I wasn't able to do that here. So I just bit my tongue, didn't say anything, and tried to keep in mind that I was representing a charity and not myself. It would have been different if I was there representing myself.

"Success" can mean different things to different people; what does it mean to you?

It means being comfortable where you are. Not resting on your laurels. Not being satisfied, but being comfortable. To me, that's successful. If the music industry hadn't worked out, I would have kept working in the oil field, and I would have been successful in it. I would have been successful no matter what I chose to do.... maybe short of being an astronaut. I never could get through calculus.

So which of your fellow Celebrity Apprentice candidate has the best honky tonk badonkadonk?

Wow.... let's see... well I'm going to have to go with Tiffany, even though that will make Omarosa mad.

Since you are in the public spotlight, people already know a great deal about you. What's one thing that the public may not know?

After having written a book, there's not a whole lot that people don't know. I pretty much laid it all out there. I don't really have any weird kind of hobbies or anything I do that's crazy - I'm just a regular guy who makes a living doing something weird.

If you could be the star of any movie ever made, which star and which movie would it be and why?

"No Time for Sergeants" with Andy Griffith. In the movie, Andy Griffith was a hillbilly in the woods who got drafted in WWII. It's a hilarious movie. He was so naive and didn't have a clue, and I've identified so much with that movie over the years. I grew up in a small, sheltered down, and when I escaped to Dallas - the big city - I lost my mind and went crazy for about ten years.

What are your three favorite albums of all time?

I don't have a good response for this. I wish I did. I think about some of the albums I have that I enjoy so much and it would be like picking my favorite kid. You just can't. I'm too hard pressed to do this, so I'll have to be political and decline.

What are your three favorite books of all time?

I'm a history buff. I haven't read a word of fiction in a long time. "The Stand" by Stephen King was the last fiction book I read. I read a lot of history. Shelby Foote is one of my favorites. So is James McPherson. There's so many. I like to read a lot of the stuff that was written by the guys who were in the fray.