Billy Dean

Billy Dean was born in Quincy, Florida, in 1962; his father, also named Billy Dean, led a band called the Country Rocks, and by age eight the younger Dean was playing alongside him. He kept performing through high school at Robert F. Munroe Day School, working local clubs before briefly attending East Central Community College in Mississippi on a basketball scholarship.

He dropped out after a year to chase music, reaching the finals of the Wrangler Country Star Search at twenty and later winning the Male Vocalist title on the television show Star Search. Along the way he sang commercial jingles for McDonald's, Chevrolet and Valvoline and took acting lessons, before signing a publishing deal with EMI and a recording contract with SBK Records.

His best-known song, "Somewhere in My Broken Heart," previously recorded by Randy Travis, reached No. 3 on the country chart and set the template: a light, unhurried baritone, acoustic-led arrangements and lyrics built around a single narrative situation. It came from his gold-certified debut album, Young Man, alongside the single "Only Here for a Little While."

Other singles from the period included "Billy the Kid" and a version of Dave Mason's "We Just Disagree." His self-titled second album, also certified gold, produced further hits including "If There Hadn't Been You," and he toured with the Judds on their farewell dates as well as with Wynonna Judd and Clint Black.

Dean has recorded eight studio albums, the first three certified gold, with more than twenty singles on the Billboard country chart and eleven top ten hits. In 2000 he sang alongside Alison Krauss on Kenny Rogers' "Buy Me a Rose," a Billboard number one. He has continued to record and perform, and has also worked in acting and songwriting for other artists.