Atkins will take the stage at the Eastern States Exposition on Sunday.
Rodney AtkinsWhen country singer Rodney Atkins was starting out, handlers at his first record company wanted him to change his name, fearing it was too close to country starts such as Chet Atkins and Trace Adkins.
"I told them that I was adopted and that I was lucky to have that name and I wasn't about to change it," he said in a recent telephone interview.
That story represents perfectly the type of authenticity Atkins tries to bring to his music. Atkins will take the stage at the Eastern States Exposition on Sunday.
This pursuit of authenticity didn't stop at refusing to change his name. Later, when Atkins signed to Curb Records, his manager looked at his publicity shots, in which he wore a cowboy hat and other country accoutrements, and told the singer it looked wrong.
"He told me he had never seen me in anything but a baseball cap and jeans, or cargo shorts," Atkins said. "So we went out and had new shots taken."
Then, when they were deciding which songs for Atkins to perform, they would first decide if it was a good song, but then added a second criterion: Did the song match the guy in the picture?
"He said, 'Would you believe this guy in the picture singing this song?' and if the answer was 'no,' then I wouldn't do it, even if it meant not doing some really good songs," Atkins said.
When citing influences on his music career, Atkins lists everyone from Willie Nelson to Charlie Daniels to Garth Brooks. Then he notes a particular aspect about everyone he mentions.
"If you write all those people down and look at it, it all makes sense," he said. "They all do songs like I'm trying to do. Songs to touch peoples lives."
One somewhat surprising name Atkins mentions during the interview is Bruce Springsteen. Along with admiring him as a songwriter with a unique and authentic voice, Atkins really revers The Boss for his legendary live shows.
"As far a performing, performers like Garth Brooks and Springsteen are huge for me," he said. "That's one of my goals, to build a show with as much energy as those guys."
Performing in front of an audience was not something that came easily to Atkins, who describes himself as "really shy as a kid."
"When I first got to Nashville a couple buddies my grabbed me and threw me into a car and made me go to a songwriters' night," he said, chuckling. "I remember trying to get up and play in front of the audience, and I had a glass of water in my hand, and I couldn't get in my mouth because I was shaking so bad and had shaken out all the water out because I was so nervous."
But for Atkins, interest in writing songs preceded his interest in performing.
"For me it was always about the writing first. As i said, I was very shy as a kid but I always loved music. By the time I got to college, I had really started paying attention to how songs were written. I started writing songs because I wanted to see if I could do it."
Atkins interest in music started very early as a child via via his parents' record collection.
"They had a huge gospel collection out the garage, which had been converted into a den. We had a wood burning stove out there and that's where you spent most of your time in the winter, he said with a laugh. "'Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music' (by Ray Charles) was the first album I listened to over and over and over as a little kid. I didn't know who was singing the songs I just knew I loved it and loved the way they sang."