Mark Wills

• Genre: New Traditional
• Hometown: Blue Ridge
• Mark Wills Website

About

Mark Wills grew up digging pop metal bands like Bon Jovi, but got turned on to country music as a teenager. He got his professional start as a house entertainer in Atlanta, Georgia, and in 1996 Wills released his self-titled debut. Two years later, second album Wish You Were Here went platinum partly due to the success of wedding power ballad "I Do (Cherish You)." His next release, Permanently, scored big with countrified covers of R&B songs like Brandy's "Almost Doesn't Count" and Brian McKnight's "Back at One." Loving Every Minute dropped in 2001 and was quickly followed by a Greatest Hits album, which included the previously unreleased, chart-topping song "19 Somethin'." In between albums, the singer made his foray into movies as the voice of Huck Finn in the animated film Tom Sawyer. In 2006, Wills got a little surprise: His three-year-old song, "What Hurts the Most," topped the digital download charts after people searching for the Rascal Flatts version stumbled upon the original. Wills followed up this success with 2008's Familiar Stranger.