Dwight Yoakam

Dwight Yoakam is a Grammy Award-winning country music singer-songwriter known for his pioneering style of country music, which features elements of rock, honky-tonk and bluegrass. First coming to prominence in the mid-1980s, Yoakam has musical influences that include Buck Owens, Wynn Stewart and Merle Haggard.

Yoakam also has the distinct honor of having once been named Johnny Cash’s favorite country singer by the country-rock legend himself.

Yoakam famously dated actress Sharon Stone, who insulted him by publicly saying that “kissing Dwight was like eating a dirt sandwich.” In response, Yoakam wrote and released his 1993 single “Fast as You,” which hit #2 on the Billboard country chart. Some of Yoakam's other well-known material includes the singles "Guitars, Cadillacs" and "Streets of Bakersfield."

Yoakam is also known for covering well-known songs from other genres, including Prince’s “Purple Rain,” the Grateful Dead’s “Truckin’,” The Clash’s “Train in Vain,” Cheap Trick’s “I Want You to Want Me” and Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds.”

Yoakam has even inspired his a SiriusXM channel named after him – on April 26, 2018, SiriusXM launched “Dwight Yoakam and the Bakersfield Beat,” which focuses on playing music that embodies or influenced the Bakersfield sound.

In 2011, Yoakam won the Academy of Country Music (ACM) Cliffe Stone Pioneer Award.

In addition to his impressive musical career, Yoakam is also an actor who has appeared in over 40 feature films including Sling Blade and Panic Room. In 2016 Yoakam appeared in a supporting role on the Amazon original show “Goliath” alongside Billy Bob Thornton, who also starred in Sling Blade.