Aaron Dupree Tippin (born July 3, 1958) is an American country music singer, songwriter and record producer. Initially a songwriter for Acuff-Rose Music, he gained a recording contract with RCA Nashville in 1990. His debut single, "You've Got to Stand for Something" became a popular anthem for American soldiers fighting in the Gulf War and helped to establish him as a neotraditionalist country act with songs that catered primarily to the American working class. Under RCA's tenure, he recorded five studio albums and a Greatest Hits package. Tippin switched to Lyric Street Records in 1998, where he recorded four more studio albums, counting a compilation of Christmas music. After leaving Lyric Street in 2006, he founded a personal label known as Nippit Records, on which he issued the compilation album Now & Then. A concept album, In Overdrive, was released in 2009.

Tippin has released a total of eleven studio albums and five compilation albums, with six gold certifications and one platinum certification among them. In addition, he has charted more than thirty singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including three Number Ones: "There Ain't Nothin' Wrong with the Radio" (1992), "That's as Close as I'll Get to Loving You" (1995), and "Kiss This" (2000), as well as the top ten hits "You've Got to Stand for Something", "I Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way", "My Blue Angel", "Workin' Man's Ph.D.", "For You I Will", and "Where the Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Fly".

Biography

Aaron Dupree Tippin was born July 3, 1958, in Pensacola, Florida. and reached a peak of No. 6 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts. It was also the title track to his debut album, released in late 1991. Although the album was certified gold in the United States, the next two singles performed poorly: "I Wonder How Far It Is Over You" peaked at No. 40, and "She Made a Memory Out of Me" at No. 54. Brian Mansfield of AllMusic, in his review of the album, said that "This exciting hardcore country comes from a man whose previous blue-collar experience as a farm hand, welder, pilot, and truck driver made him a publicist's dream." Giving it an "A", Alanna Nash of Entertainment Weekly praised Tippin's "humor" and "pointed language". His phrasing has been compared to Hank Williams for "the catch in the throat, followed by a sliding moan", as described by Entertainment Weekly reviewer Alanna Nash in her review of Tippin's debut.

Several of Tippin's songs, such as "Workin' Man's Ph.D" and "You've Got to Stand for Something", are mid-tempo anthems that address the working class, and are often patriotic in nature. Along with his manager, Billy Craven, Aaron and Thea Tippin created Tippin's company, Tip Top Entertainment. They reside in Dowelltown, Tennessee. The couple have two sons. Tippin also opened two hunting supply stores called Aaron Tippin Firearms: one in Smithville, Tennessee, and the other was run by his late father, Willis Emory Tippin, in Oak City, North Carolina. (Willis died in 2005.) According to the Federal Aviation Administration, Tippin is an instrument rated commercial pilot with single and multi-engine ratings. He also has private pilot privileges for rotorcraft-helicopter. He is a certified airframe and power plant mechanic. He is also a longtime bodybuilder. His son, Thomas, has made recordings with his father.

Discography

;Studio albums

  • You've Got to Stand for Something (1991)
  • Read Between the Lines (1992)
  • Call of the Wild (1993)
  • Lookin' Back at Myself (1994)
  • Tool Box (1995)
  • What This Country Needs (1998)
  • People Like Us (2000)
  • Stars & Stripes (2002)
  • In Overdrive (2009)
  • All in the Same Boat (2013)
  • Aaron Tippin 25 (2015)

;Number-one singles (U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs)

  • "There Ain't Nothin' Wrong with the Radio" (1992)
  • "That's as Close as I'll Get to Loving You" (1995)
  • "Kiss This" (2000)

Awards and nominations

TNN/Music City News Country Awards

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|1994

|Aaron Tippin

|Star of Tomorrow

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Academy of Country Music Awards

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|2001

|"Kiss This"

|Single Record of the Year

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|rowspan=2| 2002

|Aaron Tippin

|Top Male Vocalist of the Year

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|"Where the Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Fly"

|Video of the Year

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Footnotes

References

  • Oermann, Robert K. (1998). "Aaron Tippin". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 540–1.
  • Tippin's official website