Gary Allan Herzberg (born December 5, 1967) is an American country music singer. Signed to Decca Records in 1996, he made his country music debut with the release of his single "Her Man", the lead-off to his gold-certified debut album Used Heart for Sale, which was released in 1996 on Decca. His second album, It Would Be You, followed in 1998. His third album, Smoke Rings in the Dark, was his first one for MCA Nashville (he has been signed to the label since then) and his first platinum album. His next albums, Alright Guy (2001) and See If I Care (2003), both were also certified platinum while Tough All Over (2005) and Greatest Hits (2007) and Living Hard (2007) were all certified gold.
Allan's next two albums Get Off on the Pain (2010) and Set You Free (2013) both reached the Top 10 on the U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums charts, at numbers 2 and 1 respectively. Overall, his ten studio and greatest hits albums have produced 26 singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts, including the number one hits "Man to Man", "Tough Little Boys" (both 2003), "Nothing On but the Radio" (2004), and "Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)" (2013).
Personal life
thumb|Allan leaving the stage in [[Mescalero, New Mexico|Mescalaro northeast of Las Cruces, New Mexico]]
Gary Allan Herzberg was born on December 5, 1967, in La Mirada, California, Ensuring that the family would focus on music, Allan's mother insisted that the family's guitars always remain visible in the home. At age 13, Allan began playing in honky tonks with his father. Despite his commitment to finishing school, Allan reflects that he was rarely alert in class. "I played the bars at night, I was half asleep when I got to school. I thought sleep was what you did when you go to school." His third wife, Angela (whom he wed on June 5, 2001), died by suicide on October 25, 2004. In December 2021, Allan was engaged to Molly Martin. They married in a private ceremony in Tennessee on Feb. 5, attended by only an officiant and a photographer.
Nashville connection
Allan was introduced to songwriter/producer Byron Hill on August 28, 1993, by a mutual friend and talent-scout Jim Seal, at a bar called the Lion D'or in Downey, California, where Allan was already regularly performing. Seal and Hill had asked Allan if they could showcase an unsigned act that they were developing there. Hill had arranged to bring the head of A&R from a major label to the show to see this other act perform. Allan kindly let them use his stage for the event, giving the new act the opening performance slot that night. Hill promised Allan that they would make sure the A&R person remained there to see his portion of the show. Everyone was knocked out with Allan's performance, and very impressed with his voice. From that point on, Byron Hill began sending Allan songs. Without any serious funding at the time, Hill arranged for Allan to go into Seal's small studio in California to try his vocals on some of existing demo tracks which Hill had sent to Allan from Nashville. Meanwhile, Hill became head of A&R at BNA Entertainment on October 29 of that same year and immediately wanted to sign Allan to BNA, but the then current roster conditions and other circumstances related to the planned restructuring of RCA/BNA Nashville stood in the way.
From demo to deal
In the meantime, Allan took a job selling cars. He left a demo tape in the glove box of a truck purchased by a wealthy couple. When the couple discovered that he was the singer, they wrote him a check for $12,000. In early-1999, Decca Records folded, and when Allan moved to the parent label, MCA Nashville, the It Would Be You album was left in limbo. The new album avoided the "devil-may-care brashness" of the first two, instead presenting a tone balanced between youthful optimism and "the knowledge that some of life's experiences exact a high toll." See If I Care included Allan's second and third number one singles with "Tough Little Boys", and "Nothing On but the Radio." "Songs About Rain" was a Top 15 hit.
Tough All Over
In 2003, Allan and his wife, Angela Herzberg, moved to Tennessee from California. On October 25, 2004, Angela committed suicide after suffering from depression and migraines. Allan initially put his career on hold, but soon returned to music to deal with the loss of his wife. This resulted in 2005's "heart-wrenchingly personal album," Tough All Over. He included several songs which he wrote or cowrote, including "Puttin' Memories Away" and "I Just Got Back from Hell," which dealt directly with his grief. It was subsequently certified gold by the RIAA as of December 20, 2006, and contained the Top 10 singles "Best I Ever Had" (written by Vertical Horizon's Matt Scannell) and "Life Ain't Always Beautiful," co-written by country singer Cyndi Thomson (under the name Cyndi Goodman).
Greatest Hits
thumb|Allan performing at Harrah's Metropolis in [[Metropolis, Illinois southwest of Evansville, Indiana, July 2010]]
Allan's first Greatest Hits collection was released on March 6, 2007. A Number One album on the Billboard Top Country Albums charts, the album reprised the greatest hits from his first six albums, as well as two new songs. One of these, titled "A Feelin' Like That", was co-written by David Lee Murphy and Ira Dean (the latter a former member of Trick Pony); the single peaked at No. 12 on the country singles charts.
Living Hard
The album Living Hard was released on October 23, 2007. Serving as its lead-off single was the song "Watching Airplanes," which spent more than thirty weeks on the country charts, where it reached a peak of No. 2 and went No. 1 on the Mediabase Chart. The song's music video was filmed during live concerts, including one at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado. Second single "Learning How to Bend"–co-written by Allan–quickly became another hit song, peaking at No. 13. The video was filmed during a live performance at the House of Blues in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Following this song is third single "She's So California," which Allan co-wrote with Jaime Hanna (of Hanna-McEuen) and Jon Randall, and it peaked at No. 24, becoming his first single to miss the top 20 since "Lovin' You Against My Will" in 2000.
Get Off on the Pain
thumb|Allan speaking with fans in Mescalero, September 2010
A new single, entitled "Today", was released on June 12, 2009. It served as the lead-off single to the album Get Off on the Pain, which was released on March 9, 2010.
The title track was the album's second single. The song debuted at No. 42 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, the highest-debuting single of his career.
"Kiss Me When I'm Down" was released as the album's third single. That song debuted at No. 52 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
Set You Free
Allan's ninth studio album, Set You Free, was released on January 22, 2013. Its first single, "Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)", was released to country radio on September 17, 2012, and reached Number One on the Country Airplay chart on February 9, 2013, giving Allan his fourth Number One country hit and his first since "Nothing On but the Radio" in December 2004. In an interview with Broadway's Electric Barnyard, Allan spoke about co-writing with women for the new release. It was the first time in his career he had done so, and he described it as an interesting experience. The album's second single, "Pieces", was released to country radio on February 25, 2013. The third single, "It Ain't the Whiskey", was released on September 23, 2013.
Ruthless
In March 2015, Allan released a new single entitled "Hangover Tonight". This song was slated to serve as the lead single to his upcoming tenth studio album, entitled Hard Way. Two more singles, "Do You Wish It Was Me?" and "Mess Me Up", followed in 2016 and 2017. The commercial failure of these singles caused delays in the release of an album.
On July 31, 2020, Allan released another new single called "Waste of a Whiskey Drink" through EMI Nashville. His tenth album, Ruthless, was released on June 25, 2021.
Political views
In 2003, Allan told CMT that he believed Republican candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger would be the best governor because he is not driven by money. In 2021, he told People that he was "very much not a Republican."
Sound
Allan's voice is described as "raspy and unpolished." The New York Times describes his music as "elegant, often deadpan songs [that] tend toward manly understatement." His sound is influenced by the Bakersfield scene, especially Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. He prefers that sound to the more pop country which is prevalent on country radio, because "the songs have got to have soul, have real meaning... Country music is... what happens during the week. Rock 'n roll is about what happens at the weekend."