Trace Adkins contends with the notion that his career has been a slow, steady uphill rise for the past decade.

"We had a couple or three years there in the middle where it was a little iffy and could have gone either way," he said in a telephone interview from his home in Nashville. "But I just stuck it out and kept working hard, and we made it through."

The 45-year-old country singer said he'd rather follow the path he's taken.

"I guess that's the best way to be - that slow, steady climb," he said. "I hope my career is a marathon as opposed to a sprint."

Adkins worked his way up to an arena headliner and will bring his show to Bloomington's U.S. Cellular Coliseum at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

He said he approached the top spot with mixed emotions.

"It's a lot of things. It's nerve-wracking and it's fun," he said. "There's a lot of pressure that goes along with it, too. There's a lot to be said, and it's cool to be in that rocking chair slot for as long as you can be because once you become the headliner, the onus is totally on you. If the joint's empty, it's your fault."

Don't expect a fancy stage show, Adkins said.

"It's really not any different. I'm still doing what I've always done," he said. "There's not a lot of bells and whistles - we just get up there and do our thing."

The Louisiana native said there's one big difference between now and 11 years ago, when he first hit with the album "Dreaming Out Loud" and the singles "There's a Girl in Texas" and "Every Light in the House is On."

"Hands down, it's the Internet," Adkins said. "That's changed everybody's world, and not just the music business.

"There are many more opportunities, but there are also way more holes in the boat these days - and we're springing leaks all over the place. There's no way to keep a handle on your material anymore. Once you put it out there, you might as well kiss it goodbye because, for all intents and purposes, it's gone."

Adkins said he and all genres of music are seeing plummeting album sales, mostly because of downloads.

"Some people do the right thing and pay for it, but a lot of people don't," he said.

He said it's tough for musicians to stay on the defensive.

"I don't think you really do too much. You just have to accept and deal with it and face the reality that this is a brave new world we're living in and things are gonna be different," he said. "You have to accept that and move along."

On the other hand, Adkins said, his 2005 hit "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" benefited from downloads for cell phone ringtones.

"I couldn't see that one coming," he said.

"Badonkadonk," which combined Adkins' country growl with a hip-hop backbeat, was reluctantly embraced by country radio, he said.

"They had to play it," he said. "I thought it was a hit."

The song reached No. 2 on the country charts and even crossed over onto the pop charts.

"The attention from fans of other genres was a surprise," he said. "But I'm not going to apologize for that."

"Ladies Love Country Boys," currently No. 3 on Billboard's country chart, is the latest of Adkins' 21 hits. One song, 1999's "Don't Lie," reached only No. 27 when Adkins thought it could be a No. 1. The head of the label, he said, pulled the plug on the promotion of the song.

"I've always looked back on that and regretted not going down there and pummeling him," the 6-foot-6 former offshore oil driller said.

He's outlasted that record company president and two more that followed. He's happy where he is right now.

"I feel confident enough that I've got to a place in my career where I pretty much call the shots," he said. "I have a great relationship with folks at the record label. They know that I'm a grown man and I know what I'm doing."

Adkins said he's looking forward to "a big year, a busy year." He's at work for songs for his ninth album and considering several different movie opportunities.

"I'd just like to get my feet wet a little bit," he said.

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Tracing Adkins

Full name: Tracy Darrell Adkins

Birth date: Jan. 13, 1962

Hometown: Sarepta, La.

Early gig: Working a Gulf Bay oil rig

Early disaster: Lost part of a left-hand finger in a work-related mishap (he accidentally sliced it off with a knife while trying to open a bucket; it was successfully reattached)

Later disaster: Seriously injured in a car crash that broke both arms, a leg and some ribs, and sliced his nose off (it was also successfully reattached)

Still more disaster: Shot in the chest by his ex-wife in 1994, with the bullet piercing both lungs and his heart; "The reason I'm here is that I lived close to a medical center. I don't believe she meant to do it, so I didn't press charges - our divorce was closure enough," he later told an interviewer.

First band: The New Commitments

First success: After a move to Nashville, signed to Capitol Records

Debut album: "Dreamin' Out Loud" (1996)

Debut singles: "There's a Girl in Texas" (No. 20), "Every Light in the House" (No. 3), "This Ain't No Thinkin' Thing" (No. 1)

Other albums: "Big Time" (1997), "More" (1999), "Chrome" (2001), "Comin' On Strong" (2004), "Songs About Me" (2005), "Dangerous Man" (2006)

Other singles: "I Left Something Turned on at Home," "The Rest of Mine," "Lonely Won't Leave Me Alone," "More," "I'm Tryin'," "Chrome," "Hot Mama," "Songs About Me," "Hony Tonk Badonkadonk," "Dangerous Man," "Swing," "Ladies Love Country Boys"

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Danielle Peck, Craig Morgan accompany Adkins to B-N

By Dan Craft | dcraft@pantagraph.com

The Dangerous Man is bringing along some accomplices for his Friday night gig at the U.S. Cellular Coliseum.

Paving the way for Trace Adkins (see accompanying interview) will be opening acts Craig Morgan and Danielle Peck.

Speaking of dangerous, Morgan seems to have courted his share of close calls in a lifetime that has included everything from working as an Emergency Medical Technician to serving 10 years as an Army Ranger with Special Forces.

The 41-year-old Tennessee native was pulling EMT duty at 18. By 20, he was a paratrooper in the U.S. Army, serving with the 82nd Airborne Division and 101st Airborne Division.

He saw combat during a stint with the former circa the 1989 ousting of Panama's Manuel Noriega, and was on active duty for a decade before embarking on a music career.

That background has led to his support of U.S. soldiers and their families, which, in turn, led to a 2006 USO Merit Award for his efforts.

The music career took off in earnest in 2000, when he was signed by Atlantic Records and recorded his debut album, "Craig Morgan."

He then signed with the indie label Broken Bow Records for his second album, 2003's "I Love It," which produced his first hit single, "Almost Home."

It's been all uphill ever since, with 2005 his banner year: Morgan's single "That's What I Love About Sunday" was Billboard's No. 1 "most played song in all of country music" (more than 200,000 airings on country radio, per estimates). It spent four weeks at the top of the charts and spun off an encore, "Redneck Yacht Club," which also peaked at No. 1.

As a result, Morgan was nominated last year as Best New Male Vocalist by the Academy of Country Music.

His current album is "Little Bit of Life," whose first single was the title song, which climbed to No. 7.

Meanwhile, Morgan's fellow opening act, Danielle Peck, also has military roots: She's the daughter of a U.S. Marine.

Raised in Coshocton, Ohio, Peck came of musical age early on, writing her first song before the age of 10, and making her own designer cassette labels for her imaginary "Danielle Peck Records," complete with song titles and cover art.

She sang in her church choir and, by age 16, was in her first bar band, the Neon Moon Band.

"I wasn't supposed to be in there (bars) because I was underage," she says. "So I had to dress older, act older, sneak in through the back door, do my show, and then slip out the back again before anyone could figure out I was underage."

Peck eventually decided to chase her dream to Nashville, where she wound up with her debut album, 2006's "Danielle Peck," on Big Machine Records and hit with her first single, "I Don't."

An even bigger encore followed, "Findin' a Good Man," which peaked at No. 16 on the country singles charts.

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At a glance

What: Trace Adkins, with Craig Morgan and Danielle Peck

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday

Where: U.S. Cellular Coliseum, 101 S. Madison St., Bloomington

Tickets: $39.75

Box office number: (866) 891-9992