Jake Owen Artistfacts

August 28, 1981
Jake Owen was born Joshua Ryan Owen in Winter Haven, Florida, and raised in Vero Beach. He became a country music sensation after releasing his debut album, Startin' with Me, in 2006. All three singles from the album ("Yee Haw," "Startin' With Me," and "Something About a Woman") reached the Top 20 on the Country chart.
He has a fraternal twin brother named Jarrod.
If not for a wakeboarding accident that seriously injured his leg, we might have known Owen as a professional golfer rather than a singer. He won his first tournament at age 15 but had to abandon his dreams of going pro after the injury. While recovering from reconstructive surgery, he taught himself how to play the guitar.
Owen is not a fan of Facebook. He explained in a Songfacts interview: "It's cool for some people that really honestly use it connect with long-lost friends. But, see, once you connect with these 'long-lost friends,' they're no longer 'long-lost' friends. So people tend to get into long-lost friends and new-found business. And I just… (laughs) I hate that about it." He was into MySpace though, back when the social media site outranked Facebook and was a popular proving ground for musicians. Many fans would ask him to give them a call, and he would!

"I wanted people to know that it was real. I kept calling people back and they kept saying, "No way, no way this is you, no way this is you." And I'd say, "Do you really call people and leave a message and you're expecting them not to call you back? I don't leave you a message and expect you not to call me back."
He married model Lacey Buchanan on May 7, 2012, exactly one month after the singer proposed onstage at a charity event. The couple first met when Buchanan appeared in his "8 Second Ride" video and began dating after she starred in Owen's "Barefoot Blue Jean Night" clip. The pair announced in August 2015 that they were getting divorced after three years of marriage.
His first child, Olive Pearl, was born on November 22, 2012.
Owen chopped off his famous long locks in 2014 as part of a bid to be seen as a serious artist.

"A lot of folks think I'm just the 'Beachin'' guy, I'm the f---ing beach bum," he told Rolling Stone in the months leading up to the haircut heard 'round the world. "I have to be recognized as someone that isn't just making up songs that are ditties."
During a 2014 show in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, the singer stopped his set long enough to oust an abusive fan from the concert. "That guy's lucky as s--t I got a guitar and a microphone in my hand," he said when he spotted the man punching a woman in the crowd. He added: "If you're a man and you touch a woman, you're a bad human being, man." The victim recalled in a radio interview: "I think this girl just got really (mad) at me for probably being in her way," she says, "and she pretty much grabbed me by my hair, took me to the ground and started dragging me. I put my hands up and this dude that was with her just wailed me in the eye."
He's good friends with the tennis player Mardy Fish - they grew up together in Vero Beach.
Jake Owen formed a band, Yee Haw Junction, while he was still in college. One of the songs they performed, "8 Second Ride," became Owen's first gold-selling single after he got his record deal.
Yee Haw Junction performed regularly at a bar called Potbelly in Tallahassee, Florida. Owen later returned to the club to film the video for his debut single, "Yee Haw."
Owen has a tattoo of his wife Lacey Buchanan's lips on his right arm. The singer got her kiss permanently inked before he even proposed. "The lips on my upper right bicep are my girlfriend's lips," Owen told Country Countdown USA. "She has the most amazing lips, and I wanted to carry them around with me everywhere I go, considering I can't carry her lips physically with me. So I decided to place them in a discreet location, such as the inside part of my bicep."
Owen lost part of his right ring finger after sustaining serious injuries in a go-kart accident in July 2013. The accident took place while Owen was racing against Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer - both professional NASCAR drivers.
Jake Owen may have invented Bro Country with his 2011 hit "Barefoot Blue Jean Night," which exemplifies the genre with images of girls, beer, and a party accessed by a country road. Owen owns it. "I'm proud of that moment of my life because I took a risk," he told Taste Of Country.

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