Jerry Kilgore

Jerry Kilgore spent his early years in Tillamook, OR, where his family’s collection of Merle Haggard and Buck Owens albums sparked a lasting passion for country music. Although he picked up the guitar during his teenage years, he waited until turning twenty to assemble his first band, which began performing regularly at a Portland honky tonk. After two years in that setting he relocated to Mesa, AZ, where he held a steady five-nights-a-week club engagement for three years. From there he moved to North Carolina, fronting another honky tonk ensemble for an additional two years before heading to Nashville to pursue a recording career. His first major break arrived when the co-written “Love Lessons” climbed into the country Top Ten for Tracy Byrd in December 1995. John Michael Montgomery later carried another of his compositions, “Cover You in Kisses,” into the same chart region in 1998. In January 1999 Kilgore became the first male artist signed to the newly established Nashville branch of Virgin Records. That summer his debut single, “Love Trip,” entered the country charts, and the self-titled album Love Trip followed in September.