Allan was born and raised in La Mirada, California, to Harley and Mary Herzberg. To ensure that the family would focus on music, Allan's mother insisted that the family's guitars would always remain visible in the home. At age thirteen, Allan began playing in honky tonks with his father. Two years later, he was offered his first recording contract, from A&M Records, but rejected the deal. His parents wanted him to finish his education and his father felt that Allan had yet to develop his own distinctive style. 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 got to school." After finishing school, he continued to play in the bars with his band, the Honky Tonk Wranglers. Many of the venues they played were packed, and promoters often tried to move them to larger clubs. The moves would have required him to stop playing some of the older country music, such as covers of George Jones songs, so Allan refused.
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 Gary 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, 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 that Hill had sent to Allan from Nashville, Tennessee. 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.
In the meantime, Allan took a job selling cars. He left a demo tape in the glove box of a car purchased by a wealthy couple. When the couple discovered that he was the singer, they wrote him a check for $12,000. This independent funding allowed Allan to go to Nashville to record some of the songs that were on that early demo tape with Hill as producer. On September 11, 1995, they worked at Javelina Studios for a couple of days on the four songs that Hill immediately showed to labels. Allan's recordings brought serious responses from several labels including Mercury, RCA, and Decca. A meeting was then held at a Nashville hotel among Hill, Allan, and friend of Allan's, who was a program director for a radio station in California, to arrange two showcases in Los Angeles, California, to put Allan on stage at two of the radio station's regular nights at a local club. Byron arranged for staffers at the Nashville office of Decca Records to attend the first showcase held on November 1, 1995. Decca immediately wanted to sign Allan, and knowing that Byron was lining up other labels to see Gary, Decca asked them to cancel the second showcase. A rep from RCA was already booked to see the second showcase the following week, but the "bird-in-hand" deal offer was too tempting for both Hill and Allan, so they committed to the Decca offer.
His first deal, with Decca Records Nashville, produced the 1996 album Used Heart for Sale. The album was named "Best of the Month" by Stereo Review. It advanced to the top 20 of the charts, and produced a Top 10 country hit with the track Her Man (previously recorded by Waylon Jennings). Other tracks from the album, however, proved less successful.
His second album, It Would Be You, was released in 1998. Although Allan had been writing songs since he was a teenager, he does not hesitate to bump his work from his albums in favor of those written by other songwriters he respects. For his second album, Allan replaced one of his songs with No Judgement Day, written by Allen Shamblin. Although the song was a hidden acoustic track, radio stations began giving it heavy airplay. The song tells the story of a shopkeeper in Texas, whose children killed him in search of money. The title track of the album became Allan's second top 10 hit of the year, remaining in the top 10 after 21 weeks of radio play, "way beyond the tenure of most disposable radio hits." At the beginning of 1999, Decca Records folded, and when Allan moved to the parent label, MCA Nashville, It Would Be You was left in limbo.
In 1999, Allan released Smoke Rings in the Dark, an album he recorded while in the midst of a divorce from his second wife, Versace model Danette Day, after only seven months of marriage. Unlike his first two albums, Smoke Rings in the Dark made fuller use of background singers and stringed instruments, "resulting in a lusher, fuller sound." 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." Smoke Rings in the Dark was certified platinum, and it included two successful singles.
In 2001 the album Alright Guy was released. It contained the singles The One, Man of Me, and Man to Man, the latter of which became his first Billboard No. 1 hit. The same year, Allan married for the third time, to Angela, a flight attendant he met on an airplane.
Despite his previous success and eight years in the music business, Allan was nominated for the Country Music Association's Horizon Award, typically given to newcomers, in 2003. The same year he released his fifth album, See If I Care. Allan had to fight to keep the title, which he felt epitomized his attitude towards the music business, that he would continue to make the music that he wanted to make regardless of whether the record label chose to back him or people chose to buy the album. See If I Care included his second and third Number One singles, Tough Little Boys and Nothing On but the Radio. Songs About Rain was a top 15 hit.
In 2003, Allan and his wife, Angela Herzberg, moved to Tennessee from California. On October 25, 2004, Angela Herzberg committed suicide after suffering from depression and migraines. Allan initially put his career on hold, but soon turned 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. Several years later, Gary discussed his wife's suicide on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Tough All Over sold over 99,000 copies in its first week, debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on the magazine's Top Country Albums chart. 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).
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 #12 on the country singles charts.
Allan's album titled 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 #2 and went #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 #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 #24, becoming his first single to miss the top 20 since Lovin' You Against My Will in 2000.
Today was released on June 12, 2009, serving as the lead-off single to Allan's studio album, Get Off on the Pain, which was released on March 9, 2010. Title track, Get Off on the Pain, was the album's second single. It debuted at #42 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, the highest-debuting single of his career. Kiss Me When I'm Down the album's third single released to radio in 2010. It debuted at #52 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
http://www.garyallan.com/pain/
Half of My Mistakes
Gary Allan Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Half of my mistakes I've made at closing time
Half the time I never saw it coming, until it was over
Oh, and half of my mistakes I've made with love the line
Half of my mistakes I swear, I should've known better
Half of my mistakes were just amongst friends
You get a little distance on it, the truth is clearer
Chorus:
If I it all to do over
I'm sure I'd win and lost just as much
but spend alot less time on right and wrong
and a lot more time on love
Half of my mistakes I've made 'cause I was moving to quickly
Half of them where made 'cause my heart was moving too slow
Nobody can tell you a damn thing, if you ain't listening
Oh, And half of my mistakes I've made 'cause I couldn't let go
Chorus:
If I it all to do over
I'm sure I'd win and lost just as much
but spend alot less time on right and wrong
and a lot more time on love
Half of my mistakes I'd give anything to change how it ended
Oh, and half of my mistakes, God, I wouldn't change one thing
You can lean too hard on a prayer but I don't recommend it
'Cause half the good things in my life came from half of my mistakes
Yeah, a lot of good things in my life came from half of my mistakes
In Gary Allan's song "Half Of My Mistakes," the artist reflects on the various mistakes he's made in his life. He reveals that half of his mistakes were made while he was sober and the other half were made while under the influence at closing time. Allan also admits that he never saw some of his mistakes coming until it was too late. Furthermore, he confesses that half of his mistakes were made with love in the mix–perhaps suggesting that his impulsive decision-making was always influenced by love.
Allan goes on to describe how half of his mistakes were a result of ignoring good advice from friends and family. On some occasions, he simply didn't pay attention to what was going on around him, while on others, he moved too quickly, and his heart was moving too slow. Nevertheless, he concludes that if he had to do it all over again, he would have probably ended up winning and losing as much as he did but would have spent a lot less time worrying about doing what's right and wrong and more time loving.
In conclusion, "Half Of My Mistakes" is a song that explores the life of someone reflecting on past mistakes while acknowledging what they have learned. It's an honest reflection on how the choices we make can often have unexpected consequences, and as a result, we should cherish every moment and focus on love more than anything else in life.
Line by Line Meaning
Half of my mistakes I made stone cold sober
I've made many mistakes without the influence of alcohol or drugs
Half of my mistakes I've made at closing time
I've made many mistakes under the influence of alcohol or drugs
Half the time I never saw it coming, until it was over
I didn't realize I was making a mistake until it was already done
Oh, and half of my mistakes I've made with love the line
I made some mistakes because I was following my heart instead of my head
Half of my mistakes I swear, I should've known better
I regret some mistakes that I should have been smart enough to avoid
Half of my mistakes were just amongst friends
Some of my mistakes were made in the comfort of my close circle
You get a little distance on it, the truth is clearer
After some time has passed, I can see the truth behind my mistakes more clearly
On, and half of my mistakes I'd probably make 'em again
I would still make some of my mistakes again, even if given the chance to start over
If I it all to do over
If I could go back and do it all again
I'm sure I'd win and lost just as much
I would still experience both wins and losses in the same way
but spend alot less time on right and wrong
I would focus less on what's right and wrong and more on love
and a lot more time on love
I would prioritize love above all else
Half of my mistakes I've made 'cause I was moving too quickly
I have made some mistakes because I rushed into things without thinking them through
Half of them were made 'cause my heart was moving too slow
I have made some mistakes because I was too cautious and didn't follow my heart
Nobody can tell you a damn thing, if you ain't listening
You won't learn from your mistakes if you don't listen to the advice of others
Oh, And half of my mistakes I've made 'cause I couldn't let go
I have made some mistakes because I held on to things that I should have let go of
Half of my mistakes I'd give anything to change how it ended
I regret some of my mistakes and wish I could change the outcome
Oh, and half of my mistakes, God, I wouldn't change one thing
I don't regret some of my mistakes and wouldn't change anything about them
You can lean too hard on a prayer but I don't recommend it
Praying alone won't fix everything and it's important to take action as well
'Cause half the good things in my life came from half of my mistakes
Some of the best things in my life came as a result of my mistakes
Yeah, a lot of good things in my life came from half of my mistakes
Many of the good things in my life can be traced back to mistakes I made
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: BOBBY HOUCK, RADNEY M. FOSTER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind