Jake Owen has officially been a country singer for over ten years! Although it took him a while to put out a number one hit, he then released four in a row with “Barefoot Blue Jean Night,” “Alone With You,” “The One That Got Away” and “Anywhere With You.” He started putting out music in 2006 when he signed to RCA Nashville record label and he’s been slowing climbing to the top ever since. Owen has toured with huge stars like Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney, Jason Aldean and Keith Urban, and he just released his newest album American Love featuring the leading single, “American Country Love Song.” The album has been well received and resurged Owen’s career back to the top of the charts. The past few years have been difficult for him with the publicity of his divorce and record label mix up, but it seems the Florida native singer is making a comeback! He turns 39 at the end of this month, so here’s a look at 11 things you probably didn’t know about him!
11. His Real Name is Joshua
A lot of celebrities use a ‘stage name’ and this country singer is one of them! His real name is Joshua Ryan Owens. When he first entered the music business there was another artist in the country music industry who’s name was Josh Turner. This other artist already had many hits, like his Top 20 single, “Long Black Train,” so in order to make Owen stand out, the execs at his record label suggested he change his name. They settled on the name ‘Jake’ even though there’s also another country artist with that name. Although we all refer to him as Jake, some of his family still refer to him as Josh. His brother Jarrod talked about having to make the switch to Jake. “Being born together as twins and growing up together, all the way through college, it was always Josh. It’s what I always called him. But it got to a point where, when I was visiting him in Nashville, everyone was calling him Jake, and when I called him Josh, it didn’t even register with him. So, eventually, I just made the choice to call him Jake.”