True Tritt

Back at his house — an unassuming red-brick three-bedroom place, with flower beds everywhere, white rocking chairs on the front porch, and lots of Elvis paraphernalia inside — Tritt tugs at the Levi's that are a bit tight in the waist. Malysa Wyse, a tall, blond 31-year-old model and his girlfriend of two years, hovers about the kitchen, preparing a lunchtime feast. (The two met backstage after one of Tritt's concerts and, she recalls, "went to a bar and ended up in a parking lot talking all night. He was a perfect gentleman.") Tritt sits with his feet up on the sofa, while his dog, Otis — named after the drunk on The Andy Griffith Show — lies snoring beneath the couch.

Otis has been with Tritt through many of the career ups and downs. Tritt first caught the performing fever at age 4, when he sang "Everything Is Beautiful" at the Assembly of God Church in Marietta, which his family — dad James, a school-bus driver; mom Gwen, a bookkeeper and homemaker; and younger sister Sheilah — attended regularly. But it took two marriages (a brief one to his high school sweetheart, a second that lasted four years) and a few day jobs before Tritt's musical career shifted into drive.

In the late '80s, after years of playing clubs and honky-tonks ("places where they'd give you a weapon at the door so it would be an even fight"), Tritt talked Warner Bros. promotion man Danny Davenport into letting him record a demo at Davenport's home studio. Eventually Davenport persuaded the company to sign the former air-conditioner salesman, and Tritt's first album, Country Club, was released in 1990. Since then, his four albums have sold a combined 6.5 million copies.

In 1992, Tritt and Stuart hit the road for their No Hats tour, which was a tribute to their rowdy brand of "outlaw" country. It was also intended as a bit of a swipe at Nashville's plethora of seemingly interchangeable hat acts (or, as Stuart calls them, "people around Nashville who perform like ice cream cones"). If that weren't shaky enough ground, the fact that Tritt still lives near his hometown of Marietta (instead of Nashville), has a Hollywood manager, and openly denounced Billy Ray Cyrus did not exactly endear him to the country establishment.

"Nashville perceived Travis as not being a team player," says author Bane. "It's not true, but once Nashville makes a perception, they tend to get lodged in it pretty quickly." Kragen admits, "There's always been a little bit of an edge that works against him. His music is a bit rock & roll, and that works against him. He doesn't live in the Nashville community, and that works against him."

Tritt is well aware that his lack of polish, his independence, and his overtly competitive nature aren't standard country stuff — and that it all can stand in his way. "It's perfectly acceptable for me," he says, "in a room with Vince Gill, Clint Black, Alan Jackson, and all the rest of these people, to walk up and say, 'Hey, how ya doin'? I like you personally, but watch out for me 'cause I'm gonna kick your butt on the charts.' There's nothing wrong with that. It's done every day on the football field. Unfortunately, there's this unwritten rule in country music that says that can't happen."

Tritt's intense baby-blue eyes offer more than a hint of defiance whenever he mentions the idea of ruffling industry feathers. But right now, before the start of touring and the publicity for his album and his autobiography, Tritt is hungry. Wyse invites everyone in for shrimp, fresh fruit, and muffins. "I've had a rep as being an a--hole, hard to work with, egotistical," Tritt says. "I'm hoping that when those who desperately want to hate me read the book, they'll see behind the scenes and think, 'He's not such a bad guy.'"