• Faith: Spirituality
• Career: Musician
• Birthday:  October 07, 1962

Dale Watson is a country singer, guitarist, songwriter, and self-published author based in Marshall, Texas. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama and moved outside of Wilmington, North Carolina, when he was less than a year old. In 1977, the family, which included Watson's parents and his three brothers, moved to Pasadena, Texas. His father and brother were both musically inclined and guided what became his longstanding musical influences.

Watson started writing songs when he was 12, making his first recording two years later. Soon after, he became an emancipated minor. By day, he went to school, but at night, he played local Houston clubs and honky-tonks with his brother Jim in an aggregation called The Classic Country Band. In 1988, he moved to Los Angeles at the advice of Rosie Flores and soon joined the house band at North Hollywood's now-legendary alt-country venue, The Palomino Club. He recorded two singles for Curb Records in 1990 and 1991, "One Tear at a Time" and "You Pour It On, and I Pour It Down," and appeared on the third volume of the competition series "A Town South of Bakersfield" in 1992. Not long after, Watson moved to Nashville, where he had his first daughter and spent some time writing songs for the Gary Morris publishing company.

Watson relocated to Austin, Texas, where he formed a backing band called The Lone Stars. He scored a deal with Hightone and released his debut album, "Cheatin’ Heart Attack” in 1995, which was greeted with enormous acclaim for the vitality Watson brought to his vintage-style material and performances and also featured a dig at mainstream country in “Nashville Rash.” His follow-up album, “Blessed or Damned,” came in 1996 and continued in a similar vein, as did 1997’s “I Hate These Songs.” His next release, “The Truckin’ Sessions,” appeared on Koch in 1998 and was entirely devoted to that distinct country subgenre of truck-driving songs. Soon after, his second daughter was born. Watson attended truck driving school about the time his first album came out and later obtained his commercial driver’s license. He often drives the band bus when on tour.

The musician is featured in the Zalman King documentary “Crazy Again,” chronicling his breakdown after his girlfriend, Terri Herbert, died in a car accident in September 2000. “Every Song I Write is For You” was released in 2001 as a tribute album. After going on a hiatus from music in 2004, Watson moved to Baltimore, Maryland, to be closer to his daughters, Dalynn Grace and Raquel. Dalynn appeared alongside Johnny Knoxville, Luke Wilson, and Knoxville’s daughter Madison in Watson’s 2007 video for “Hollywood Hillbilly.” Both daughters are in pursuit of acting careers, as both have attended UT Austin for theatre.

What religion is Dale Watson?

Dale Watson identifies as spiritual. After the death of his girlfriend, Watson said he went into an emotional and spiritual headspin. He recalled, "I went and searched out psychics and did the Tarot cards, and then I turned to the Ouija Board, and the Ouija Board took me to a whole different thing, and it turned into automatic writing, and then I started hearing the voice of my girlfriend. It had turned my girlfriend into a spirit guide. I got into all this New Age thinking, which nobody would think that somebody like me would have. But I did. And I found a lot of comfort in it."

However, Watson said it eventually turned into something religious. He added, "That's the part that was beautiful. Then, it turned into a more religious thing, talking to Jesus. When you're sitting there thinking you're walking and talking with Jesus Christ, that's a pretty beautiful place to be. That's where I thought I was. I didn't want to leave that. But then, this thing - the voice - turned into something else. It said, 'You turned to me in the Ouija board, and you didn't hear your girlfriend, your spirit guide, or Jesus - you heard me, Satan. Then it turned bad. In that regard, I'm glad I'm out of that. But for a while there, it was euphoria." After a suicide attempt and a brief stint in a mental facility, Watson delivered on a promise he had made to God. He said, "I had made a deal. If I could snap out of this stuff, I'd make a gospel album and write a book about what I went through." One of those promises will be fulfilled by the upcoming book, A Deal with the Devil to Get Her Back.