Chris Young

Chris Young is the The grandson of Richard Yates, who was a performer on the Louisiana Hayride country music show.

When he was teenager, Young appeared in two country stars' music videos, cameoing in Reba McEntire's 'I'll Be' music clip in 2000 and featuring in Buddy Jewell's 2003 "Sweet Southern Comfort" visual. The latter saw a long-haired Young getting amorous with a pretty girl.

When Young was fronting the house band at Cowboy's in Arlington, Texas, a fan kept insisting that the 20-year-old audition for the Nashville Star TV show. Young entered the 2006 series of the singing competition, regularly wearing a cowboy hat during his performances. "I asked if he was sure about the hat," mom Becky Harris recalled to GAC. "And he said, 'I'm tired of fooling with my hair.'"