Early Life:

Gary grew up on a California cattle ranch with sister Tammy and brother Greg. From early childhood, he was interested in surfing and country music. He was influenced by the stars of the Bakersfield scene, above all Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, and he began playing music himself. As a teenager, he accompanied his father, who made appearances in local bars and clubs.

He was offered a record deal at the tender age of fifteen, but turned it down because neither he nor his parents felt that he had developed a sound of his own yet. At age twenty, he founded his own band, the Honky Tonk Wranglers. Three years later he finally felt that he had found his own music signature and was ready to try for another recording contract.

It took several more years before he was heard by Nashville songwriter/producer Byron Hill at a bar in Downey, CA called Lion D'or, a meeting which led to the production of four demo recordings in Nashville, landing him his recording contract with Decca Records in 1996.

Allan has three daughters, Maggie, Tanna, and Dallas, from his first marriage, which ended in divorce. He married again, on November 28, 1998, to Versace model Danette Day, but they divorced after only seven months. His third marriage, celebrated on June 5, 2001 to Angela Herzberg, ended when she shot and killed herself around 1:00 a.m. on 25 October 2004 in their home after a long battle with depression, an eating disorder, and migraines.

Gary Allan is currently a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He currently lives in Hendersonville, Tennessee.