Collin was nominated for CMA's "Male Vocalist of the Year" two years running! Collin won the 1996 AMA "Video of the Year" award for "I Think About You", which starred his daughter, Britanny. DeQueen, Arkansas, honored Collin by renaming a portion of U.S. 70 to Collin Raye Boulevard. "What if Jesus Comes Back Like That" went to #62 on the Billboard charts in December 1995 without being officially released as a single! His daughter Brittany sang "In This Life" at Fan Fair 1996. This was her first audience! Collin was voted "Arkansan of the Year" by the Arkansas Broadcasters Association for it 1995-96 award. Radio station KDQN, in Collin's hometown of DeQueen, nominated him for the award. Bette Midler recorded her version of "In This Life" on her latest album. In my opinion, this will always be a Collin Raye song! Collin is the chairman in the Emily Harrison Foundation for head injuries. Collin was selected for CMT's "Showcase Artist of the Month" for May 1995. Collin participated in Jimmy Webb's Lifetime Achievement tribute at this year's National Academy Songwriter's award. His favorite country singer is Trisha Yearwood. They sang together at her Fan Fair 1996 and 1997 concert. The woman in both the "That's My Story" and "My Kind of Girl" videos is his long-time girlfriend, Tammy Hyler. (She was in Joliet with him, and the videos don't do her justice). He was named one of the 10 "Country Hunks" by Cosmopolitan® magazine in 1995. He passed on "Someone Else's Star", which Bryan White eventually took to the top. He also passed on "Meet in the Middle", which was Diamond Rio's first big hit. He named his dog after his favorite historical character, Patton.
"The first thing that comes to mind when people ask me what I'm about is my children, Brittany and Jacob. Everything I do revolves around them, everything I try to do in life is with them in mind." -Country America, Jul 1995 "I'm just a dad. I'm not a cowboy. I'm not a biker. I don't have a particular image". -Country Weekly, Jan 30, 1996 "Performing is wonderful. Making records is wonderful. But the situations where I'm there to 'be a star' embarass me. I've avoided certain events like that and some people have misread that as rudeness. It's not. I just feel uncomfortable with 'star-itis' situations. I don't feel like a star. I never have." -Country Weekly, January 30th, 1996
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