Jimmy Wayne Convicted to Play Music

Music entered Jimmy Wayne's life during a very trying time. Throughout his childhood, the singer and his sister shuffled in and out of foster homes throughout North Carolina while their mother was in prison. He faced death when he was almost shot by his step-father, and he struggled through school, having to repeat the sixth grade.

In his recent GAC special, 'Coming Home,' Jimmy turns that past sadness into future hope. With cameras following, he went back to visit a grade school teacher, followed by a trip to the local prison where he shared a song and stories with the inmates. He closed out his home state visit with a performance at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Charlotte, as an opening act on Brad Paisley's 'American Saturday Night' tour.

During the special, Jimmy talked about his first memories of music, which saved his life.

"The first time I picked up a guitar, I was seven years old," he recalls. "I bought my first guitar at a yard sale when I was in high school, after a convict from the local prison came to our school and spoke to the student body and played a song. I knew right then that's what I want to do ... I don't want to go to prison," he adds with laughter, pointing out that he did in fact go to that prison later in life, spending four years working as a prison guard.