Whatever Happened to George Strait?
What To Know
- George Strait, one of the most successful country artists ever, has sold over 120 million albums and was named a 2025 Kennedy Center honoree.
- Strait’s career began in Texas after his Army service, leading to decades of chart-topping hits, major awards, and record-breaking concerts, including his 2024 show at Kyle Field.
- In his seventies, Strait continues to release new music, support charitable causes, and recently helped organize a major flood relief concert in Texas.
George Strait isn’t just one of the biggest country stars of all time — he’s one of the most popular musicians, period, selling more than 120 million copies of his albums worldwide over the course of his nearly 50-year career. This year, he was recognized as a 2025 Kennedy Center honoree, with the ceremony airing Tuesday, Dec. 23, from 8pm to 10:30pm on CBS. In honor of this special award, let’s look back on the star’s career and find out what he’s been up to most recently.
How did George Strait begin his career?
Strait was born May 18, 1952, in Poteet, Texas, and grew up in nearby Pearsall, balancing ranch work with an early interest in music. After marrying his high school sweetheart, Norma, he served in the U.S. Army from 1971 to 1975, during which time he performed with an Army-sponsored country band while stationed in Hawaii.
After his discharge, he earned a degree in agriculture from Southwest Texas State University and returned to Texas, playing honky tonks at night while working ranch jobs during the day. In the late ’70s, Strait fronted the Ace in the Hole Band, performing across Texas. When he finally signed with MCA Records in 1981, it was on a one-song deal. That song, “Unwound,” opened the door to a career that would stretch across five decades.
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Throughout the 1980s, Strait became the face of the neotraditional country movement, releasing album after album that leaned into the fiddle and straightforward storytelling at a time when country pop began dominating the charts. Songs like “Fool Hearted Memory,” “Amarillo by Morning,” “The Chair,” and “All My Ex’s Live in Texas” did not just become hits, they became standards for country music. By the end of the decade, he had stacked an unprecedented run of number-one singles and albums, capped by multiple CMA Entertainer of the Year awards.
The 1990s kept the momentum going. Strait starred in the 1992 film Pure Country and the soundtrack became one of his best-selling albums to date. He followed it with a string of chart-topping releases, including albums Blue Clear Sky, Carrying Your Love with Me and One Step at a Time, along with box sets and sold-out festival tours.
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By the 2000s, Strait released albums regularly, continued breaking chart records, and earned major honors, including induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2006 and his first Grammy Award in 2009 for Troubadour.
Where is George Strait now?
When Strait announced The Cowboy Rides Away Tour in 2012, it was framed as a farewell tour, but he couldn’t keep away for long. The final show in 2014 drew more than 104,000 fans and set a new benchmark for country concerts. A decade later, he surpassed even that, playing Kyle Field in June 2024 to more than 110,000 ticket buyers, briefly holding the record for the largest ticketed concert by a single headlining act in U.S. history.
Strait has also continued recording well into his seventies. His 2024 album Cowboys and Dreamers marked his first collection of all-new material in several years. In recent years, his focus has also extended beyond music. Strait has long supported veterans’ causes and Texas-based charities, and in 2025, he helped organize a major relief concert for communities affected by devastating floods in Central Texas, raising millions for recovery efforts.
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Kings Of Country
March 2022
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