George Strait | Biography, Music, & Facts - Britannica

Country superstar

During the next decade Strait released more than a dozen albums, each of which sold more than a million copies. Close on the heels of his honky-tonk debut album, Strait Country (1981), he issued Strait from the Heart (1982), which contained his first number one country music hit, “Fool Hearted Memory.” In 1988 he earned his first Grammy Award nomination, in the category of best male vocal performance for the amusing single “All My Ex’s Live in Texas.” He played the role of a country music superstar in the film Pure Country (1992), which further fueled his popularity.

In 1986 Strait’s 13-year-old daughter, Jenifer, was killed in a car accident. Although he continued to perform and record music after her death, he stopped giving interviews. In 1987 he and his wife founded the Jenifer Strait Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit organization that raises funds for children’s charities in the San Antonio area.

Strait remained phenomenally productive, releasing a studio album nearly every year into the early 2000s. His 2008 release, Troubadour, won a Grammy Award for best country album. In 2009 he made a foray into songwriting, writing three of the tracks on Twang with his son, George (“Bubba”) Strait, Jr. By 2010 the senior Strait had recorded nearly 50 songs that reached the top spot on Billboard’s Country Songs chart.

Access for the whole family! Bundle Britannica Premium and Kids for the ultimate resource destination. Subscribe

Throughout his career Strait rarely swerved from his old-style sound and his rancher’s image, sartorially marked by a western button-down shirt, blue jeans, and a cowboy hat and boots. Moreover, as the ongoing host of the George Strait Team Roping Classic—an annual event that he, his father, and his brother had established in the early 1980s—he never abandoned his passion for the saddle.