Born 68 Years Ago Today in Florida, the Country Music Hitmaker Whose Patriotic Debut Became a Rallying Cry for Gulf War Soldiers

With Independence Day coming up in the United States, country music fans have likely queued up their patriotic playlists. Likely, Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” and Brooks & Dunn’s “Only in America” make the list. However, one frequently-overlooked gem is Aaron Tippin’s 1990 working-class anthem “You’ve Got to Stand for Something”. Celebrating blue-collar values like standing firm on your principles, Tippin’s debut single rose to the top 10 on the country songs chart and served as a hopeful anthem for U.S. military members fighting the Gulf War in Iraq. But while “You’ve Got to Stand for Something” may have been Tippin’s first time on the country charts, it certainly wasn’t his last. Today, we’re diving into the country singer’s career as he celebrates his 68th birthday.

Born in Pensacola, Florida, on this day (July 3) in 1958, Aaron Dupree Tippin grew up on a farm in Greer, South Carolina, where he whiled away long hours of manual labor by singing and accompanying himself on the guitar.

Initially, Tippin hoped to follow in the footsteps of his father, who worked as a professional pilot before taking over the farm. But when the commercial airline industry took a nosedive, he turned to music for extra income, writing his own songs and becoming a fixture on the local honky-tonk circuit.

Aaron Tippin: “The Luckiest Hillbilly That Has Ever Lived”

In 1986, following the breakup of his marriage, Aaron Tippin did what many aspiring singer-songwriters do: He headed to Nashville.

Soon landing a staff songwriting job at Acuff-Rose, he wrote songs recorded by Charley Pride, Mark Collie, and David Ball before scoring a contract with RCA Records Nashville.

Shortly after came the success of “You’ve Got to Stand for Something”, Tippin’s debut single and the title track to his freshman album.

While the rest of the album didn’t perform quite as well, “You’ve Got to Stand for Something” caught the attention of Bob Hope. The comedian invited Tippin to join his USO tour in 1990, where he entertained the U.S. troops who were serving in the Gulf War.

That day, Tippin says, he pledged to do everything in his power to give those troops a better homecoming than the one Vietnam veterans received.

He has continued carrying out his mission of entertaining U.S. men and women in uniform ever since, once estimating that he toured Iraq “seven or eight times.”

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While “You’ve Got to Stand for Something” provided a solid foundation for his career, it wasn’t Tippin’s only chart success.

Three of his songs have reached the top of the country charts—”There Ain’t Nothin’ Wrong with the Radio” (1992); “That’s as Close as I’ll Get to Loving You” (1995); and “Kiss This” (2000).

“I’m the luckiest hillbilly that’s ever lived,” Tippin is fond of saying.

Featured image by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

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