Name: Gary Allan Herzberg
Birthdate: December 5, 1967
Hometown: Montebello, CA
Gary Allan was born Dec. 5, 1967, in Montebello, Calif., with the name Gary Herzberg. He was raised in La Mirada, Calif., and in his teens, he began to play the honky-tonk circuit. After turning down a record deal while still in high school, Allan eventually signed to Decca Records in 1996, Allan made his debut on the United States country music scene with the release of his single "Her Man", the lead-off to his debut album Used Heart for Sale. A string of minor hits followed throughout the late 1990s and into the 2000s, interrupted only by Decca's merger into MCA Nashville in 1999.
Allan broke through the 2000s with three straight platinum albums: Smoke Rings in the Dark (2000), Alright Guy (2001) and See If I Care (2003), the second of which produced his first Number One single in "Man to Man". To date, Gary has recorded seven studio albums and a Greatest Hits package, in addition to scoring ten Top Ten hits (three of which reached Number One) on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts.
In 2004, Allan's wife committed suicide. Rather than retreat, he issued the album Tough All Over in 2005, earning a Top 10 hit with "Best I Ever Had" and the best reviews of his career.