Trace Adkins is getting ready to release a new album via a new deal with Wheelhouse Records, and the forthcoming music has been shaped by some of the personal drama he's gone through over the past few years.

The first single from the upcoming album is titled "Jesus and Jones," which will be released in January.

"That's where I am," Adkins tells Taste of Country in the run-up to the 2015 CMA Awards. "I've always been in that place. I started out singing gospel music, and then found myself singing George Jones songs in a beer joint. So you have this kind of struggle there internally between those two things. Sometimes I'm a good boy, sometimes I'm not."

Adkins had a rough start to 2014, beginning with a fight with a Trace Adkins impersonator aboard a cruise ship, followed by a trip to rehab and culminating in his wife filing for divorce. He says he's in a much better place now to process those experiences through his music.

"I've had plenty of time to document some of the trials that I've been through ... might as well sing about them," he reflects. "It seems to help a bit."

Wheelhouse is a new venture under the umbrella of BBR Music Group, which also encompasses Stoney Creek Records, Broken Bow Records and Red Bow Records.

"I've been working on a new record for the last couple of years now. I figured somebody would want it when I got through with it!" Adkins says with a laugh. "I'm really glad I ended up where I'm at ... it seems like a perfect fit. Everybody that I've met that works there, and all the artists on the label ... it's a good place."

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