Ash Bowers was eight-years-old when he saw his future. The crystal ball was the family television set, and the vision came in the form of a movie his mother had rented—Great Balls of Fire, the film biography of Jerry Lee Lewis. He was growing up in a working-class family in Jackson, Tennessee, and he would need a lot more than dreams to make it to the country music capital 130 miles east on I-40. Determination came with his sometimes-tough upbringing.

Read more about Ash Bowers on Last.fm.