Jimmy Wayne will open for Dierks Bentley and Brad Paisley at Cruzan Amphitheatre on Saturday.

When singer songwriter Jimmy Wayne was a teen, he scraped up $30 and bought an old Harmony guitar at a yard sale. That was a small fortune to a kid who grew up in foster and group homes. A kid who, when he was homeless, sometimes snuck into houses to steal leftover food. He had to — if he wanted to eat that day.

While in foster care, a social worker suggested writing a journal to deal with the difficult emotions that came from abandonment, drug abuse, violence and poverty. He still keeps one.

“I’ve been writing since I was 12,” he said by phone last week. “One-liners. Bumper stickers.”

One line became a poem, poems became lyrics, lyrics became songs, and songs became his salvation.

Music was a blessing, and Wayne liked to sing. It was something he was good at, that set him apart from other people in a good way. But when Wayne bought that guitar, he never imagined he’d have a house with a spare room and more than 40 guitars — not to mention a fistful of Billboard Top Ten country songs.

But one recently acquired guitar is really special.

It’s the guitar his friend and co-writer, Dave Pahanish, used to write Wayne’s first number-one hit: “Do You Believe Me Now”, which landed at the top of the charts in September of 2008. “I tried to buy that guitar from him and he wouldn’t sell it, so when he gave it to me, whew.”

Click here for the video of “Do You Believe Me Now”.

Wayne’s twisted path to country stardom took him over obstacles that most of us only see on television — or hear in a country song: Homelessness, violence, drugs, poverty, jail.

It’s a miracle that the soft-spoken Wayne turned out the way he did, but it boasts a resiliency that is surprising in its depth and comforting in its hope.

On his refrigerator, you’ll find these words by Horace Greeley: “Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, and riches take wings. Only one thing endures and that is character.”

Of his character, Wayne says, “I think it comes from that fire inside from when I was a kid. To go from living on the street to a stage performing for 20,000 people, there’s got to be more than just your own inner strength. Some days I want to just lay down and not get up but there’s something that makes me get up.”

That a man who was abandoned by his father, almost shot by his step-father and disparaged by pretty much everyone else still has the sweetness Wayne does is surprising. Is he bitter? No. Angry? Sometimes.

“I do get angry. People disrespecting old people, and not caring about their kids, that makes me mad, because that’s our future. That’s not just affecting you, that’s affecting everybody.

“I’ve been known to say stuff that shocks people, but I just think if you’re out there talking to these kids, you’ve got to get on their level. They relate to the truth. They know when you’re BS-ing them. They’re going to say, ‘You don’t know what you’re taking about. You don’t live the life that I live.’

“I tell ‘em I’ve lived on the street and I’ve experienced these things, and I know what it’s like. That’s where I came from. When I was a kid, I was walking in people’s houses and taking extra food off their table. I don’t have to go after the big prize, I’m happy to take what they left and make something of it. I’m always looking for the small stuff that people didn’t bother pick up. (Label head) Scott Borchetta’s the same way. I think that’s why we work well together because we’re not afraid to get down with a little magnifying glass picking up the little pieces and making something of them. He’ll take something that was overlooked and make it huge — Taylor Swift is a prime example of that.”

Wayne’s first hit was a twist on the usual sentiment of a lost-love song. Instead of “come back to me,” Wayne pleads, “Stay gone.” The song was inspired by his sister’s rocky marriage, a union that crumbled into domestic violence, and a conversation she and Wayne had.

“Baby baby stay/ Stay right where you are/ I like it this way /It’s good for my heart/I haven’t felt like this/In God knows how long/I know everything’s gonna be okay/If you just stay gone.”

Click here for the video for “Stay Gone”.

His next single was the lyrically perfect “I Love You This Much”, a song he never planned to record it, but it’s one of those songs that you remember where you were when you heard it.

“I wrote that song and I remember taking it home and putting the words on a lyrics stand. I didn’t even want to sing it. It sat there for a long time until my co-writer said, ‘Man, you gotta record that song.’ I did and I’m so glad. When you’re a kid and you’re in foster homes and group homes that’s how you feel. Alone. It’s a true story. But it’s a song that anyone can relate to; you don’t have to be poor to feel left out.”

He said “damn you daddy”/The day that he died
The man didn’t blink/But the little boy cried
Half way through the service/ While the choir sang a hymn
He looked up above the preacher And he sat and stared at him
He said, “forgive me father”/When he realized
That he hadn’t been unloved/Or alone all his life
His arms were stretched out/As far as they’d go
Nailed to the cross/ For the whole world to know
I love you this much.

Click here for the “I Love You This Much” video.

But after releasing his debut album, Wayne’s career began to fade. His record label closed and he lost his deal. But never a quitter, Wayne stayed on track and won the country music lottery for the second time, and landed a deal with The Valory Music Company. Labelmates include Reba McEntire and newcomer Justin Moore.

“I just have a good relationship with the music business,” he said. “There’s one bridge in this business and everybody crosses it, and I’ve been careful not to burn my bridges. You got to lay good ground-work because you’re going to have to walk on it.

“In the last 11 years, I’ve seen interns become major record producers. That is mind-blowing.”

Wayne will release his third album on Nov. 23. The first single is a cover of the Hall and Oates hit, “Sara Smile”. Wayne has always loved and wanted to record the song but no one in Nashville would touch it, until Wayne and label head Scott Borchetta agreed.

“I feel like for once in my career I’m living my dream,” Wayne said. “I’ve recorded songs that I’ve written and that was fun but I’ve always wanted to record ‘Sara Smile’. I don’t really know why you just love a song so much, you just do. It had a certain quality to it.”

It certainly suits Wayne’s voice. Another song Wayne is anxious to have fans hear is a song he wrote called “Elephant Ears”, “about a foster kid who finally gets a home. I wanted to record it before but it never quite fit.” A forever home is a dream Wayne has for every kid in the system. He found his home in the kindness of an elderly couple, Bea and Russell Costner, who opened their door to him, telling him he could live with them on two conditions: He had to cut his hair, and he had to go to church with them on Sundays.

“I’m doing good and it’s because of that family that took me in when I was 16 years old. Without them I wouldn’t be here. My sister just adopted a 3-year-old little girl. She’s constantly trying to give back and stay involved too.”

He and his sister are both very involved in the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program, because, as recipients, they know what it’s like. Wayne received the William Booth Award for Paper Angels, a song he wrote about the program. “The song generated so much momentum and it just created all this awareness. People got involved and got their hands dirty.”

Don’t expect to hear five ballads in Wayne’s 25-minute set Saturday when he opens for Brad Paisley. “You will know the show has started. It kicks off with a very loud, high-octane aggressive song. There’s a right place and a right time for those songs, but it’s not in this show. People want to have a good time and not be depressed.”

Truer words…