As a teen, country singer Mark Wills won a talent show at a nightclub in Marietta, Georgia, leading to a long-running weekly residency and, eventually, a record deal. ∙ Beginning with the gently swinging love ballad “Jacob’s Ladder,” 16 of Wills’ singles reached the Top 40 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart between 1996 and 2003. ∙ The title track of 1998’s Wish You Were Here was his first chart-topper, and the Platinum LP is his best-selling album. ∙ Wills was named Top New Male Vocalist at the Academy of Country Music Awards in 1999. ∙ His soul-tinged 2000 cover of R&B singer Brian McKnight’s “Back at One” was among his biggest US hits and also topped the Canadian country charts. ∙ And the Crowd Goes Wild, released in 2003, featured him duetting with Ronnie Milsap on his version of the veteran country star’s 1984 hit “Prisoner of the Highway.” ∙ Vince Gill invited Wills to become the 218th member of the Grand Ole Opry, and he was inducted in 2019.