Jimmy Wayne

Jimmy Wayne was born on October 23, 1972, in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, and grew up in Bessemer City. His biological father abandoned him at an early age. He and his sister were sometimes raised in foster homes or were left with other people when their mother would leave them or go to jail. She served four months in prison in 1985 when Wayne was 12. After entering a county home, Wayne ran away and lived with his mother for a brief time before living on the streets and with his sister, Patricia, for a short while. He eventually moved in with an elderly couple, Russell and Bea Costner, (just down the road from where his mother was living), after being hired to mow their lawn. After finishing high school, he worked as a guard at the Gaston Correctional Facility, where he took songwriting advice from an inmate. He earned an associate degree in criminal justice at a community college. Af…