Did you know that on this day in Country Music History in 1989 "Eighteen Wheels And A Dozen Roses" took Single Record of the Year for Kathy Mattea and producer Allen Reynolds?

It’s true! And Song of the Year as well, for Mattea and songwriters Gene and Paul Nelson at the 24th annual Academy Of Country Music awards.

Terry Wyatt/Getty Images
Terry Wyatt/Getty Images
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Here are 5 little known facts about Kathy Mattea.

  • Mattea was born in Cross Lane, WV, in 1959 and received classical voice training starting in junior high, but also took up the guitar when she discovered folk music.
  • She discovered her love of singing at Girl Scout camp.
  • She once worked as a tour guide at the Country Music Hall of Fame.
  • Mattea has been heavily involved in HIV/AIDS-related charities, beginning in the early 1990s, and is often credited with being among the first to champion this cause among the country music community. She is the recipient of the Minnie Pearl Humanitarian Award, and the Harvard AIDS Institute Leadership Award for this work.
  • Mattea currently travels the country presenting Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and speaking to crowds about the importance of fighting global warming and the environmental and physical devastation of mountaintop removal coal mining.

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