TRACE ADKINS BEYOND THE `BADONKADONK'.

Byline: Fred Shuster Music Writer

Country star Trace Adkins voted for George W. Bush twice and performed at the Republican National Convention, but even he believes last week's election results served the current administration its ``just deserts.''

``That's exactly what they deserved,'' Adkins says of the Democratic takeover of Congress. ``Conservatives like me didn't have anyone to vote for. These people haven't conducted themselves like conservatives.''

Along with most mainstream country acts, Adkins isn't known for outspoken political views. His most recent act of provocation was rather mild -- last year's hit ``Honky Tonk Badonkadonk,'' an ode to a woman who's ``got it goin' on like Donkey Kong.''

The 44-year-old Louisiana native and father of five daughters says he knows what his job is meant to be: ``I'm an entertainer. People are smart enough to make up their own minds about things. I really don't believe I can make someone pull that lever because of something I said.''

Saturday, Adkins headlines the fifth annual CMT on Tour package at the Honda Center in Anaheim (formerly known as the Arrowhead Pond), which also includes Billy Currington and Jason Aldean. He's back on the bus this fall marking both 10 years as a recording artist and his seventh studio album, ``Dangerous Man'' (Capitol Nashville).

It turns out ol' Trace -- who's up for a People's Choice Award at the Shrine Auditorium on Jan. 9 (against Kenny Chesney and Toby Keith) -- really was a bit of a dangerous man. The rough patches came when he was working construction by day and playing the Southwestern barroom circuit by night. He says he's been shot, stabbed, badly beaten and inelegantly divorced and has the scars to prove it.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently brought up the late country outlaw Waylon Jennings when considering Adkins: ``It's there in that rumbling deep voice and the thumping physicality of the man.''

Says the 6-foot-6, 250-pound Adkins: ``I learned it early. I'm not gonna back down from a fight. But I ain't gonna start none, either.''

Fred Shuster, [phone]

[e-mail]

TRACE ADKINS

Where: Honda Center (formerly the Arrowhead Pond), 2695 E. Katella Ave., Anaheim.

When: 8 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets: $42.50 to $55. [phone]; ticketmaster.com.

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While country singer Trace Adkins doesn't consider his music to have anything to do with politics, he does acknowledge the Republican Party's current troubles.