If anyone has experience in Country Music, it’s George Strait with over thirty years in the industry dating back to 1975. He is also credited as having fifty-seven number one hits as of 2010, beating out Conway Twitty for most number one hit singles to date. He has several multi platinum albums with Pure Country going six times platinum and his CD box set Strait Out of the Box going eight times platinum! Strait’s music career didn’t become official until he started working on the family ranch and playing with a local band at nearby bars. Before then he married his long time wife and joined the military before an honorable discharge and enrolling at Texas State University. It was at a local bar, where he befriended the owner and was soon discovered by the owner’s friends at MCA Records and signed a contract in 1980. He has almost as many albums as he does years in the industry and each one is of consistently solid quality according to Rolling Stones Magazine. His thirtieth year in the industry, October 3, 2006, was punctuated with the release of his album, It Just Comes Natural featuring fifteen completely original songs. His title track became his forty-second number one hit in his career. In April 2009, the Academy of Country Music awarded Strait with their Artist of the Decade Award and it was awarded by previous holder, Garth Brooks. As of 2010, he is recognized by Billboard as the number one country artist of the last quarter century.