Born in Indiana on This Day in 1972, the Country-Rock Artist Best Known for This Steamy HBO Theme Song

First airing on HBO in September 2008, True Blood had viewers in a chokehold for seven seasons. Starring Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer, the show offered ample suspense, spice, and the supernatural. For singer-songwriter Jace Everett—born in Evansville, Indiana on this day (May 27) in 1972—True Blood also supplied a much-needed career boost when HBO tapped his song “Bad Things” as the Emmy-winning program’s opening theme.

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Jace Everett Also Wrote This No. 1 Country Hit

Moving to Fort Worth, Texas, at age 6, Jace Everett Beasley got his start playing bass and singing in his church youth group.

Reared on gospel music and the outlaw tunes of Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, Everett moved to Nashville after high school to attend Belmont University. Eventually, he quit school to tour with a pop cover band, but wound up moving back to Texas after getting married and having a child.

A series of odd jobs followed, as well as a divorce. Frustrated, Everett moved back to Nashville and signed with Epic Records. He released his first single “The Kind Of Love I’m In”, in June 2005, reaching number 52 on the country charts.

The following month, Josh Turner released the song “Your Man”, which Everett co-wrote with Chris Stapleton and Chris DuBois. Everett won a BMI Award for “Your man”, which quickly ascended the country music charts.

His Label Thought The Song Was “A Little Too” Much

Releasing his self-titled debut album in early 2006, Jace Everett fared less well with his own material. All three subsequent singles— “Bad Things,” “Nowhere in the Neighborhood” and “Everything I Want”—failed to chart in the United States.

His label didn’t care for “Bad Things”, calling it “a little too this, a little too that.” Everett included it on his debut anyway, but the album bombed. By 2006, he had lost his record deal and was floundering financially, making ends meet by playing bass in various bands. Then, he got a call from True Blood‘s music supervisor Gary Calamar.

Everett didn’t work particularly hard on “Bad Things”. In fact, he scribbled out the lyrics in six minutes to try to seduce a woman. Still, it’s impossible to imagine True Blood opening with anything other than the singer-songwriter’s gravelly vocals.

[RELATED: 3 Songs Chris Stapleton Wrote for Other Artists That Show off His Soft Side]

 “There’s nothing to it,” he told Entertainment Weekly in 2022. “It’s a synthesis of, what, maybe 20 other songs? The thing that’s unique about is the chord progression because of it being in a minor key. It’s just an old swingin’ blues-type thing that I put my own spin on. And that tends to be what people like: things they heard before.”

Featured image by Per Ole Hagen/Redferns