Kimberly Schlapman

Kimberly Bramlett Schlapman (born October 15, 1969), also formerly known as Kimberly Roads, is an American country music singer and songwriter. She is known as one of the founding members of Little Big Town.

Early life Kimberly A. Bramlett was born in Toccoa, Georgia on October 15, 1969, and raised in Cornelia, Georgia. She has a younger sister, Paula, and a younger brother, Joshua.

Her mother, Barbara, was a kindergarten and second grade teacher at Demorest Elementary School, each for 15 years, which Schlapman also attended. Her father, Tolbert, worked for the telephone company. She began dreaming of a singing career at age 12. She also served as her senior class vice president, and was a member of her school's chorus group and concert choir. She received a music scholarship to Samford University, where she studied music. She was also a member of the Phi Mu Fraternity Alpha Gamma chapter. Schlapman worked as a waitress during this time.

Little Big Town

Schlapman met Karen Fairchild during their first week at Samford University on a bus to choir camp, bonding over both being from Georgia and mutual friends. They became close friends, even after Schlapman moved to Knoxville, and continued to sing together every summer at the Methodist Conference Center in Lake Junalaska, North Carolina. Fairchild had moved to Nashville in 1994 to pursue a music career. She is the author of a cookbook, Oh Gussie!, released in 2015, and a children's Christmas book, A Dolly for Christmas, released in 2020 about her family's adoption story.

Personal life In 1990, Schlapman married Steven Roads, a law student whom she met while at Samford University. Roads died from a heart attack at home in April 2005 at the age of 41, while Little Big Town was on a radio tour in Indianapolis. She became pregnant with their daughter on their honeymoon, which Schlapman credits as a wedding gift from her late husband from heaven.

Discography Little Big Town studio albums Little Big Town (2002) The Road to Here (2005) A Place to Land (2007) The Reason Why (2010) Tornado (2012) Pain Killer (2014) Wanderlust (2016) The Breaker (2017) Nightfall (2020) Mr. Sun (2022) The Christmas Record (2024)