Trading in his former image as alt-country's angsty troubador, Adams is now settled into a life of sobriety and domestic bliss with singer-actress Mandy Moore.

The North Carolina native high school dropout eventually picked up his G.E.D. while playing in a punk outfit called the Patty Duke Syndrome. He later formed the alt-country band Whiskeytown, which recorded a few classic indie albums in the late 1990s before beginning a slow descent into disarray, thanks to Adams's on-stage shenanigans that included heavy drinking, incongruous all-punk sets, and occasionally performing with a towel on his head. To no one's surprise, the band broke up due to infighting in 2000. Adams regrouped and released his solo debut, Heartbreaker, to great fanfare the same year. He followed it up with 2001's Gold, a slicker, more "rock" record. Since then, he's released a staggering number of albums, most of them hit or miss, and is considered one of the most prolific writers of his generation.

After a fall off stage, increasingly erratic behavior (caustic messages on journalists phones, flipping out on innocent hecklers), and a trashed career, Adams finally came to to terms with what had become an out of control junk habit. He's been clean and sober since 2006. Admitting that speedballs (a mixture of heroin and cocaine) were his method of choice, he credits his girlfriend at the time—fashion darling Jessica Joffee-with helping him get clean. Adams took more time off in the late 2000's to deal with troubling ear issues, diagnosed as the degenerative disease, Meniere's Syndrome, that had been plaguing him. After losing 50% of hearing in his left ear, Adams has found a way to continue his musical career. He released the album Ashes and Fire in 2011 with critics calling it his best work since Heartbreaker, and resumed touring in 2012.

After a year of on and off dating, Adams married Moore in 2009. They live in Los Angeles with their dog Joni (short for Joni Mitchell). Adams has previously been linked to a string of the usual suspects including: Parker Posey, Winona Ryder, Alanis Morisette, et al.

[Image via Getty]