Kim Williams was born in Kingsport, Tennessee and grew up on a small farm near Rogersville. Although music was Kim's first love, his first vocation was industrial electronics, a job in which he was severely burned in an industrial accident in 1974. Ten long years and over 200 surgical procedures later he was finally well enough to pursue a career in music. He made his first trip to Nashville in 1984, and gradually bur steadily learned the songwriting craft, culminating in ASCAP's songwriter of the year award in 1994.