 After graduating from Vidor High School in 1986 , Walker began working at a Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company plant . At nineteen , he also began touring as a musician , playing various local clubs and eventually finding work as the house singer at a bar in Beaumont called the Neon Armadillo . In November 1992 , he was discovered by James Stroud , a record producer who was also the president of Warner Music Group subsidiary Giant Records . Walker signed to Giant late in the year . 
