Audrey Faith Perry was born September 21, 1967, in Jackson, Mississippi, to parents Ted and Edna. She is a daughter of a factory worker and a former bank employee.

Hill is adopted and met her biological mother in the early 1990s. She was married to a music executive named Dan Hill from 1988 to 1994. Working as a secretary in a music publishing company, Hill's singing was noticed as she sang to herself one day. Faith took her singing abilities to family reunions and gatherings, local rodeos and fairs, church, school, wherever she had an audience.

At 19, she quit college and moved to Nashville to make it as a singer, first finding work selling T-shirts. During this time, she was married briefly to music executive Dan Hill. Eventually she was hired as a secretary at a music publishing firm, where she was discovered by accident while singing to herself one day.

Signed with Warner Brother Records, Faith's first album, entitled Take Me As I Am, which was released in 1993, sold 2 million copies and spawned such number one hits as "Wild One" (her debut country single) and a rendition of rocker Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart".

Hill's fame grew rapidly as she signed an endorsement deal with CoverGirl makeup and released Breathe, an even more successful pop hit that became one of the biggest albums of 2000.

In 2002, Hill returned to the spotlight with her fifth studio recording, Cry. That album's title track netted the Best Female Vocal Performance Grammy for 2003. Hill took nearly three years to return to recording, but when Fireflies was released in August 2005 it was hailed as some of her finest work. The lead single "Mississippi Girl" -- written by John Rich of the hit country duo Big & Rich -- debuted in the top 5 of Billboard's country singles chart. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide...