By BEVERLY KEEL, The Tennessean

Trace Adkins has discovered that there's at least one difference between promoting a book and an album.

"I usually don't have to defend myself too often when I am promoting an album," he says with a laugh. "But I've had to do that a little bit with this book."

That's because he didn't hold back when writing A Personal Stand: Observations and Opinions of a Freethinking Roughneck, in which he discusses politics, parenting, fame and personal responsibility.

"I'm a conservative guy, but I think that I'm also an equal opportunity offender," he says. "There are some things in this book that will make conservatives wince when they read it too. I'm as frustrated with our political system as everybody else is, so I went after them too."

He reluctantly agreed to write the book after he was encouraged to do so by his manager. "Even when I turned in the last draft to the publisher, I still wasn't sure that I was going to allow them to put it out.

"Then I called Charlie Daniels and talked to him. He just said, 'Look, son, the people that aren't going to like this book, they don't like you anyway, so don't worry about it.' "

Trace wrote the book to answer the frequent questions he receives about his political views. "I don't believe the stage is the place to espouse those views," he says.

He releases American Man, Greatest Hits Volume II on Tuesday. "I'm just as surprised as anybody else that I made it to volume two," he says.

He is also one of the contestants on NBC's Celebrity Apprentice, which begins at 8 p.m. Jan. 3. "I did it to raise awareness for the Food Allergy Anaphylaxis Network," he says. One of his daughters has severe food allergies. "Not enough people are aware of how many kids these days are developing these allergies. There's something we're doing to cause this. We've got to figure out what it is."

Trace, who has five daughters, is expected to become a grandfather in mid-December. "It's a girl," he says. "I was hoping I would at least have a grandson."