Sticks and Stones

With Edwards' assistance, Lawrence signed with Atlantic Records and began recording his first album Sticks and Stones. On May 31, 1991, before the album's release, Lawrence walked his former girlfriend to the door of her hotel room and was confronted by three armed men. The men robbed them and attempted to force Lawrence and his friend into her motel room. Lawrence resisted and was shot four times, allowing his friend to escape. Two of the wounds were major and necessitated surgery. One of the bullets remains embedded in Lawrence's pelvis.
Sticks and Stones, upon its late-1991 release, accounted for four singles on the Billboard country charts. First was the album's title track, which spent a week at Number One in January 1992. Following it were, in order: "Today's Lonely Fool", "Runnin' Behind" and "Somebody Paints the Wall." Sticks and Stones was also certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of one million copies. In 1992, he was also named by Billboard as Top New Male Vocalist.