Overdrive

August 2014

Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info

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54 | Overdrive | August 2014 DALLAS SHOWDOWN Keith Sampson, 50, of Rhome, Texas, is origi- nally from West Virginia. He says his uncle gave him his first guitar and taught him a basic three chords when he was 8 years old. "I've been hooked ever since then," he says, and he now plays songs by ear. The GATS competition will give Sampson a chance to show off original work. He plans to perform at least one of his own songs, as well as his contest submission: Blake Shelton's "Boys Round Here." In addition to playing the guitar and singing, he also plays banjo and key- board, writes jingles and records in his home studio. Sampson and his wife, Vickie, once collaborated on a promotional jingle for Speedco, which they took to the lube and tire service company's booth at the Mid-America Trucking Show in 2012. Speedco liked it, asked the couple to record the tune and uploaded it to YouTube in August 2012. "You'll find lubricants, tires, yeah, we do inspections, too, at Speedco," Keith sings on the track, while Vicki speaks at the end about the rewards program and other store details. View it by searching "Speedco jingle" on YouTube. Keith Sampson drives team with his wife, Vickie, as owner- operators leased to Landstar Ranger. They haul sensitive freight with their 2014 Volvo. Jennie Simpson, 51, a dual citizen of Austra- lia and the United States, says her interest in music can be traced to her life Down Under. She learned the guitar, then moved to keyboards, but doesn't play much anymore. She loves the drums the most, but never learned to play as well as she would have liked. Simpson worked her way up the ladder at a bank in Australia until she was in charge of writing small personal and car loans and preparing mortgage docu- mentation. She then moved on to working as a law clerk for an attorney. "I had always wanted to see America," she says, and when an opportunity arose, she moved in 1999 and began driving for a New Jersey company the next year. "I began seeing America as I had always wanted to do," says Simpson, who became a citizen in 2010. While she took some time away from singing, she picked it back up and now is recording tracks that she hopes to release one day. "I enjoy most genres of music and try my hand at most," says Simpson, whose contest submission was "Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses." Jennie Simpson drives a 1999 Freightliner Century as a Landstar owner-operator, running a dedicated route to Toronto and Kansas. Driver-songwriter Tony Justice will serve as emcee for the Trucker Talent Search competi- tion and also will perform. "It's a great opportunity to meet other drivers with talent," Justice said in an interview with Eric Harley of Red Eye Radio. "There's so many drivers out there that are talented at so many other things than just keeping America rolling and driving a truck for a living." Justice's latest album, "Apple Pie Moonshine," was released in July and features the songs "Eighteen Wheels and Jesus," as well as "The Big Road," written by Trace Adkins and Chris Wallin. It's available for purchase at many major truck stop chains and for download via TonyJus- ticeMusic.com. For links to Tony Justice songs and interviews, search "Tony Justice" at OverdriveOnline.com. Justice will serve Tony Justice to perform at competition

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