Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/709236
40 | Overdrive | August 2016 T hree truckers who spend their down- time singing and writing songs have been invited to participate in Overdrive-Red Eye Radio's Trucker Talent Search fi nals at The Great American Trucking Show. Will Perry, Keith Snyder and Jason Lee Wilson will perform in competition at 3:30 p.m. Aug. 26 in the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in downtown Dallas. Truck driver and recording artist Tony Justice will emcee and provide musical entertain- ment. Immediately after the competition, Justice will open for the Friday night concert featuring headliner John Mi- chael Montgomery. A panel of judges will pick the Trucker Talent Search winner, who will receive $1,000 and a professional stu- dio recording session provided by AxleOutPro, a service that helps determine the best trailer-axle position for maxi- mum fuel effi ciency. The fi nalists were selected after online voting by Overdrive readers. Stay tuned to Red Eye Radio to hear interviews with each artist before GATS, Aug. 25-27. To see videos of each fi nalist's contest entry, visit TruckerTalentSearch.com. Overdrive-Red Eye Radio s Will Perry Song he submitted: "Coast to Coast" About the song: "I hadn't written a song in a couple of months, and I had never written one regarding the trucking industry that didn't sound cheesy, so I wanted to write this new one for the contest." Will Perry added singing to his music talents only after a night of karaoke in 2002. It was his fi rst time singing in public, and he didn't even have his guitar. After performing "Lady" by Styx, a man approached him about starting up a band, with Perry as singer and songwriter. He had never written a song or considered singing professionally, but he jumped in and never looked back. As for his fi rst song, he says, "I don't know for a fact that it was good, but I felt that it was my best." He's been writing music, singing and playing guitar since. Perry fi rst picked up the guitar in 1997 at age 27 when a work-related injury had him down for a month. "I decided I was going to play a guitar," he says. "I even signed up for lessons, but I only made it to one lesson, so everything I've learned has been self-taught, 100 percent by ear." Perry, 46, hauls hazardous chemicals as a company driver for Wayne Trans- port of Rosemount, Minnesota. Based in Farmington, Minnesota, Perry lives with his wife, Jennifer, and three children. He also has three grown children from a previous marriage. Other than caring for his family, Perry devotes his free time to hot rods. He has a 2007 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS that he keeps in showroom condition and takes to car shows when he's not behind the wheel of his big rig.