Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/748284
November 2016 | Overdrive | 27 bought it in a pawn shop in the 1950s and gave it to my dad when he was 9, so then I got it when I was 9. I learned how to play a song on it, and it hurt 'cause my fingers were small, and I picked it up again at 13 or 14." At that point, he began writing songs. "I've got a stack of songs that I wrote as a teenager that were modeled after The Beach Boys' songs," he says. "Girls, cars — they were cheesy, but they fit that age." A turning point in his songwriting came around age 17 or 18. "I had the desire to make music or to see what I could do (with the guitar), because I needed music to accompany the songs I was writing. I wouldn't consider myself a musician as much as a singer-songwriter." He played in a college band, the Cum- berland Runners, and gigs were steady. "We were playing pretty heavily for two or three years after college," he recalls. "I was making a conscious effort, and it was a priority, and then responsibility took over, and it got put on the back burner." However, thanks to contacts made during his senior year in college, his mu- sical interests took him on a long haul. Wilson was awarded a Thomas J. Watson Foundation Fellowship to study abroad Jason Lee Wilson and Aleksan- dra Bosnjak were in Medulin, Croatia, on the same summer day in 2009. Bosnjak was there visiting her aunt, and Wilson, on a brief European tour, was performing there at the Tear It Up!! rockabilly festival. They discovered the coinci- dence four years later, when Bosnjak was in the United States on a work exchange program. At the urging of a colleague, she went to one of Wilson's shows at a Harley- Davidson dealership. Bosnjak told Wilson how much she enjoyed his performance, so he offered to get her a CD from his vehicle. She waited a few minutes, and then a few more. After 15 minutes, she recalls thinking, "Why am I still waiting?" Wilson had opened the trunk, then accidentally locked his keys in the car. "He had to wait for a police officer to help him open the window, and when he came back, he didn't tell me about it, but I found out later," she says. Wilson and Bosnjak were married a few months later on Sept. 30, 2013. They spent three months in Croatia before settling in Maryville, Tennes- see, in April 2014. "Even though driving a truck is in my mind very serious, responsible and sometimes dangerous, he really enjoys it," Bosnjak says. "He has a great team of people that he works with, and he gives the best of himself to his job — the same with his music." THE SECOND TIME, IT TOOK After their wedding, Jason Lee Wilson and Aleksandra Bosnjak lived in Croatia before deciding to live in Wilson's native Tennessee. Wilson's Trucker Talent Search finalist com- petitors were Will Perry, center, and Keith Snyder, right. All three drivers performed original songs at The Great American Trucking Show, where a four-judge panel chose the winner. The grand prize included $1,000 cash, plus a studio record- ing session provided by AxleOutPro, which makes software that helps driv- ers easily adjust their fifth wheel and trailer tandem axles. Wilson restored this 1960 pickup for a friend. "I updated it to power disc brakes, swapped the three- speed transmission for a T5 5-speed O/D. I welded in new inner and outer rocker panels, cab corners, roof skin, inner and outer lower door skins, relocated the fuel tank, body work and painted it all up."