Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/221538
T ony Justice's "Apple Pie Moonshine" album, which hits the racks at major truck stops this month, represents the fruition of years of hard work on the part of the 42-year-old singer-songwriter who hauls for Greeneville, Tenn.-based Everhart Transportation. Following up a 2011 effort well-received in the trucking world – his "On the Road" disc – "Apple Pie Moonshine" picks up where that trucking-heavy album left off. It includes trucking themes presented in foot-stomping romps, country ballads and radio-worthy gems. Over the years, Justice has worked toward a singular goal: "I want to have a No. 1" single. That's a tall order for an artist with no record-label affiliation. But if things keep going the way they have been, don't count him out. The writing and production on the best "Apple Pie Moonshine" tracks primes them to earn wide attention – if not in the mainstream, definitely among the audience Justice knows best. That's you. Justice's roots are in the Eastern Kentucky mountains, where he was raised in Elkhorn City, near the Virginia line. His father owned and operated "up to three trucks at one time" throughout Justice's childhood, hauling primarily coal and fuel. Weekend chores for him and his three brothers included washing and servicing the trucks. Fights would erupt over who'd get to move each truck when it was finished. The new disc's title track reflects his memories of the communities surrounding Elkhorn City. "Apple Pie Moonshine" is a paean to back-country square dances, young lust and homegrown good times. It's one of four songs on the 12-track album that Justice penned himself, and it was included on a sample disc during a fall promotion at Petro Stopping Centers. In 2000, Justice went over-the-road full time, but he never ignored the pull of music. From age 7, he played bass in his mother's gospel groups. He was "too shy then to get up and sing," he says. "I'd jump behind the piano and hide and play bass." His mother sang, played piano and Producer Jeff Silvey, left, and Tony Justice. Special delivery: Sweet sounds from Nashville studio The sessions for "Apple Pie Moonshine" began with Tony Justice and producer Jeff Silvey, best known for his work in the Christian pop and rock genres, at Ocean Way on Music Row. Other sessions followed a routine in which session musicians laid down live tracks as Justice sang a scratch (placeholder) vocal, then individuals came back and filled in parts as needed. Justice eventually laid down final vocals at County Q studios. Find photo galleries from his first two passed it all down to him. She's "one of my biggest influences," he says. In the 1990s, when he was playing rocking country, the 20-something Justice was fortunate enough to serve as one of the opening acts for the headlining Charlie Daniels Band at the Newport, Tenn., Forks of the River Jam. Daniels challenged him: "If you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that you'd never make it, would you still be doing it?" The answer was yes. Over the following decade, Justice never truly hit the industry's mainstream and remained mostly independent of record-label affiliation. In the late '90s, he was a regular act on the NASCAR circuit when he cut an album called "Rockin' Rusty," the title track inspired by driver Rusty Wallace, whose fans may remember the song from ESPN's coverage of the racer's farewell-tour appearances. Justice was working on a similar project for Dale Earnhardt when the Intimidator met his maker at Daytona in 2000. As Justice began full-time driving that same year, he found a muse in the freedom of the road and the drivers with whom he shared it. While driving for Southeast- sessions in the Aug. 13 and 20 entries on the Channel 19 blog, OverdriveOnline.com/ Channel19. Also, you can access Overdrive's sneak listen to "The Big Road" via YouTube by scanning the QR with your smartphone. Otherwise, find it in the Oct. 22 post on the Channel 19 blog (OverdriveOnline.com/ Channel19), with more photos from Justice's August vocal session at Nashville's County Q studio. based small fleets, he spent the long rolling hours mapping out tunes in his head, popping open his guitar case on breaks. On the new album, "The Big Road" best captures the infectious nature of trucking life for so many. Though penned by songwriter Chris Wallin with Trace Adkins in mind for a Pilot promotion that went another way, the track feels much of a piece of Justice's brand of trucking music – big sound and a catchy sing-along melody that'll have you humming the tune for a week: Daddy only let me drive on a dirt road Blacktop was off-limits way back then I remember that first day we hit that interstate That highway got up underneath my skin I've been rollin' ever since I love to hear those big wheels whine. There's a straight-up honesty to many of these songs – and those on "On the Road" – that has done more than anything else to keep the Tony Justice name alive among what's become his core audience: fellow truckers. Justice hears poetry on the CB – see the "On the Road" opening track "Peterbilt 379" – and isn't afraid to throw in a classic trucking cover song where warranted. Two such December 2013 | Overdrive | 23 CoverStory_Justice.indd 23 11/26/13 9:24 PM