Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/85445
The write stuff DIVERSIONS CELEBRITY CHAT Successful songwriter Gary Gentry finds second career behind the wheel. By Randy Grider Gary Gentry has earned two gold records for "The One I Loved Back Then" (the Corvette song) and "We Didn't See a Thing," and a platinum record for "The Ride," which also garnered accolades from BMI for a million radio plays. Other 1 Million Airplays honors for Gentry are for "The One I Loved Back Then" and "1959." 'The whole world calls him Hank' G ary Gentry may not be a household name these days, but in the Billboard 44 | Overdrive | September 2012 Gary Gentry's admiration for Hank Williams was the inspiration behind one of his biggest hits, "The Ride." And one of the song's most memorable lines comes from Gentry's brief encounter with Williams' widow, Audrey Williams. "I was a teenager and I was driving past Hank's old house in Nashville, where Miss Audrey still lived. I didn't know much, so I just stopped and went up and knocked on the door," Gentry says. "A maid came to the door and I told her I was the biggest Hank fan there ever was, and she let me take a quick look around. Well, there I am looking and Miss Audrey walks in. I thought she'd toss me right out the door, but she didn't – she actually showed me around a little. When I was leaving, I said to her, 'Mrs. Williams, thank you for showing me where Mr. Williams lived.' She smiled at me and said, 'You don't have to call him mister. The whole world calls him Hank.'" — John Latta contributed to this report.