This is Part 2 of a series. Click here to read Part 1.
While Buck Owens and Merle Haggard were taking the Bakersfield Sound to new levels on the country charts, Red Simpson was busy introducing the new music to a different audience — truck drivers and those who listened to trucker country.
Following the success of “Roll Truck Roll,” Simpson released “Diesel Smoke and Dangerous Curves.” Unlike its predecessor, this song isn’t focused on a longing to be home, but rather the perils of driving on little sleep and navigating steep grades that have worn his truck’s brakes thin. Fortunately, at the bottom of the grade there’s a waitress with a hot pot of coffee. Simpson made sure to include the reference to a truck stop, one of the few places where truckers and the general public regularly crossed paths.
Throughout his career, Simpson continued focusing on trucking songs. His seven albums for Capitol Records include the likes of “Truck Driver Heaven,” an outtake on the old Tex Ritter song “I Dream of a Hillbilly Heaven.” He sang the trucker anthem “Nitro Express,” a song that told of the dangers of the occupation. He even wrote of truck drivers from the perspective of law enforcement, with songs like “The Man Behind the Badge,” “I’m Turning in My Star” and “Sidewalk Patrol.”
But trucking songs remained his staple, and in 1971 he released his most popular tune, “I’m a Truck.” It was his only recording to reach the Top 5 on the charts.
A truck gets its turn to tell the story
Listeners and critics of Simpson had always known him to be a comedian. They commented on his “pixie-like” quality — a man with red hair, freckles and blue eyes who played the bass, guitar, fiddle and piano.
Despite his rugged, Navy-built exterior and bulging biceps, those who knew Simpson recognized a tender soul who was always looking for a laugh. That’s exactly what they got with “I’m a Truck.”
The song looked at the trucker’s life from a new perspective. Rather than telling the story of a driver baring his soul, Simpson gave the truck a voice. Here was the hard-working partner of the duo, putting its own life on the line while making up for its operator’s mistakes.
As the song begins, “You’ve heard songs about truck drivers, many times their stories told,” the lyrics make clear that listeners are hearing a different type of trucking song. That opening draws immediate attention. “You’ve heard their tales of daring, and I think that’s just fine, but if you can spare a minute, I’d like to tell you mine.” And so the truck drones on, and audiences ate it up.
Recognition beyond the country charts
The song led to Simpson’s first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry and a Cashbox Award for Most Promising Male Artist. Likewise, Record World named Simpson its Most Promising Album Artist. He even earned an Academy of Country Music nomination for Most Promising Male Vocalist.
Non-musical institutions appreciated Simpson’s work as well. The California Highway Patrol recognized his attention to its efforts and named him honorary member after his recording of “Highway Patrol.” The Idaho Highway Patrol adopted it as its official song.
A songwriter’s legacy
Throughout the early 1980s, Simpson continued touring the country and singing his trucking songs, even after the trucker country music genre began to decline.
All the while, he kept writing songs. Over the years, many artists turned to Simpson for hits, including Johnny Paycheck, Wanda Jackson, The Byrds, Gram Parsons, Dave Dudley, Rosanne Cash, Steve Wariner and Alan Jackson.
Of course, Buck Owens and Merle Haggard relied on Simpson for much of their material, and the two recorded about 40 of his songs. Largely for that reason, famed musical artist Bob Dylan labeled Red Simpson “The forgotten member of the Bakersfield Sound.”
In the mid-1980s, Simpson cut back on touring and became a regular at Trout’s nightclub in Oildale, California. His career enjoyed a brief resurgence in the 1990s when alternative country artist Junior Brown asked Simpson to join him in recording duets of “Nitro Express” and “Semi-Crazy.” Brown, who sang a few trucking songs in his own right, never struck it big on radio, but he did record other Simpson songs, including “The Highway Patrol.”
A trucker’s voice — but never a trucker
In a surprise to his many of his fans, Red Simpson admitted late in his life that he’d never actually driven a truck. One sure couldn’t tell it by listening to his music.
Of music, he said, “It does beat picking cotton.”
Red Simpson died in 2016 following a heart attack. He is buried in Bakersfield National Cemetery. His epitaph reads, “Hello, I’m a Truck. Rest Well, Red.”
Until next time, show your truck some appreciation, and give credit where it’s due. Otherwise, you might unwittingly become the subject of a trucker country classic.
Since retiring from a career as an outdoor recreation professional from the State of Arkansas, Kris Rutherford has worked as a freelance writer and, with his wife, owns and publishes a small Northeast Texas newspaper, The Roxton Progress. Kris has worked as a ghostwriter and editor and has authored seven books of his own. He became interested in the trucking industry as a child in the 1970s when his family traveled the interstates twice a year between their home in Maine and their native Texas. He has been a classic country music enthusiast since the age of nine when he developed a special interest in trucking songs.
