Dave Dudley

Dave Dudley reigns supreme as the one and only king of trucker's country music. The tremendous success of his hit single "Six Days on the Road" in turn beget a whole new genre of country music. Other trucker's country songs Dave did are "Truck Drivin' Son of a Gun," "Trucker's Prayer," "Anything Leaving Town Today," "There Ain't No Easy Road," and "Two Six Packs Away." Moreover, "Six Days on the Road" has been covered by such artists as Steve Earle, Sawyer Brown, Red Sovine and George Thorogood & The Destroyers. Born David Darwin Pedruska on May 3, 1928, in Spencer, Wisconsin, he grew up in Stevens Point. He received a guitar as a present from his father at age 11, but originally wanted to be a baseball pitcher. He played for the minor-league baseball team the Gainesville Owls. His budding baseball career was unfortunately cut short by an injury to his arm. Dave then decided to pursue a career as a country music singer. He worked briefly as a disc jockey at a Texas radio station and first began recording music for the National Recording Corporation. He had a few minor hit singles in the early 1960s prior to striking it big with his breakthrough smash "Six Days on the Road," which peaked at #2 on the country charts and cracked the Top 40 pop charts at #32. Dave enjoyed a steady stream of hits throughout the 1960s and 1970s. He recorded more than 70 albums throughout his career. Although his songs failed to chart in the 1980s, he still remained a popular concert performer in that period. He received an honorary solid gold membership card from the Teamsters Union local in Nashville (the Teamsters Union is composed mainly of truck drivers). His songs are featured on the soundtracks to the films Four Friends (1981) and Dominick and Eugene (1988). In addition, Dudley--along with fellow country music singer/songwriter Tom T. Hall--composed the score for the road movie comedy Deadhead Miles (1972) (Dudley and Hall also sang a duet on the song "Day Drinking"). Dave Dudley died from a heart attack at age 75 on December 22, 2003. Although he's sadly no longer with us, Dave Dudley's deep, rich, booming baritone voice and excellent and exciting trucker's country songs shall forever live on as long as there are 18-wheelers hauling freight all over the world.