Mike Sheffield of Evarts, Kentucky, is one of the top 10 contestants in this year’s Overdrive-Red Eye Radio’s Trucker Talent Search. The Freight America company driver is a singer-songwriter and sent in his original “Two Sticks and Toothpicks” to the contest.
Sheffield was inspired to write the song as he reflected back on his nearly three decades as a truck driver. “I just wanted to write a song that reflects how older drivers may feel,” he says. It’s “a message to younger drivers about what it feels like if you don’t balance your life during your career.”
Sheffield remembers listening to the Trucking Bozo Show on the radio when he first started driving. “I’m proud of my trucking history and love to take truckers back to those Trucking Bozo days,” he says.
Judges will pick three finalists this summer. The Trucker Talent Search culminates in late August with an online broadcast of each finalist performing an additional song to compete for the top prize, which is a day’s recording session at a Nashville studio. The winner also will be profiled in Overdrive.
The online event will be part of Overdrive’s GATS Week, when major events that had been scheduled for the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas will be held as virtual evening events Aug. 24-28. More details will be announced.
