Best known for his string of trucking songs,
Red Simpson was raised in Bakersfield, California, the youngest of a dozen children. At age 14, he wrote his first song -- about chickens -- and sang it to his family's fowl. During the Korean War, he served aboard a naval hospital ship, the Repose, where he found relief by forming the Repose Ramblers, who played any instruments they could scrounge up. He bought better ones in Japan and began to practice in earnest, and became a professional musician in California after his discharge.
Simpson was working at the Wagon Wheel in Lamont when
Fuzzy Owen saw him and arranged for
Simpson to work at his Clover Club as a piano player. He then got a job replacing
Buck Owens at the Blackboard Club on weekends.
Simpson was influenced by
Owens,
Merle Haggard, and Bill Woods, who asked
Red if he would write a song about driving trucks. (By the time
Simpson handed him four truck songs, however, Woods had stopped recording.)
Simpson began writing songs with
Buck Owens in 1962, including the Top Ten hit "Gonna Have Love."
In 1965, Capitol's
Ken Nelson was looking for someone to record some songs about trucking. His first choice was
Haggard, who wasn't interested, but
Simpson readily agreed. His first,
Tommy Collins' "Roll, Truck, Roll," became a Top 40 country hit and
Simpson recorded an album of the same name. That year he offered up two more trucking songs, both of which made it to the Top 50 or beyond. As a songwriter, he scored his first number one hit with "Sam's Place," recorded by
Buck Owens. After that,
Simpson decided to become a full-time writer. He returned to performing in 1971 with his Top Five hit "I'm a Truck," which had been written by postman Bob Staunton.
In 1972, he debuted on the Grand Ole Opry and had two more "truck" hits for Capitol. In 1976,
Simpson signed to Warner Bros. and released "Truck Driver's Heaven." The following year, he teamed up with Lorraine Walden for a series of duets that included "Truck Driver Man and Wife." In 1979,
Simpson appeared for the last time on the charts with "The Flying Saucer Man and the Truck Driver."
Haggard recorded his song "Lucky Old Colorado" in 1988; later that year
Simpson was diagnosed with skin cancer and underwent surgery, but he fully recovered and continued his writing and performing career. Featuring 14 new songs, The Bard of Bakersfield was
Simpson's first album in nearly a quarter century, arriving on the Windsor Music label in 2005.
Simpson died in Bakersfield in January 2016 from complications of a heart attack; he was 81 years old. ~ Sandra Brennan