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Trucker Talent Search finalists to compete at GATS to decide 2017 winner

Updated Sep 2, 2017

Three truckers will compete Friday, Aug. 25, at the Great American Trucking Show to decide the winner of the 2017 Overdrive-Red Eye Radio Trucker Talent Search.

The performances will be held at 3 p.m. in a sing off style competition at the Truckers News stage in Hall A of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in downtown Dallas, Texas.

The three finalists, Michael Lochmiller, Terrance Mathis and Richard Woods, were selected by judges from a group of 42 entries.

Michael LochmillerMichael Lochmiller

Trucker and recording artist Tony Justice will emcee the live competition. The Everhart Transportation driver out of Tennessee has been an over-the-road truck driver since 2000.

The first-place winner, selected by a panel of judges, receives $1,000, plus a studio recording session provided by AxleOutPro.

Lochmiller, a company driver for System Transport, lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. He says is first experience with recorded music was C.W. McCall’s “Convoy.” He also cites other musical influences, including James Taylor, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Jackson Browne, and says he has recently gotten into the “guys in the Texas music scene,” including Ray Wylie Hubbard, James McMurtry and Gurf Morlix. A full profile on Lochmiller can be seen here.

Terrance MathisTerrance Mathis

Mathis, a company driver for Kloeckner Metals, lives in Rockford, Illinois. His interest in music is rooted in years of singing in choirs and other church groups. He started recording parody songs related to trucking and posting them to YouTube around three years ago.

“I do parodies most of the time and try to relate it to trucking so that it relates to what I do,” he says.

Mathis has been a trucker for 28 years. More on his music and career can be seen here.

Richard WoodsRichard Woods

Woods is an owner-operator leased to Eagle Systems. He lives in Hickory Flat, Mississippi. Woods, now 42, has been playing guitar since he was 13-years-old and has been writing songs off and on since he was about 20. He also plays in his church’s worship band. More on Woods can be seen here.

Registration for GATS, which will be held Aug. 24-26 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, is available for free before the show begins.

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