Will Perry lives in Farmington, Minnesota, with his wife, Jennifer, and three of his six children.Will Perry is one of three truckers who will perform in competition at 3:30 p.m. Aug. 27 in the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in downtown Dallas for Overdrive-Red Eye Radio’s Trucker Talent Search finals at The Great American Trucking Show.
Truck driver and recording artist Tony Justice will emcee and provide musical entertainment. Immediately after the competition, Justice, who released his new album Brothers of the Highway earlier this year, will open for the Friday night concert featuring headliner John Michael Montgomery.
A panel of judges will pick the Trucker Talent Search winner, who will receive $1,000 and a professional studio recording session provided by AxleOutPro, a service that helps determine the best trailer-axle position for maximum fuel efficiency.
“I hadn’t written a song in a couple of months, and I had never written one regarding the trucking industry that didn’t sound cheesy, so I wanted to write this new one for the contest.”
Will Perry added singing to his music talents only after a night of karaoke in 2002. It was his first time singing in public, and he didn’t even have his guitar. After performing “Lady” by Styx, a man approached him about starting up a band, with Perry as singer and songwriter.
He had never written a song or considered singing professionally, but he jumped in and never looked back. As for his first song, he says, “I don’t know for a fact that it was good, but I felt that it was my best.” He’s been writing music, singing and playing guitar since.
Perry first picked up the guitar in 1997 at age 27 when a work-related injury had him down for a month. “I decided I was going to play a guitar,” he says. “I even signed up for lessons, but I only made it to one lesson, so everything I’ve learned has been self-taught, 100 percent by ear.”
Perry, 46, hauls hazardous chemicals as a company driver for Wayne Transport of Rosemount, Minnesota.
Based in Farmington, Minnesota, Perry lives with his wife, Jennifer, and three children. He also has three grown children from a previous marriage.
Other than caring for his family, Perry devotes his free time to hot rods. He has a 2007 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS that he keeps in showroom condition and takes to car shows when he’s not behind the wheel of his big rig.
