Big Rig Banter – Episode 56 Transcript – What are the Best Trucking Songs to Listen to?
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Troy: Alright hello and welcome. The date is June 17th and you’re listening to the 56th episode of Big Rig Banter. I’m your co-host Troy Diffenderfer.
Lenay: And I’m your favorite co-host, Lenay Ruhl
Troy: And hey guys I just wanted to take a minute and give a special shout out to all the professional drivers out there. You’re the ones keeping America moving during this challenging time
Lenay: And Pilot Flying J wants to say thank you as well. To show their gratitude for all you do, they want to give you more rewards and more points. It’s called Push4Points, and it can get you to four points faster while you’re racking up those hard-earned miles. That’s right, you can reach four points per gallon after only six qualifying fills.
Troy: Push4Points is available only in the Pilot Flying J ap for a limited time. It’s as easy as one two three, and here’s how it works. Step one: push the activate button in the app at the beginning of each month. Step two: fill your tank with at least 75 gallons of diesel. Step three: sit back and watch your point balance grow faster than ever before. You’ll increase your earning level after each commercial diesel fill over 75 gallons, from one, to one and a half, to two, to two and a half, and so on. You’ll be earning four points per gallon for the rest of the month after six qualifying fills.
Lenay: And what can you do with all those points? Well, your rig’s not the only thing that needs a fill up, right? When you get hungry or you need a tasty beverage, you can redeem points for in store savings on the essentials as well as merchandise for you and your rig. And when you pull into park for a while, you can redeem points for a reserved parking spot and WIFI credits at participating Pilot and Flying J locations.
Troy: And again, from Pilot Flying J, thank you for all you do, drivers, and stay safe on the road! See terms and conditions at www.pilotflyingj.com/ap
Lenay: Alright Troy well I have some bad news, or maybe it won’t be bad news to you, but.
Troy: Uh oh.
Lenay: I did not come up with trivia questions.
Troy: No trivia at all?
Lenay: Nope
Troy: Our fans are going to be very disappointed.
Lenay: I was too busy traveling the last two weekends. So anyway I just like…to be honest, I just kind of forgot to come up with trivia questions AND you know I felt so bad about stumping you the last time, so I figured we’ll take a week off. Maybe I’ll bring them back again in the future if you really miss them. Maybe our listeners can weigh in so if you want me to continue trivia for Troy, reach out to us on social media and let me know and give me some ideas.
Troy: Alright, alright I guess that’s fair. Luckily I have a pretty funny story that like, just happened. I mean, I think it’s funny, everyone else might think it’s lame, but. Alright, so you know, we were just talking at lunch. I was bad and I went to McDonald’s.
Lenay: You’re always going to McDonald’s!
Troy: No, I’m not! I’ve been pretty good. I mean, now that I’m hooked on Cheeseburgers, not so much, but…Alright, so I was at Mcdonalds, like, in the drive-thru, and you know, I had my mask on, all that stuff. The guy is you know, taking the money, and he looks at me and he’s like, “Holy crap you look like Edge from WWE, I love that guy!
Lenay: (Lenay laughs)
Troy: For those of you who are not familiar, Edge is a professional wrestler, and I’m a huge professional wrestling fan. Lenay knows that. I’ve been over to her friend’s house for pay-per-view parties, but, that made my day. I’m riding that high right now, and I told everybody. I had to text my mom, I texted Lyd right after, like “Oh my God, people think I’m a celebrity.”
Lenay: I, I mean, are you sure that guy just hasn’t been locked up in quarantine for that long because you’re not even that muscular or…
Troy: Okay I was in my car so he only saw from the top up.
Lenay: Or you’ve just been hitting that McDonald’s too hard and you’re looking more buff than usual.
Troy: That’s true., it could be that, but, I mean, I’ve been recognized as like, some crazy celebrities which is just really funny. Like, one guy thought I looked like the lead singer from Nickelback, before. One person thought I looked like Johnny Depp from the movie “Blow.” Which like, I’ll take all of these compliments, I mean, my mom and Lydia will roll their eyes and think I’m delusional but, but I appreciate all of them.
Lenay: Right
Troy: I think it’s cool having a look-a-like celebrity.
Lenay: I’ve only ever been compared to one celebrity.
Troy: Who was that?
Lenay: (laughing) It was “Weird Al”
Troy: Nice, nice. I could see it because of the hair.
Lenay: It was not meant as a compliment when it happened, so, anyway.
Troy: But, that was a really cool thing that happened today and I’m very proud of my celebrity likeness.
Lenay: Well, I’m glad that you’re in such a good mood.
Troy: I am, and I’m in a good mood especially because of our topic today. It’s one of my favorite things to talk about and that’s music, but, Lenay why don’t you introduce our topic for today?
Lenay: Yeah, so I have been, like, every time I go on a trip I have to make a playlist for that specific journey and then I got to thinking about being a truck driver and how you would probably run out of things to listen to or always be looking for a new playlist to listen to while you’re on the road. So, I proposed to Troy that we make a trucking playlist for our listeners so if you want to listen to the full playlist it is available now on our YouTube channel. But each of us picked a couple of songs and added to it and I’m sure we’ll add more in the future as we think of some, but yes. So we put a little trucking playlist together. Some of the songs are directly related to trucking, others are just some of Troy and my favorite road trip songs and uh, yeah!
Troy: Yeah, and for anyone that knows me, you know I love talking about music and I love sharing new songs that I find. I think that’s the best feeling ever. It’s when you find a song or a band and you share it with someone and they end up falling in love with that band or falling in love with that band or falling in love with that song too. I mean, I always like, want everyone to just love every single thing I listen to and I think my music is superior, but I think a lot of people think like that. But, I think this is gonna be really fun and again, just do to copyright stuff, we can’t really play a lot of these songs, but we do have the playlist on YouTube, and I also recently wrote a blog covering some trucking songs to add to your playlist so that’s also another option if you’re looking for new songs. But, Lenay why don’t you kick it off? What’s the first song you’d add to your playlist?
Lenay: Alright, so the first song that I thought of. So, this is kind of weird. You probably didn’t grow up listening to 90s country music, but I did.
Troy: Okay, okay.
Lenay: And there used to be this song called “Papa Loves Mama” It’s a Garth Brooks tune and the whole song is a story about the dad who is a truck driver, and the mom at home having an affair, so it’s not exactly a positive.
Troy: Wow, you’re starting off strong.
Lenay: (laughs) But it’s the first one that comes to my mind when I think of songs about truck drivers because I think it’s the only one that I specifically could think of that’s actually about truck drivers. So yeah, you’ll have that one on, it’s a good ol’ fashioned country song. It’ll make you laugh, so definitely check that out.
Troy: You’re really setting the bar high for me, Lenay.
Lenay: Yeah
Troy: I’m going to go for a different genre and most people that know me, I’m more of a rock n’ roll type of guy if you couldn’t judge by you know, the hair and how I dress. I’m going to go with a classic though and “Highway to Hell” is definitely something I would add to my trucking playlist. It’s just a great song that keeps you energized and it’s rockin’ and it’s one that you can turn up and I had the lovely chance to see AC/DC live I would say close to 7 or 8 years ago and that was such a really cool thing. During “Highway to Hell” they actually had this giant blow-up train that slowly inflated while they were singing the song. You know, there was a female rider on top. I won’t get into any more description but that was definitely a sight to see especially as a 14-15-year-old. That was really really cool. So, “Highway to Hell” is definitely a song I’m going to put on my trucker playlist and that’s going to be one of the first songs I’m playing or a song that’s going to get me through the night especially when things are getting a little slow.
Lenay: Yeah, I agree. Believe it or not, I drove to Florida with my dad and AC/DC is his favorite band so we literally listened to AC/DC for like hours.
Troy: Nice.
Lenay: And hours on a straight-through drive from Pennsylvania to Florida so, I agree, AC/DC is great for keeping you awake on the road. Another song I thought of right away, obviously because it’s called “truckin'” was Grateful Dead. Those who know me know I’m a bit of a deadhead, so, I felt like that song had to go in there too. I don’t know if there’s any other Grateful Dead Fans listening but. Are you a dead fan? I don’t know if you ever really got into Grateful Dead.
Troy: I’m not a huge Dead fan. I mean. I think they’d be good to listen to on the road because isn’t each song like 7 hours long? So then you only have to add one song to your playlist just for one trip, so that’s pretty cool. I mean, I have a lot of friends who are into the jam bands and that kind of scene, but, I don’t know. I think I’m more of a lyric guy and being able to sing along. I think I’d get tired after singing along to a 12-minutes song.
Lenay: Yeah. I know I saw this meme on Facebook that was like “we’ve been in quarantine for the entire length of a Grateful Dead song.
Troy: That sounds about right but I can definitely see how that’s a really good trucking song. I mean the title is fitting, and it’s something good to play as background music so maybe you don’t want to focus necessarily on the music and the lyrics and singing along and you just kind of…
Lenay: I don’t know why you’re dissing on the Grateful Dead lyrics and the bouncy tune. I mean you can dance in your seat, you know?
Troy: That’s fair.
Lenay: Alright, what other songs do you got?
Troy: Yeah, another song that I would select, and this one’s kind of polarizing and it’s from a newer band and they’re called Greta Van Fleet and the song’s called “Highway Tune” and I guess the reason why they’re so polarizing is, if you closed your eyes, and you’ve never heard of them before, they’d sound exactly like Led Zeppelin, which I think is really cool, but there’s a lot of people out there that feel like they’re copying them or they’re just a Led Zeppelin parody band or something like that. I think it’s cool to have a young band like this that’s extremely talented, that, yeah they definitely sound like Led Zeppelin but it’s gonna get the younger generation into classic rock and that type of music because they’re not making music like they used to anymore or that frequently. So, to me, I think it’s an awesome band to add to your playlist. Like I said, if you’re into classic rock, I think you’re going to like Greta Van Fleet, even if they sound very very similar to Led Zeppelin.
Lenay: Yeah for sure. I love Greta Van Fleet and the first time I heard them, actually I think I was listening to the radio and the guy played Led Zeppelin first and Greta Van Fleet second, or something like that, but he played them back to back. It was really cool because you could hear the difference but they are very very similar so I think that’s an awesome band for those of you like classic rock to check out because they’re a newer band and they’re getting the younger generation tuned into old music which, let’s face it, the older music is the better music. Am I right?
Troy: I 100% agree and I think a lot of our listeners are going to agree with that statement too.
Lenay: Yeah, so that kinda brings me to my next song. “Going up the Country” by Canned Heat. Do you know who Canned Heat is?
Troy: I’ve heard of the band name but I could not, and I know the video on our playlist is from Woodstock which I think is also really cool.
Lenay: Yeah, so Canned Heat has a special place in my heart. They played at Woodstock and I actually got to see them live. I don’t know how many years ago but they, at the end of the show, invited me backstage and so I got to hang out with the band and party with them and talk to them and it was really really cool and they’re a bunch of older guys and they were just so flattered that a young person like myself was listening to their music. But, “Going up the Country” is a really catchy song and that’s my number one favorite road trip song to play. So, check out Canned Heat. I think you would really like them. They have a lot of other songs that you probably would recognize, too.
Troy: Yeah I definitely plan on checking that out and I’m sure some of our listeners are definitely familiar, some of our older truckers definitely have listened to them before. I’m gonna have a little bit of a confession. This next song is from a genre that not many people know that I listen to, but I’m actually a sucker for you know, these new country artists. So like, the Florida Georgia Line’s and the Sam Hunt’s and things like that.
Lenay: Oh my god!
Troy: Lyd will roll her eyes when I put it on the radio, and one of these up and coming artists is this guy, Jordan Davis and he recently just put out an album and one of these songs is called “Detours” and I’m also a sucker for cheesy love songs. This is like, a total country love song about this guy saying about all the detours he’s taken and finally met his wife or soon-to-be wife and things like that. I know, I send Lyd these kinds of songs thinking she’s gonna swoon and she’s just like, “why are you sending me these things?” But, I like it and I think it’s good for those hopeless romantic truckers out there.
Maybe you’re heading home towards your loved one and this is a great song to listen to while you’re out on the road. So, I like it and I think there’s other people out there that will appreciate it.
Lenay: Alright, well, as a single person I’m going to counteract that with a song that maybe you wouldn’t expect me to listen to.
Troy: Okay
Lenay: One I added to the list was Tupac’s “Bury Me a G” and, although it can be a little offensive if you’ve got sensitive ears, it is a song all about not worrying about finding a relationship and focusing on making money. When I did my cross-country trip one of my friend’s made me a mixtape CD and that was the first song that she put on the playlist. So, that song holds a special place in my heart and keeps me focused on not feeling lonely or left out of the sappy romantic songs and just celebrating working hard and making money and I feel like there are a lot of truckers out there who can resonate with that.
Troy: That’s true. I have to say I did not expect Tupac to show up on our playlist, especially from you but I appreciate it. I’m more of a Biggie guy but I appreciate rap from that era too. Just to round things off, the last trucker song that I would add and, I think we’ve all been there. Sometimes we just want to listen to a song that lifts us up. It doesn’t have to be a hardcore rock n’ roll song and fast-paced or anything. It’s just a song that makes you feel good, and that’s this one. Lenay you’ve heard me talk about this band all the time. I still say they’re one of the most underrated, unknown music groups out there.
Lenay: We saw them together, right?
Troy: We did!
Lenay: A few years ago.
Troy: Yes, we did. JJ Grey and Mofro. It’s a country, soul, blues, jazz, big band…I don’t even know how to describe it but the talent they have is so amazing and they have this song called “The Sweetest Thing” and he wrote it about his newborn daughter which is also really, really, really, cute.
Lenay: Awhh, I didn’t know that.
Troy: It’s this cool swaggering blues/pop song. It’s hard to explain it unless you hear it. I recommend a lot of truckers checking it out. It’s on the playlist and still has one of the most unique and soulful voices that I’ve ever heard and I could talk about JJ Grey and his talents until, you know, forever. So, I definitely recommend checking it out.
Lenay: Yeah, that’s awesome. So, I feel like between the two of us we made a playlist that has a good variety of music on it and hopefully for those of you listening who are music fans, we will have reminded you of songs that you love but forgot about and maybe introduce you to some new music. I’m definitely going to have to check out Jordan Davis when we get off recording here. I don’t usually listen to pop-country but if you like it, I’ll check it out.
Troy: I know. There have been bands that I definitely sent your way and you ended up liking, and we’ve even seen some of these artists together which is also really, really cool.
Lenay: Yeah, for sure. So listeners, what are your favorite songs to listen to on the road? Share with us on social media. We’re on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send us some of the songs that you like and we’ll add them to the playlist and be sure to go to our YouTube channel to check out the playlist that Troy and I created.
Troy: Yeah and as always, we really appreciate reviews whether it’s on iTunes or Spotify or any place where you can leave us a review, we really appreciate any feedback and you know, it’s going to help us reach out to more listeners and hopefuly grow Big Rig Banter.
Lenay: Yeah for sure. Anything else we’ve got to add today, Troy?
Troy: I don’t think so. I do think things are looking up. I think we’ll soon be able to see each other soon and have some social distancing guidelines but I think we’re seeing a little bit of normalcy popping up. I think that ‘s definitely encouraging especially as the weather is getting nicer and nicer. I think we need to spend time in the nice weather with people and not just cooped up in quarantine. I’m excited to see you and hopefully soon we’ll start seeing some live music together again. I’m definitely looking forward to that.
Lenay: Oh my gosh, absolutely. It’s just a few days away from summer. It’s getting hot out there so truck drivers, stay safe, stay cool.
Troy: And I think that about wraps it up Lenay. Once again, I’m your co-host Troy Diffenderfer
Lenay: And I’m your favorite co-host Lenay Ruhl
Troy: And this has been Big Rig Banter
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