Red Simpson earned renown through a succession of trucking-themed recordings after growing up in Bakersfield, California, as the youngest member of a twelve-child household. He penned his debut composition at fourteen—an ode to chickens that he performed for the family’s poultry flock. While stationed aboard the naval hospital ship Repose during the Korean War, he organized the Repose Ramblers, whose makeshift instruments came from whatever could be found on board. After purchasing upgraded equipment in Japan and rehearsing with greater seriousness, he launched a professional music career in California once discharged from service.
While employed at the Wagon Wheel in Lamont, Simpson caught the attention of Fuzzy Owen, who secured him piano duties at the Clover Club. He later filled weekend slots at the Blackboard Club previously held by Buck Owens. Drawing influence from Owens, Merle Haggard, and Bill Woods, Simpson received a request from Woods to compose material centered on truck driving. Although he ultimately supplied Woods with four such songs, Woods had already ceased recording by then. Beginning in 1962, Simpson collaborated on songs with Buck Owens, among them the Top Ten entry “Gonna Have Love.”
In 1965 Capitol producer Ken Nelson sought an artist to cut trucking numbers; Haggard declined, yet Simpson accepted. His initial release, Tommy Collins’ “Roll, Truck, Roll,” reached the country Top 40 and led to an album bearing the same title. Two additional trucking songs from that year also charted inside or beyond the Top 50. As a writer Simpson claimed his first number-one credit when Buck Owens recorded “Sam’s Place,” prompting Simpson to shift to full-time songwriting. He resumed performing in 1971 with the Top Five success “I’m a Truck,” penned by postman Bob Staunton.
Simpson made his Grand Ole Opry debut in 1972 and scored two further truck-themed Capitol hits. He joined Warner Bros. in 1976 and issued “Truck Driver’s Heaven.” The next year he partnered with Lorraine Walden on several duets, one of which was “Truck Driver Man and Wife.” His final chart entry arrived in 1979 with “The Flying Saucer Man and the Truck Driver.” Haggard cut Simpson’s “Lucky Old Colorado” in 1988; later that year Simpson received a skin-cancer diagnosis, underwent surgery, and recovered fully before resuming his writing and stage work. Containing fourteen new compositions, The Bard of Bakersfield marked his first album in nearly twenty-five years when it appeared on the Windsor Music label in 2005. Simpson died in Bakersfield during January 2016 at age eighty-one, succumbing to complications from a heart attack.
