R.I.P.: Bill Fries, C W McCall 'Convoy' Creator

Bill Fries (aka C W McCall) November 15, 1928 – April 1, 2022

Bill Fries, an advertising executive better known by his stage name, C.W. McCall, who had hit country records in the 1970s about long-haul truck driving during the height of the citizens band radio craze and whose song “Convoy” inspired an action film directed by Sam Peckinpah, died April 1 at his home in Ouray, Colo. He was 93, reports The Washington Post.

After creating the character of C.W. McCall, a truck driver in a series of commercials for a Midwestern bread company, Mr. Fries (pronounced “freeze”) adopted the name as his alter ego and recorded several humorous, freewheeling songs about renegade long-haul truckers.

He had top 20 country hits with “Old Home Filler-Up an’ Keep On-a-Truckin’ Cafe” and “Wolf Creek Pass,” about two truckers hauling a load of chickens down a mountain.

His best-known song was “Convoy,” which became a No. 1 country and pop hit, pushing aside the Bay City Rollers’ “Saturday Night” at the top of the Billboard chart in January 1976.

Fries wrote the words of “Convoy” and delivered them in a deep, fast-talking twang. The song helped popularize the lingo that truck drivers used over their citizens band, or CB, radios and is almost incomprehensible without a glossary of CB terms.

It was not the first song about evading the police on the open road. Chuck Berry had recorded “Maybellene” in 1955, and Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen had a hit in the early 1970s with a remake of the old rockabilly tune “Hot Rod Lincoln.” But “Convoy” came along when truckers faced rising fuel costs and a nationwide 55 mph speed limit, and the use of CB radios was becoming widespread.

“Convoy” sold an estimated 7 million copies and became an unexpected phenomenon, spawning Peckinpah’s 1978 film of the same name, starring Kris Kristoffersen. During the same period, Burt Reynolds’s “Smokey and the Bandit” movies were box-office hits, and the “outlaw” country music of Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson was gaining popularity.

“We always took ourselves seriously, but we never thought it would get as big as it has,” Mr. Fries said in 1975. “I’m flabbergasted by the success of ‘Convoy.’ It spread like a grass fire.”

Performing as McCall, Mr. Fries had five other top 20 country hits, including the sentimental 1977 ballad “Roses for Mama.” He sold about 20 million records before largely abandoning his performing career in the late 1970s.

Wearing jeans, a vest and a battered cowboy hat, Mr. Fries performed as McCall on network television programs, including Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show,” and headlined national concert tours.