Family members have confirmed that “Convoy” singer C.W. McCall passed away while in hospice care.
Bill Fries, better known by his stage name C.W. McCall, passed away in Ouray, Colorado, on Friday at the age of 93 following a battle with cancer.
Fries was born in Audubon, Iowa. After moving to Omaha, he joined the advertising firm Bozell & Jacob in 1961. While working for the company, he created an ad campaign for Old Home Bread that featured a truck driver named C.W. McCall.
The CB-lingo spouting character from the bread commercials was so popular that Fries, who continued to use the C.W. McCall alter ego, went on to record “Aforementioned Café” in 1974 and followed it up with one of the best-loved songs in trucking — “Wolf Creek Pass.”
Eventually Fries went on to write the classic trucking song “Convoy” as C.W. McCall, which topped the charts and inspired a popular film of the same name.
Check out the playlist below for some trucking tunes from McCall and other artists.