While it’s a cliché, country songs often sing about trucks, among other things. Trucks hold a special place in country music, whether it’s the pickup you drive around the ranch or an 18-wheeler burning up the asphalt.
Here are some great country songs about trucks. It’s not the definitive list, as there are too many to put in one place.
“East Bound and Down” by Jerry Reed
Song Year: 1977
Jerry Reed recorded “East Bound and Down” for Smokey and the Bandit, a franchise-spawning road race romp with Burt Reynolds and Sally Field. The title comes from a typical trucker sign-off, and the song itself outlines the film’s plot:
- Load up with illegal cases of beer
- Transport them across state lines
- Keep ahead of the cops
That’s basically the movie—unless you count Reynold’s signature laugh and the chemistry between him and Field.
“That Ain’t My Truck” by Rhett Akins
Song Year: 1995
Rhett Akins sang this lost-love tune that made it to number three. The narrator tells of a woman he loves who knows she has to choose between him and another guy she’s seeing.
He gets his answer in a way no one wants: he drives by her house after the deadline she set for herself to decide between the two and sees the other guy’s truck in her driveway.
“Pickup Man” by Joe Diffie
Song Year: 1994
Joe Diffie’s riff on how great people who drive pickups are spent a month atop Billboard’s Hot Country Singles chart, making it the most successful of Diffie’s five number ones.
The song’s title (and the hook) use a double entendre, wherein a pickup man is a guy who drives a pickup, and a pickup man can pick up girls. Everyone knows pickups are chick magnets.
“Eighteen Wheels and a Dozen Roses” by Kathy Mattea
Song Year: 1988
Rather than a song about how cool the narrator’s truck is, Mattea sings a song (written by Paul and Gene Nelson) about a truck driver named Charlie. He’s driven a big rig for 30 years but is headed home on his last run.
The songwriters do a nice little countdown in the chorus—18 wheels, 12 roses, ten miles to go, a four-day run, and the one he loves.
All Charlie wants is to spend his remaining days with his wife, and in the video, when he gets home, he has those titular roses for her.
“Truck Yeah” Tim McGraw
Song Year: 2012
Is “Truck Yeah” a sophomoric goof-fest? Absolutely. Is it any less fun for it? Nope. “Truck Yeah,” even though Tim McGraw flirts with being a rapping country singer on this track, is still ridiculously entertaining and the kind of song that can pack a dance floor.
While it doesn’t take itself nearly as seriously as McGraw’s “Indian Outlaw,” it does have similar vibes. It extols trucks and the country lifestyle in general, and if farm life really were as fun as this song sounds, we’d probably have a lot more people living the rural life.
“Dirt Road Anthem” by Jason Aldean
Song Year: 2010
Speaking of rapping country singers…
We’re certain that the rise of this phenomenon coincides with the coming of the apocalypse, but it doesn’t seem to be going away.
While Jason Aldean doesn’t specifically praise trucks in this tune, the song tells of the get-togethers that happen on country dirt roads—parties that center around drinks, friends, shared experiences, and trucks because you probably had to drive yours to get there.
“Convoy” by C. W. McCall
Song Year: 1975
The 1970s saw a rise in interest in CB radios, which meant that people started paying more attention to the trucker lifestyle. Fictional performer C. W. McCall (voiced by Bill Fries) reached number one in 1976 with this spoken-word ballad about a bunch of truckers in a convoy.
Peppered with CB radio traffic, the song sounds like a few other country songs. It inspired the 1978 movie of the same name, directed by Sam Peckinpah.
“I’ve Been Everywhere” by Johnny Cash
Song Year: 1996
While Johnny Cash performed “I’ve Been Everywhere” as early as 1970, he never officially recorded it until 1996. But it started in Australia.
Aussie singer Geoff Mack wrote it in the late 1950s, and Hank Snow had a hit with it a few years later. It tells the story of a drifter walking the highway who gets picked up by a trucker. The driver asks his new passenger if he’s ever seen anything like this particular stretch of road.
The drifter’s response takes one-upmanship to a new level. Artists have recorded versions naming locales in New Zealand and the UK, and there’s even a Texas-specific set of lyrics sung by Brian Burns.
“Next to You, Next to Me” by Shenandoah
Song Year: 1990
Shenandoah’s number one hit about sitting with your girl in your truck being the best place of all stormed the charts in the early 90s and spent three weeks at the top of the charts.
When you drive a pickup, your girl sits next to you on the bench seat, not up against the passenger seat. This song is an ode to how having your girl in that spot makes you feel like the king of the world.
“Roll on (Eighteen Wheeler)” by Alabama
Song Year: 1984
Written by Kenny Loggins’ second cousin, “Roll on (Eighteen Wheeler)” tells the story of a truck driver who does what he does to support his wife and kids.
All he wants, during any run, is to get back home. The song paints a picture in which the highway patrol finds a jackknifed truck during a bad storm, and the assumption is that the family patriarch is dead.
At the song’s end, though, we learn that it wasn’t his truck when he calls home. His wife answers, expecting the worst, but learns everything will be fine.
“Drivin’ My Life Away” by Eddie Rabbitt
Song Year: 1980
This song put Eddie Rabbitt on the list of crossover country artists, as it had a big pop following. Still, Rabbitt is a country musician above all. The song has appeared in many commercials, films, and even a Volkswagen Golf commercial.
“Country Boy” by Alan Jackson
Song Year: 2008
“Country Boy” has the distinction of being Alan Jackson’s 25th number one hit. It’s also considered by many as one of the first bro-country songs—songs about trucks, pretty girls, and partying.
It’s a fun listen, but that can be said for most of Jackson’s catalog.
“We Rode in Trucks” by Luke Bryan
Song Year: 2007
Luke Bryan sings a song in “We Rode in Trucks” about how great it was to grow up in a rural setting. While people might ride in trucks in downtown Houston, it’s not the same. You don’t learn to fight, drink, and kiss the same way on Montrose as you do out in the country.
Bryan memorializes the good feeling of working on farm-related projects while the truck radio plays the soundtrack of growing up.
“Truck Drivin’ Man” by Buck Owens
Song Year: 1965
Terry Fell wrote and recorded the song in 1954, but Buck Owens (who played and sang backup on the original recording) had a hit with it in the ‘60s.
It tells the story of the life of a trucker—stop off for a bit, drink some coffee, play something on the jukebox, then climb back in the rig and get back on the road.
“Boy Gets a Truck” by Keith Urban
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vBIx-aUdJc
Song Year: 2020
One of the more expressive songs about trucks, Keith Urban’s “Boy Gets a Truck” lines out a causal set of circumstances: when a guy gets a truck, the truck does the work for him, and he lands a girl. Then, they get in the truck, drive to a secluded spot, and…you know the rest.
The boy and girl in the song eventually fall in love, marry, and presumably live happily ever after.
“Mud on the Tires” by Brad Paisley
Song Year: 2003
One of Brad Paisley’s number one songs, “Mud on the Tires” tells the tale of a man who gets the loan he needs to secure the truck of his dreams. Once he has it, he has to break it in, so he insists that he and his girl take it out for an off-road session to get it dirty.
Getting out in the country at night, the hope seems to be that one thing will lead to another. After all, there’s the mention of lying down on a blanket.
“Cruise” by Florida Georgia Line
Song Year: 2011
When you can tell a woman that your truck would look better with her in it, you’re using a pickup line that may not be the best ever, but it’s probably going to work. After all, as Joe Diffie said earlier in this list, there’s just something about a man who drives a pickup truck.
Florida Georgia Line might be on to something, too—the song spent 24 weeks at number one on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. That’s almost half of a year.
Best Country Songs About Trucks, Final Thoughts
You really can’t have country music without some trucks. Not every song needs one, but a lot of the genre’s music at least mentions some kind of truck at some point. These 17 country songs about trucks serve as a representative sample, but did we forget your favorite?