In 1989 I was living in Bakersfield, California. I had just finished truck driving school and was working for my brother, driving a vacuum truck in the Kern County oil fields.

One day, I was reading the local paper, when I came across a help wanted ad. Someone was wanting a driver for a big rig truck to be driven in Europe. I called the phone number listed, and was hired for the job. Well, that job opened up a whole new world for me. I will never forget the cities I have visited and friends I have made.

Ken Harris -- 2001

The job entailed driving a show truck all over Europe and Finland on a four month tour. The trucks were owned by Tyrone Malone, who was a world famous trucker. Tyrone owned quite a few customized diesel trucks. He also promoted Bandag Retreads ( a world wide manufacturer of truck tire retreads).

Ken Harris -- 2001

Other drivers and myself, traveled all over Europe and Finland promoting Bandag tires. A fourteen piece western band from Texas also traveled with us called The Mack Abernathy Band. The truck I drove was called the "Papa Truck". Tyrone had names for all of his show trucks - the truck that I hauled piggyback style on the back of my rig was called the "Super Boss."

It was only four months, but it changed my life. I met a lot of people in Europe that I remain friends with today. Oh, what stories I can tell about my travels and sights I saw !

Tyrone spent 20 years on the road, 17 of those years promoting Bandag tires. He took the Super Boss to Australia twice, for big truck racing. He took all the trucks to Europe two times. Tyrone traveled all over Canada and the United States for 17 years with his "Bandag Diesel Racing Team." He was a legend in the trucking industry. His design of the Super Boss was brilliant. He designed and built that truck with his own hands. The Super Boss had a 1300 horsepower Detroit diesel engine, and was custom built. The truck was red, white and blue.

Tyrone also owned a reefer trailer which contained a 38 foot, 20- ton frozen whale that had been caught in the Pacific Ocean. The whale was frozen and was taken on the road to various cities where it would be set up for display. The truck that hauled the whale was a customized Kenworth called "Old Blue." The whale was known as "Little lrvy." Tyrone took Little lrvy all over the United States and Canada, and charged admission to see it.

Well, to sum it all up, Tyrone had always wanted to build a truckers’ museum. He envisioned it as a place for truckers to visit and a place to display his many beautiful show trucks, for all the world to see. Tyrone was excited about seeing his dream to build a truckers' museum become a reality. After three years of retirement and many attempts at finding a financial backer, he was finally going to have his museum! The museum was going to be located in Nashville, Tennessee... it would be called the "Trucker's Hall of Fame." It was definitely a dream come true for Tyrone Malone.

I talked on the phone with Tyrone and when he told me about his plans to retire his show trucks to the truckers' museum, I told him that I wanted to be the one to drive the Papa truck and haul the Super Boss to the museum.

Well, I never got to do that, because when Tyrone was driving back from Phoenix, Arizona (where he had been conducting museum business), he was involved in a fatal accident. Tyrone fell asleep at the wheel of his car and ran underneath a truck, of all things. The truck driver said he tried to avoid him, but couldn't.

According to witnesses, Tyrone Malone did two 360’s before he died. That is exactly what he used to do in real life. He would do 360’s in front of crowds, smoking his Bandag tires in front of thousands of people. He was quite a showman!

That was it. He was gone, and his trucking museum with him. I don’t know if the Truckers' Hall of Fame will ever be built. Tyrone's family sold all his trucks to the man he was in business with. The Bandag Bandit truck and the Smoky Bear corvette were sold to Bandag Tires.

Just Added - In Depth Interview with Ken Harris

If you would like to contact me, I would be honored to hear from you. I can be reached at ken@tyronemalone.com.