ray hopper the show stopper
I was 17 years old in the United States Air Force when I started writing songs. I have always loved country music, mostly because the songs tells a story. I grew up listening to my favorite singer, Hank Williams, Sr., but I heard Elvis while in the Air Force and I was taken with rock and roll. Elvis and the Everly Brothers were my idols.
Two years later, I was discharged and I started up a rock & roll band. After 4 years playing in bars, being very religious, I began to see I could be led astray into wrong temptations and I was also afraid of fame and fortune. I quit the band after a New Year's gig and never sang or performed again until I retired from the Teamsters.
During my years of driving, most of my songs came to me going down the highway in the wee hours of the night in an 18-wheeler. I have written around 100 songs. After retiring, I recorded my first album in 2003 and in 2010, I recorded my second album.
I look up to Hank Williams, Elvis Presley and the Everly Brothers. My love of music has kept me going all through the years. Writing my songs, at times, would lift me off the ground and make me fly. To me, I was hearing the song words and music before anyone else. Even my own family had not heard, and did not know I had written all those songs until I recorded the albums. I am hoping someone will hear my music and be able to help make things happen with my songs.