'Big City' Brian Wright

His “day job” is hauling cargo on overseas flights as a first officer for UPS (he will upgrade to captain this October). For two decades, his “night job” has been as a singer/songwriter in Nashville, writing and singing best-selling songs, albums, and touring. He keeps his Beechcraft Baron at John C. Tune Airport (JWN) outside Nashville. (By the way, the airport is named for the civic leader, not, as this writer assumed, for music. But calling a Nashville airport “tune” is appropriate.) Wright and his wife, Angie, take full advantage of the Baron’s capabilities, flying on their days off to the Bahamas and other locales. Just what the hard-working pair (she’s a commercial real estate agent) need for downtime.

“We like going places where there are no other footprints in the sand but ours,” he says.

In high school, Wright had no clue what he wanted to do for a career. His teacher asked the class who wanted to take an aptitude test and get out of class early. “My hand shot up,” he said. “The point of the test was to guide you toward career options. My results suggested truck driver and airline pilot. Here I am 30 years later, a sky trucker.”

Sky Trucker is the name of his latest album of “real country” music (his debut album was Honkytonkitis, the “way country music was intended”). Sky Trucker includes songs he says are “for pilots, by a pilot.” Wright got a Nashville air traffic controller to record the intro to the first song on the album.

“When I first moved to Nashville, I had never been in a big city before,” he says. “Lower Broadway in Nashville was a dangerous place, but the music was all real country, not at all like today. It was honky tonk heaven for me. But one night after being thrown out of a couple places, my friends said Big City Brian Wright, we can’t take you nowhere. From then on everyone called me Big City. Years later when I began recording, there was another Brian Wright, and everyone got me confused with this guy. So, I decided to use my nickname.”

Each month, Wright flies around the world in the “Queen of the Skies” to locales like China and Dubai. His Sky Trucker song highlights a job that starts “when the rest of the world is sleeping” and is his “ride in the sky.”

“It’s crazy when you think how many miles per year I travel in an airplane, like 300,000 to 315,000 miles,” he says. “My airline career provides me the time off to pursue other things and the income to not worry about bending my art to meet anyone’s demands.” [email protected]

bigcitybrianwright.com