Country & gospel star Leon Everette performs at GATS

Fans of country music of an earlier time ought to enjoy a trip to the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas next week.

Among the many musicians performing during the show that runs Thursday Aug. 22 to Saturday, Aug. 24 is Leon Everette, who had several singles that moved up the charts in the early 1980s. Everette performs Saturday evening at the TA-Petro Truck Parking Community, located at the Cotton Bowl’s Fair Park. He’ll also play and meet fans Friday, Aug. 23 at the Red Eye Radio lobby booth and possibly other show sites.

Leon EveretteLeon Everette

GATS will be held at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in downtown Dallas. You can register for free admission online.

Everette, 71, had chart success with singles including “Over”, “Giving Up Easy”, “Hurricane”, “Midnight Rodeo”, “Just Give Me What You Think Is Fair”, “Soul Searchin'”, “My Lady Loves Me (Just as I Am)” and “I Could’a Had You”. He’s also known for albums like “Hurricane” and “Give Me What You Think Is Fair.” In addition to the gospel music he’s performed in recent years, he’s booked to act in two upcoming movies.

Everette, who got his singing start by winning a contest in the Navy during Vietnam, was invited to perform at gats thanks to trucker and singer Bill Weaver. Everette found a Facebook video of Weaver performing and the two connected.

In September, production will begin on “Dad,” a movie where he will play an aged, former boxing champ. He says Netflix has expressed interest in acquiring rights to it.

In “The Robert Smalls Story” movie biopic, Everette will play the owner of Robert Smalls, who was a slave in South Carolina. Smalls freed himself and others by commandeering a Confederate ship during the Civil War. After the war, he was elected as a Republican to the South Carolina State legislature.