The Naked Trucker

A comedy team that's part Tenacious D and part Blue Collar Comedy Tour, but mostly odd and charming in a rebel/stoner/good ol' boy way, the Naked Trucker & T-Bones are cult favorites who went big-time in 2007 when the Comedy Central network hired them for an eight-episode television series. Dave "Gruber" Allen (best known as the school counselor on the TV show Freaks and Geeks) plays the Naked Trucker, an easygoing hippie truck driver who lives by the credo "To truly be free, you got to take off your duds." David Koechner (seen in the films Anchorman and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby along with his recurring television role on the American version of The Office) plays Gerald "T-Bones" Tibbons, a mouthy part-time con artist and full-time hayseed who seems to know a little, but probably not enough, about everything. The two met while Koechner was starring on and Allen was hired to guest write for Saturday Night Live. They became good friends while working on the country comedy indie film Dill Scallion. Allen eventually invited Koechner to join him on-stage during his semi-regular gig at West Hollywood's renowned and edgy Largo club. That was 1997, and over the next ten years the Naked Trucker & T-Bones would sporadically appear at Largo and occasionally hit the road with their loose and casual show. Their friends Tenacious D did a surprise support slot at one of the Largo gigs in 2003, and a year later the Trucker and T-Bones returned the favor and opened for the D on a small tour. By this time the band had a cult following outside the West Coast, thanks in no small part to tape traders who electronically distributing live recordings of the band via the Internet. In 2007 Comedy Central premiered The Naked Trucker & T-Bones Show, which The New York Times declared was "like Hee Haw, only nakeder." Besides some skits filmed outside the studio, the rest of the show was just like their Largo gigs. Critical reaction was mixed, but fans who only knew the act through bootlegs loved the full experience. Right as the television show was finishing its run, Warner Bros. Nashville issued their debut, Live at the Troubadour, in both CD and DVD formats.
© David Jeffries /TiVo