Bill Fries, an advertising executive better known by his stage name, C.W. McCall, who had hit country records in the 1970s about long-haul truck driving during the height of the citizens band radio craze and whose song “Convoy” inspired an action film directed by Sam Peckinpah, died April 1 at his home in Ouray, Colo. He was 93.
The death was confirmed by his son Bill Fries III. Mr. Fries announced in February that he was in hospice care for cancer.
After creating the character of C.W. McCall, a truck driver in a series of commercials for a Midwestern bread company, Mr. Fries (pronounced “freeze”) adopted the name as his alter ego and recorded several humorous, freewheeling songs about renegade long-haul truckers.
He had top 20 country hits with “Old Home Filler-Up an’ Keep On-a-Truckin’ Cafe” and “Wolf Creek Pass,” about two truckers hauling a load of chickens down a mountain:
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