West Virginia UPS Driver Makes His Musical Mark

Brown by day, blue at night.

These are the colors of Johnny Staats’ life. While the sun is out, he sports the brown shorts of a United Parcel Service (UPS) driver. When it sets, he becomes a bluegrass musician.

	Bob Wojcieszak
	Johnny Staats has ignored suggestions that he give up his job as a driver for United Parcel Service and devote all his time to bluegrass music.

Since beginning his career in brown at UPS’s Parkersburg, W.Va., facility in 1988, Staats has been the classic “musician with a day job.” Sorting packages part time for UPS straight out of high school, he spent all his spare time building his second career. Since 1998, he has been a full-time driver for UPS.

On March 14, his first compact disc, “Wires and Wood,” was released, attracting national recognition in the bluegrass music world — an irony he doesn’t miss. “When I finally got a full-time job, that’s when my music took off.”

The CD, which consists of six tunes he crafted, reached the top five on the bluegrass charts. “A couple of songs are still in the top 10,” he says. And now, Staats has become a curiosity — a successful bluegrass musician who won’t give up his day job.

People at work ask him, “Why don’t you just quit work and go and do it?” he says. But he recognizes that there are thousands of people standing in line in Nashville, Tenn., waiting for fame. And, he says it would be a tough decision to make. Quitting his job would be risky, a gamble he says he is not ready to take.

For the full story, see the Jan. 29 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.