I've been a huge fan of Stacey David's since the "Trucks!" TV show started in 1999, which coincided with the time in my life when I got my first truck and kick-started my automotive career. Every weekend I was an avid viewer of the show, learning as much as I could to help me build up my own truck and teach others what I had learned through my websites, print magazines, and now, my own show, MOTORZ. The reason why Stacey David is so appealing to so many people is because he is the "real deal".

He talks like an enthusiast while still being super entertaining, he's got a crazy imagination for building vehicles, and he does all of his own work on the show. During his career hosting "Trucks!" the show had the highest ratings of any how-to automotive show and was also Spike TV's highest rated show on their weekend line-up. I was fortunate to have met Stacey three years ago at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas. A few weeks ago I got the opportunity to sit down with Stacey and interview him... find out what makes him tick, learn what happened with his "Trucks!" departure, and get the latest on his new show, GearZ.

Chris: Where do you live?

Stacey: I live in a little town just North of Nashville, Tennessee.

Chris: Are you married?

Stacey: Yes, 14 years.

Chris: Do you have any children?

Stacey: I have two little girls.

Chris: How did you get started with TV?

Stacey: The first thing that I did on television (full time) was "Trucks!". I had done some commercials, but my background was building cars and trucks. I have been doing that pretty much my whole life. The first full restoration that I was involved in was on my sister's 1963 Volkswagen Beetle when I was around 11 years old. As a kid I was into go-karts, motorcycles, building models, racing Hot-Wheels, you name it... I was just eaten up with it. The odd thing is, I also started playing guitar when I was about 6 and I ended up being a professional musician for a number of years. That's how I wound up in Nashville. I was playing music and also building cars. I had my own shop called "The Rattletrap" and it was a custom shop because we would do pretty much anything to any vehicle. The interesting thing is, being a musician put me in front of cameras all the time, which basically ended up preparing me for being in front of cameras for the TV shows.

I had a lot of fun in the music industry, and still have a lot of friends involved in it, but I was ready to move on to something else. The shop had really taken off and automotive and truck stuff has always been one of my main passions. At this point I had already approached TNN about doing some TV shows but I didn't know anything about putting a television show together. They wanted to see a pilot, and I said, "a pilot? ... doesn't he fly the plane man?... what are you talking about?" A couple of years went by and a couple of these shows came out like "My Classic Car", and "Shade Tree Mechanic", so I knew I was on the right path. Then one day a friend of mine called me up, because he knew I was doing the car thing with my shop. He said "man, did you see Sunday's paper? There's an ad in the paper--they're looking for this host and mechanic guy to do a truck show!" So I literally answered an ad in the paper! It's funny because I do a lot of seminars and workshops at Tech Schools and places like that and everyone's always asking me "What are the steps you take to get where you are..." and here I literally answered an ad in the paper!

But... of course that is not really the whole story, the real answer to that question comes from something I learned from my high school football coach, Jim Koetter. He always said, "There is no such thing as luck. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity" And that is so true as evidenced by my situation. I had so many years of preparation building and restoring vehicles that so when the opportunity came up I was prepared with portfolios of Choppers, street rods, muscle cars, military trucks, a tank, Jeeps, etc. that I had done. They were like "Holy cow! You definitely are the mechanical guy. Have you ever been on camera?" I said, "well here's a TV commercial I did, and here's some other stuff that I've done on camera" and they said "you're the guy!"

The point is, sometimes you don't realize how you are being prepped... God has a way of preparing people to do things in life, and only when you look back do you realize you were being prepared for this very moment! The big question is, are you actually being diligent and doing something with the opportunity you have? Or are you wasting it? There's a lot of people that sit around and don't take opportunities to learn and grow and get better. They just sit in their comfort zone. Then, all of a sudden when an opportunity comes up, they are not prepared and they are left out, or don't get the promotion or whatever. Then a lot of them start whining and complaining saying "I shoulda... woulda... coulda" and nobody wants to hear that. When I walked in there, fortunately I had been to a lot of auditions, so I kind of knew what to expect so I didn't look like a total idiot. I knew the operation of making television from in front of the camera from all the videos and junk that I'd done. It was the stuff that happened behind the camera that I didn't know much about. At "Trucks!", that's where I learned the other part... how to do all of the production stuff.

Chris: Who is your favorite person to interview and why?

Stacey: That's a tough one because there's been so many good ones. Obviously it needs to be somebody who is passionate dedicated to what they are doing. Ted Nugent was a hoot for a number of reasons. He's very passionate about what he does, and when he and I get together you better hold on 'cause it's going to be wild! He's a great guy. I've got one coming up with Joe Gibbs, and I've got a ton of respect for him. I'm looking forward to finishing that one up. To just sit down with him and see what's made him successful... his take on life and his unique story, That's very fascinating for me and I like to share that with people. Parnelli Jones, Mario Andretti, Ivan Stewart, Jerry Reed, these were all great people to interview, and an honor for me to be able to sit down with them and chat with them. There are a lot of great stories and people out there, some well known, some not so well known. It's a lot of fun to dig into them, find out what makes a person tick, and the unique challenges and solutions that they came up with. That's inspiring to people. A lot of people will look at that and say "Wow! I had no idea that so-and-so hit those kind of challenges and overcame them this way."