Saturday, May 9, is circled in red in Henk Wijngaard’s agenda. Then the Emmen resident finally gets behind the wheel of his yellow truck again. Everything in the context of three anniversaries: Wijngaard turns 80, has been married for 60 years and has been in the business for 50 years.
Wijngaard will end the day on Saturday evening with a special concert. Even though he has been working for 50 years, you never get used to something like this. “Exciting, very exciting. Live for an hour and for such a special occasion, I am nervous about it,” the singer admits. “I said if only it were Sunday, then it would be over.”
The concert is part of a large tent party in Nieuwleusen. But first Henk Wijngaard leaves from his hometown of Emmen in the restored yellow truck for Zwolle.
“The truck was rotting away like a tomato,” says 79-year-old Henk Wijngaard, laughing. Nothing could be further from the truth. The yellow truck with which Henk Wijngaard toured the country, caused a stir and performed was completely lost.
Until fans of the popular Emmen resident tracked down the truck, found the vehicle and even restored it. “They have collected all kinds of parts from several trucks to repair ‘her’. There is even a Michelin and a Tinus Tussengas figure in it,” says Wijngaard.
Henk started his musical journey with his truck and then the performances were a bit different. “I stood with the yellow truck on a square in Eindhoven. In the Netherlands, something like this was unique. There I performed with a power of 500 watts, the people at the back couldn’t even hear it,” the truck troubadour looks back.
After the breakthrough with the song With the flame in the pipe Wijngaard’s popularity grew throughout the country, resulting in several gold records.
Still, blood is crawling where it can’t go and so the trucker returned to the roadway. He went back to work as a truck driver, but in the late 1980s he returned to the music world. The return was reinforced with the song ‘n Snow white wedding dress. A song with an emotional charge, but this also caught on.
“I enjoy making everything blues, country, but also rap and reggae. It has been said that my repertoire includes everything and I like that everything is appreciated.” Although his music is known as trucker music, Wijngaard does not shy away from other styles.
Perhaps we will hear something about that again soon. The fans don’t have to wait long for new music. The singer will soon present an album with 17 to 18 new songs. So the Emmenaar will last for a few more years and that is a nice idea.
