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For me there was never really a
plan B,” says Sam Riggs, a rising country artist in the Zebco On
The Water spotlight. “It was just always this or nothing.”
2000 LBS
System Payload Rating
Wide Open Spaces caught up with Riggs, who just released his new EP Love & Panic, in Nashville. The emerging star talked about finding balance in an often hectic career — while fishing the Cumberland River, just steps from downtown Nashville.
Sam Riggs spent much of his upbringing enjoying the outdoors. “It was a real musical family, real rural family,” Riggs says. “Kind of grew up blue collar, so being in the woods and fishing was always a big part of my life.”
He learned a lot about fishing from his granddad, who was a preacher and fished “religiously,” Riggs says. As an artist who built his fan base by touring relentlessly, Riggs has seen a lot of the country. “It’s the most amazing job in the world,” he says.
And for an artist as passionate as Riggs, spending a little bit of time by the water certainly helps replenish all that energy spent performing across the country night in and night out. Even if it means just pulling a Zebco rod out from behind his seat and stealing away for an hour.
The truck already had a name for itself, at least on Instagram, where Pierce started @the_Pandra and shared photos (while gathering a good community of followers).
The Pandra vaulted into truck immortality when the fires started and Pierce took it upon himself to step up. He used his vehicle and his fortitude to get himself to safety on two separate occasions, then helped evacuate a local hospital.
Zebco Presents
On The Water with
Sam Riggs
As his town was burning around him, the truck was dealing with its own share of abuse. The melted taillight covers, the plastic that began to drip away, and the toasted marshmallow paint job are the visible scars that the Tundra suffered, but the integrity of the truck survived.
The only exterior portion of the truck that was virtually unaffected by the heat and the flames was the DECKED Storage System he had installed in the bed.
When DECKED and Toyota heard about The Pandra's story, they both paid back the selflessness with replacements.
The Pandra now sits in Toyota's Plano, Texas corporate headquarters as a testament to the toughness Pierce, his truck, and his DECKED system showed
that day.
Not only did DECKED replace the system for Pierce's new truck, but they also donated the amount of his first system to the GoFundMe page set up by his friends.
Pierce likes to think he did what anyone would do, and focuses on what's important. The Pandra helped him set up a triage station on the hospital's helipad, where he and his fellow rescuers watched the city succumb to the flames. Once his family was safe and his duty at the hospital fulfilled, Pierce became reflective.
He knew saving things like his photographs, written song lyrics, and treasured guitars was most crucial. Anything else could be replaced. What couldn't was the history of his town, the people who made it their home. Luckily, he and The Panda were there to help preserve some of that.
WRITER
Feature Image via ZEBCO
June 11, 2019
Drawer Payload Rating
200 LBS
WEATHER
PROOF
NO DRILLING
REQUIRED
SPONSORED BY ZEBCO
WOS HOME
DECKED TRUCK SYSTEMS
“
When you go and write a song,
you're not gonna have the hit song
idea right off the bat, and
you're not gonna catch the big
fish right off the bat "
GET TO KNOW RISING COUNTRY ARTIST CB30
“
“Fishing is like songwriting in a sense that it’s worth the time,” he says. “It’s a way of connecting with yourself. Even if you don’t catch anything or even if you don’t write a song, the time you spent, the quietness, the peacefulness, all those things serve as moments of re-centering and sort of regaining that energy that you spend out there on the stage.”
Wide Open Country caught up with Riggs, who just released his new EP Love & Panic, in Nashville. The emerging start talked about finding balance in an often hectic career — while fishing the Cumberland River, just steps from downtown Nashville.
Sam Riggs spent much of his upbringing enjoying the outdoors. “It was a real musical family, real rural family,” Riggs says. “Kind of grew up blue collar, so being in the woods and fishing was always a big part of my life.”
He learned a lot about fishing from his granddad, who was a preacher and fished “religiously,” Riggs says. As an artist who built his fan base by touring relentlessly, Riggs has seen a lot of the country. “It’s the most amazing job in the world,” he says.
And for an artist as passionate as Riggs, spending a little bit of time by the water certainly helps replenish all that energy spent performing across the country night in and night out. Even if it means just pulling a Zebco rod out from behind his seat and stealing away for an hour.
Wide Open Spaces caught up with Riggs, who just released his new EP Love & Panic, in Nashville. The emerging start talked about finding balance in an often hectic career — while fishing the Cumberland River, just steps from downtown Nashville.
Sam Riggs spent much of his upbringing enjoying the outdoors. “It was a real musical family, real rural family,” Riggs says. “Kind of grew up blue collar, so being in the woods and fishing was always a big part of my life.”
He learned a lot about fishing from his granddad, who was a preacher and fished “religiously,” Riggs says. As an artist who built his fan base by touring relentlessly, Riggs has seen a lot of the country. “It’s the most amazing job in the world,” he says.
And for an artist as passionate as Riggs, spending a little bit of time by the water certainly helps replenish all that energy spent performing across the country night in and night out. Even if it means just pulling a Zebco rod out from behind his seat and stealing away for an hour.