Tony’s Tractors

We certainly had a little bit of rock and roll getting together with country at the Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race. One of the contestants who held the lead for a while was Rolling Stones keyboardist, Chuck Leavell (left), seen here with Michael Peterson.

Chuck is a central Georgia tree farmer where he and his wife have 2,500 acres. He’s the proud owner of a New Holland 2410. I asked him why he participated and one of the things he likes is supporting FFA, which he feels strongly about. As far as a celebrity tractor race goes, he thinks it’s the coolest thing in the world. When he’s not on the road rocking and rolling with the Stones, he says you’ll find him on his New Holland out in the woods.

He’s also a big believer in biofuels like biodiesel and has a special interest in cellulosic ethanol production. That makes sense for a tree farmer.

Listen to my interview with Chuck: Download audio file (cma-08-chuck-leavell.mp3)

Watch Chuck ride:

2008 CMA Music Festival Photo Album

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One of the celebrities competing in the Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor race was Jimmie Van Zant, pictured on the left with Michael.

Jimmie is a cousin to Johnny, Ronnie and Donnie Van Zant, deceased members of the band, Lynyrd Skynyrd. He’s been making quite a career on his own.

He thinks the tractor race is an excellent opportunity for artists and the public to interact and he really thinks it’s a great idea to use this venue to promote a biofuel like biodiesel.

Listen to my interview with Jimmy:

Watch Jimmy ride:

2008 CMA Music Festival Photo Album

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Mike Adams (right), Host of AgriTalk was the celebrity announcer of the celebrity tractor race. He and I talked about the Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race right before it got started. AgriTalk producer, John Herath, got this photo of us sporting our Frogg Toggs to keep cool.

This was Mike’s second year as the emcee for the race and once again he did a great job of keeping track of all the competitors and entertaining the crowd for an event that lasted several hours. Mike does tend to kid the competitors and I was afraid for him at one point when he made a sarcastic comment to one of the Tennessee Titan guys who drove in the race. Let’s just say he could have come up on stage and picked Mike up and thrown across the race track. But he smiled and waved instead.

Listen to my interview with Mike:

2008 CMA Music Festival Photo Album

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My latest road trip ended at the Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race in Nashville, TN. So this week’s program has been produced there and includes an event wrap-up with Michael.

Michael Peterson has become a good friend after I’ve had so many opportunities to work with him since this event started 3 years ago. Today he got the crowd fired up as they enjoyed the competition and seeing some of their favorite artists get up on a tractor and for the most part, do real well.

Michael got on the tractor himself at one point so I recorded that so you can watch him drive. I think his time was actually the fastest but he can’t win.

Special thanks go out to not only Michael but also Gene Hemphill and Dawn Fox at New Holland as well as Holly Fritz at H.B. Fritz & Associates who did so much work to put this event on.

You can download and listen to the ZimmCast here: ZimmCast 174 (8 min MP3)

Or listen to this week’s ZimmCast right now:

2008 CMA Music Festival Photo Album

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Joe Jobe, CEO of the National Biodiesel Board (left) and Chuck Leavell, keyboardist for the Rolling Stones (right) were two of the competitors out here at the Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race today.

I spoke to both of them before their competition runs and will post my interview with Chuck later. In this post you can watch Joe give it all he had this year, which was good but just a tad short. I’m betting he’ll be back though. He really commends Michael Peterson for being such an advocate for renewable fuels like biodiesel (the tractor was running on B20) and also New Holland for their support. He says that this country music audience is a great one to expose to the message.

Listen to my interview with Joe:

Watch Joe ride:

2008 CMA Music Festival Photo Album

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The winner of the 2008 Michael Peterson/New Holland Celebrity Tractor Race is Darby Ledbetter with a time of 47 seconds. He pretty much blew away the competition. Here’s Darby on the New Holland tractor with Michael Peterson (left).

I interviewed Darby right afterward and he was still pretty excited about his win. He’s a National Guard supporter and really appreciates what Micheal Peterson and New Holland and the Army have done to support our troops.

I’m not sure the final count for contestants of today’s race but there were a lot and we were all glad that it was under a tent with the extreme heat. That made it a little challenging for us photographers though.

Listen to Darby the race winner here:

2008 CMA Music Festival Photo Album

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Laura posted a video clip with Dustin Delp, seated on the right, the other day at the start of the CMA Music Fest parade. Today I sat down with him at the New Holland booth where he and other FFA members are helping out.

It’s a great project and some of the ones here this year were also here last year.

We talked about his chapter and what he thinks of Fan Fair. He’s ready to come back:

2008 CMA Music Festival Photo Album

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The first band on the Chevy Music Stage this morning here at Fan Fair was Michael Peterson’s. He attracted a big crowd. The seats were filled and people gravitated there since you could hear the music up and down the street. Last year Michael performed on the Riverfront Stage.

I recorded a video clip of the band performing “Marriage is the Leading Cause of Divorce” which you can watch here:

You can also watch Michael talk about the song on his website.

2008 CMA Music Festival Photo Album

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I’ve tag teamed with Laura McNamara, seen here busily agriblogging, at the CMA Music Fest where we’ve got some global warming going on. Thank goodness for air conditioning since it’s about 92 degrees out.

I think Laura’s done a great job this week here and you’ll be seeing her covering a number of other events during the coming months.

I spoke with Cindy a little while ago and I think she’s wrapping up her coverage of the World Pork Expo. We sure appreciate Novus International sponsoring her coverage.

2008 CMA Music Festival Photo Album

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The line at singer/songwriter Michael Peterson’s CMA Music Festival exhibit remained long and steady. That’s because unlike most artists, Michael stayed around all day signing autographs, doling out hugs and smiling for pictures with fans. Michael says connecting with people is what events like these are all about and he looks forward to seeing familiar faces each year.

I grabbed some videos with Michael talking about fans and handing out autographs. You can watch the videos here:

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