It's a long way from studying classical piano to country supergroup Diamond Rio, but Dan Truman made the journey - after getting a push from his mother into rock 'n' roll.
Truman grew up in St. George, where his mother taught piano at Dixie College for 20 years. She also tutored her son, who admits he thought seriously about quitting piano altogether at one point."Like any teenage kid, you get kind of burned out," he said. "So she said, `Well, why don't you start playing in a rock band?' She was pretty cool.
"Then she started taking me to teachers who would teach me more contemporary stuff - jazz oriented. She used to drive me down to Las Vegas every other weekend, and I took lessons from a guy on the Strip down there. And then when I turned 17 my folks let me drive myself down. So there was always extra motivation to stay in music."
Still, Truman never imagined that he might end up doing country music.
"No, not really," he said. "Of course, things change and trends change in music."
His first real exposure to country came at BYU, where he "was doing a little bit of everything" musically - including performing with the jazz group Synthesis and directing the bands for the Young Ambassadors.
"They would do pop and Broadway music and country," Truman said. "And in '82, I got an opportunity to audition for Opryland."
Talent scouts from Nashville come through BYU every year, and Truman got hired as a bandleader at Opryland.
"After a couple of summers in Nashville and getting a feel for it . . . I decided that's where I wanted to end up," he said.
At the Opryland theme park, Truman joined the Tennessee River Boys - the group that eventually became Diamond Rio. And even he's still surprised at how much success the group has had.
"You know, I just kind of went for it and didn't go crazy setting goals and all that kind of stuff," Truman said. "I didn't think it was going to happen like this."
What happened is that, seven years later, Diamond Rio became an "overnight success." In 1991, their debut single "Meet In the Middle" made history - it became the first time a group's first single made it all the way to No. 1 on the country music charts. Their debut album yielded five Top 5 singles, went platinum and set the stage for two more hit albums and a string of hit singles.
(A fourth album is due out in January.)
The commercial success also translated into recognition within the music industry. Diamond Rio has received five Grammy nominations, was named the Academy of Country Music's top vocal group in 1991 and '92 and the Country Music Association's vocal group of the year in 1992, '93 and '94 - and has been nominated again this year.
"We were bouncing off the walls the first time we won and we were absolutely bouncing off the walls the third time. It's like, you're Mr. Cool," Truman said. "You're a lot more cool when it happens the third time. You're just as thrilled.
"A lot of it is just being there in that audience. You're sitting there with every other artist that you love or you respect or you hate or whatever," he said with a laugh. "It's a pretty cool feeling."
It was even cooler when he discovered that some big-name stars knew who he was.
"Some of them are people that I really look up to. It's real strange to have Vince Gill walk up and say, `Hey, Dan, what's going on?' For them to know my name is just amazing," Truman said. "To have them sort of put you on the same level as they are is pretty neat."
Truman and the rest of Diamond Rio have achieved another level of recognition - they've got their own special on cable's The Nashville Network.
"Diamond Rio Celebrates Red Wing" (Wednesday, Sept. 13, 6 and 10 p.m., TNN) has the band performing 10 songs, and it's also tied to the 90th anniversary of the Red Wing shoe company.
"The whole concept of it was really cool - to go there to that city and kind of celebrate an American company that has remained true to American ideals," Truman said. "They tried to relate it to us as an American band.
"And it turned out real fun because we went to the factory and we hung out with these people. I got to meet the five or six four-generation families that have worked for Red Wing. They made it real cool.
For much of the concert, Truman is in the background at the keyboards. But the camera comes to him a couple of times, and he gets to move out front a few times.
He also figures prominently in a couple of the out-and-about Red Wing segments, including one that shows him playing the calliope on a riverboat.
Filming the special was at least a bit of a diversion from the rather grueling schedule the band keeps. They're on the road about 200 days a year.
"That's definitely the most difficult part," Truman said. "This is real fun. It's great to have a lot of people in the seats and they're screaming for you and your songs and every day can be full of a bunch of great things and everybody loves you out here on the road. But when you've got family back home, and they're sitting there taking care of all the everyday, mundane things that come up, it's a little hard."
Truman and his wife, Wendy - also a BYU grad - have three sons, ages 11, 8 and 5. The family may come along for a couple of concerts a year, but not only is it "real expensive" but "it's not fun for them, because usually our schedule is such that we're in one town one day and another town the next day, and we'll travel during the night. It doesn't set itself up well for bringing the family."
For diversion, Truman and a couple of the other band members pull out their "go-peds" (sort of motorized skateboards) and check out whatever town they're in.
"They're completely illegal, but every cop that sees us says, `Hey, where can I get one of those?' " Truman said.
But it isn't easy for Truman and bandmates Marty Roe, Jimmy Olander, Brian Prout, Gene Johnson and Dana Williams to go out anywhere together while they're touring.
"If I'm out by myself, usually no one says anything. If I'm at the mall, maybe once or twice, you'll get a couple of teenage girls who'll freak out or come up and ask you for your autograph," Truman said. "If it starts to be two or three of us together, then we have to be real careful."
The first time he was ever asked for an autograph it was in normally safe Nashville, just after Diamond Rio's first song was released. A young guy who was a "fanatic country fan" recognized Truman when no one else did.
"He was freaking out and wanting my autograph and everybody else was like, `Who's that?' " Truman said.
Truman is as accustomed to touring as anyone, however. After all, his tours with BYU's Young Ambassadors took him not only to various parts of the United States but also to Russia, Poland, Australia, New Zealand and India.
"When we used to tour with the Young Ambassadors, there were about 20 girls in the cast. Now I'm just touring with five guys," he said with a laugh. "I make a good amount of money now, but traveling around with a bunch of college kids was a blast.
"In fact, I keep in contact with those guys (at BYU) because someday - who knows? - I might want to go back there and be involved with them."