When students in the Newberg Public Schools say their bus driver is a rock star, they aren’t lying.
Because if you are a student on driver Brian Allen’s routes, you may or may not know about his “side” gig. Allen, a driver with Newberg since the early 2000s, has developed an international reputation from his work as the lead singer of the San Francisco-based thrash metal band, Trauma.
“I don’t really share that too much,” Allen said just hours before he was to embark on a seven-week, nationwide tour with the band. “Even with my friends and relationships in the music business, I don’t really share that I drive school buses for a living, or that I sing in a metal band. But it does get out. The kids will connect the dots.”
Bobbi Richlick, Location Manager for First Student, has worked with Brian for years. She smiles when she talks of her friend, this mild-mannered metal monster.
“It’s so funny, you have parents who take one look at him and right away they are skeptical,” Richlick said, They say, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m putting my kid on a bus with him???’ But then they get to know him and they see how he treats the kids, and that he has a heart of gold.”
Even Richlick, who Allen affectionately calls “Boss,” is impressed with Allen’s professional, yet personal, approach on the road.
“He knows just about every kid on his route by name,” she said. “He knows all of the elementary students’ names. He cares about them. If he sees something going on that needs to be addressed about a student, he will speak up. He wants the best for the kids. They are his kids.”
Before you strike up images of a blue haired Otto, iconic radical bus driver dude on The Simpsons, just stop. Allen is no cartoon character on this metal circuit. With Trauma, he is headliner material, where he’s just as serious about his music career as he is about driving precious young students to school every day. He was raised in nearby Forest Grove, Oregon, and he is a proud Army veteran. He often runs his school bus like a basic training unit at times.
“He believes in the process and follows the tight rules we have for our drivers. The community should have confidence when he’s out on our road. Parents should have complete confidence their children are being taken care of when they are with Brian,” Richlick said.
This 2023 tour is an important one for his band.Trauma will be opening for Queensryche, a metal band that achieved popularity in the 90s with hits such as “Silent Lucidity,” “Jet City Woman,” and “Empire,” among others. In all, Trauma will play 31 dates on the tour, which opens in Orlando, Florida, and ends after a 1,600 mile jaunt across the US, landing back in Tampa/St. Petersburg for the tour’s end. He’s excited for the opportunity to grow the band in the States.
Trauma, while having a loyal following in Europe and overseas, is working to achieve the same level of commercial success here in the States, as it enjoys elsewhere.
Talking with Allen is like living through a thrash metal song in itself. He drops names like 15-pound hammers, nonchalantly mentioning names like Todd LeTorre, lead singer of the band Queensryche, as one of his closest friends in the business. His stories come a mile-a-minute and in a bizarre fashion they center around metal legends Rob Halford (Judas Priest); Cliff Burton (late of Metallica, original member of Trauma), the guys from Slayer, Dave Mustaine, and many more. A personal thrill from him was meeting one of his idols, Mr. Heavy Metal himself, Ronnie James Dio, when he first started out with Trauma..
A mutual friend in the business knew Dio, and had worked with him in the past. He invited Brian to an event, where Dio was headlining. After the show, Allen went to the meet-and-greet with Dio. He’d been a huge fan from the moment he heard Dio belt out “Man On The Silver Mountain” with Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow.
“We walked into the room, and we saw him down there talking with a group of people. As soon as he locked eyes with (my colleague), Dio came over. I was shaking. It was very cool. A very cool experience,” Allen said, still reeling a little over the level of awesome of that meeting.
Trauma has been shooting up the metal charts for several years. The band originally formed in California’s Bay Area in 1980, which was a crucial year for metal music, the band’s website states. “It was within that fertile musical climate that Trauma developed a sound evoking the electric energy in the air around them.” Singer Donny Hillier consumed a steady diet of Zeppelin and Sabbath and shared a love of Priest and Maiden with guitarist Mike Overton. And of course there was Trauma’s legendary early bassist, Burton.
Burton’s is a name metalheads know well. He started out in Trauma before moving on to become part of Metallica. He later tragically died in a tour bus accident in Sweden in 1986.
The chance to sign with the band that held Burton’s legacy was so personally huge for Brian. He was asked to audition by a mutual friend in the business. This came after he sang at a 20-year reunion for a band called Malice. Their lead singer, James Neal, declined to participate. That opened the door for Allen to unleash his rage on the stage. He was later invited to join Trauma.
“They asked me to do it and that’s how I got into it,” he said. “I met Jeff Thorpe from the band Vicious Rumors, and that’s how I started meeting all these bands and developing these relationships all over the world.”
Having been in the music game for more than a decade, Allen knows the feast or famine nature of being in a touring band.
“We’ll be on a budget on this tour,” he said, crashing the illusions of private jets and backstage parties. The latter of which, he said, have become increasingly lame and tame over the years. “I’ll drive the RV for part of the tour, which is fine … I drive every day. To hire a driver to take us around the country would easily be $8,000-$9,000,” he said.
When you see Brian, there is no doubt he can, and does, pull the rock star thing off. He’s got that patented, booming metal singer voice. When he speaks, there’s no doubt who’s in charge. Upon first appearance, with his beard and longish hair, Brian appears more rock star than bus driver. What gives? How did he end up here?
“I was a single parent, so driving the school bus made a lot of sense,” he recalled. “And then 20 some years later, I’m still doing it.”
And loving it. He’s driven for Tigard public schools and Portland CC before landing at his current home with Newberg. When the district changed contracts for transportation service, Brian chose to stay in Newberg with the new company. First Student, he said, was willing to work with him and his tour schedule, something he was grateful to see happen.
“I’ll leave for five, six, seven weeks, sometimes longer, and I always know I have a job when I come home,” he said. “Most employers would say, ‘oh sure, take off,’ but ‘You won’t have a job when you come back.” I like the arrangement I have, I’ve gotten used to it, it’s all I know. I don’t know if I’d even want to do anything different.”
Like so many Newberg Public School employees, Allen finds himself drawn to support his students beyond the bus route. He shared a story of the Newberg High School Varsity Volleyball team, and how he has connected with them.
“They were having problems with their drivers and getting to games late and such, so I stepped in and said I’ll take them to their games,” he said. “So I would actually go in and watch the games. One time when I walked into the gym, the entire bench stood up and yelled, ‘Bus Driver!’ That was something else. I ended up getting to know the girls and gave them all fun nicknames. Honestly, I know them better by their nicknames than their given names!
“I ended up bringing my mom to the games with me, girlfriends too,” he said. “We became fans.”
To honor his small act of support, the team had a team shirt printed for Allen. Team logo on front, the name on the back: Chauffeur.
People sometimes are stunned to learn of his international acclaim on the metal stage. And metal fans are equally left speechless when learning Allen drives a school bus.
“There’s a black metal band called Cradle Filth, they’re out of England, and I’ve toured with them before,” he said. “We were talking and this girl I was dating says to them, “Hey, do you know what he does for a living? He’s a bus driver.’ They were all like, “No! Get out of here!” And I was like, ‘Hey, don’t bring that up.”
There’s no shame in either, it's just that it is easier for his two worlds to remain separate.
When it comes to the metal stage, Allen takes a no-holds barred approach. His voice beckons to a mid-career Vince Neil vibe, but with wider range than the Motley Crue frontman. The look, the feel, the music all speaks to the power of 10,000 chainsaws for which thrash metal is known.
When it comes to driving the bus each day, Brian takes extreme pride in how he navigates Newberg’s crowded roadways and narrow neighborhood streets. He’s a by-the-book driver, and has a very clean safety record with the district. When he drives, he tunes into one thing: The Road.
“I don’t even listen to music when I drive the bus, other drivers do, but for me, I just don’t,” he said. “There is just too much going on inside the bus and on the road for me.”
So … What is thrash metal?
Thrash metal (or simply thrash) is defined as “an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and often fast tempo. The songs usually use fast percussive beats and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead guitar work.”
Within the metal genre, among the most commercially successful group of metal bands is known as West Coast thrash metal. Bands generally associated with West Coast thrash metal include groups such as Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Testament, Exodus, Metal Church, Dark Angel, Sacred Reich, Deliverance, and Attitude Adjustment.
According to an article in Vice Magazine, thrash metal is “a cutthroat mixture of heavy metal’s big riffs and hardcore punk’s ferocious speed, thrash metal is at its most vital. It has the loudest choruses, fastest gallops, the spikiest logos, and the worst smell, and was the product of perfect timing.”
Granted, the piercing riffs, the booming drums and the screeching vocals aren’t for everyone.
Count Allen’s boss at First Student, Richlick, for one, who doesn’t really get it.
“I’ve tried to listen to it,” she said sheepishly, “but it’s just not my thing.”
It’s an acquired taste.
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Learn more about Trauma and the band’s US Tour here
https://www.traumametal.com