Dennis Anderson: Full Biography
Dennis Anderson is an American former monster truck driver, and the creator and original driver of Grave Digger, the flagship truck of Monster Jam. He won four Monster Jam World Finals championships and retired in 2017.
Mud Bog He built the first Grave Digger in 1982 out of salvaged parts, including the body of a 1952 Ford pickup, and ran it at local mud bogs in Virginia. The name came from answering back to riders who called the truck junk. When a booked monster truck failed to turn up at one show, Anderson offered to crush the cars instead, and the truck found its real career.
Freestyle Grave Digger got its black graveyard paint in 1986 and beat Bigfoot on television in 1988. As freestyle grew into its own discipline, Anderson’s all-or-nothing style suited it exactly, and he won the first Monster Jam World Finals freestyle championship in 2000. It cost him: a broken kneecap, broken ribs against his backbone, and a series of injuries that recurred for the rest of his career.
Legacy Three World Finals racing championships followed, in 2004, 2006 and 2010. He drove his last event in January 2017 and announced his retirement that September, staying on with the team in the pits. Four of his children race monster trucks, and Grave Digger has kept winning World Finals titles without him.
