Dear Silas Formerly Trey Parker, real name Silas Stapleton III, is a singer, rapper, and trumpeter from Jackson, Mississippi. Raised in a musical family – his father was an alto saxophonist – he began playing the piano at the age of eight and the trumpet at the age of 11. While at Bailey High School he began freestyling, and created his first mixtape. He attended college at the University of Louisiana in Monroe, studying music performance, but left before he graduated in order to pursue his music career. Music also took precedence over a standup comedy act he had developed.