From songs that tell the story of a hopeful, lovesick believer, to those that preach a relentless sense of independence, the Marshall Tucker Band has never been afraid to reveal even their deepest emotions. Faith, love, happiness and loss — we’ve felt them all, and there’s no telling when they’ll come up again. Thankfully, we have music to help make sense of it all. Doug Gray, the original lead vocalist and spunky crowd-wrangler of the Marshall Tucker Band, understands this well, and says it’s the fans’ heartfelt attachment to the music that motivates him to keep the band’s legacy thriving.
“We had a dedication to our fans,” Gray said about the MTB’s first years together. “It was creating a memory that they would keep forever.”
Now on his 44th year on the road fronting the Marshall Tucker Band, Gray continues to keep that dedication alive if only for the fans, which now include a new generation filled with gals like me. We’re attached to these songs because they speak of real feelings and leave us courageous enough to search for our own rainbows in this sometimes unrealistic, cookie cutter world.
Since their start in 1972, the Marshall Tucker Band has managed to steal and retain the hearts of many. Their songs often strike a soft spot in us, especially when performed live, forcing us to throw our hands up in praise of the almighty god of southern blues-rock. Then, after we come back to reality and see couples twirling each other and shaking their booties in the crowd, we stop thinking so much and just have fun. Seeing the Marshall Tucker Band live in concert is the only honest way you can understand just what this band is all about.
“I’ve found it to be a little scary that you’re looking at an audience and there’s a 17-year-old or 18-year-old girl, and she’s coming for the first time with her dad, her grandma, grandpa or somebody, and all the sudden she’s diggin’ it just as much as her dad is,” Gray said. “That’s what’s kept us around and if you come to the show you’ll see it.”
The best thing about a MTB performance is their interaction with the crowd. Everyone, young and old, is moving along with the band; clapping their hands and singing along. Though Gray didn’t remember me by name, as soon as I described myself as the goofy blonde girl in the KQRS shirt, singing and jumping around at the Taste of Minnesota this past summer, a light bulb struck. “The one thing that you do remember on the road is the people that are standing on the side of the stage when we’re doing songs,” he said.
Unlike other bands that can sometimes give off a feeling of emptiness when they perform without their original members, the Marshall Tucker Band stays genuine by celebrating the music itself — what it was then and what is it now.
“In 1980, one of our first guys was in a car accident and passed away. Then it went on from there…some of the guys didn’t want to continue on and some of them did, and I couldn’t see sitting back,” Gray said. “We decided that I would continue on with it and keep it going.”
The Marshall Tucker Band started out just wanting to play, and though Gray said that’s still what they like to do, the once simple world of music has developed into a larger business.
“Every band has its ups and downs just like every career has its ups and downs, so if you look at a band like a career it’s the same thing — you strive to do as good and sell as many records [as you can], and then what are you supposed to do? Turn your back on all those people who bought those records? No. You just can’t do that. It’s not in my blood to do that.”
When dealing with the loss of Toy and Tommy Caldwell, as well as George McCorkle who wrote “Fire on the Mountain,” Gray spoke with a tone of acceptance that the past has in fact, past. Not in a way that closed him off and made him forget, but in a way that drove him to keep the music alive for the thing that’s mattered most to the band since the beginning: the fans.
“That’s been over 10 years now, and over 30 years, and over 40 years. It almost seems like a lifetime,” he said. “Sometimes I feel those guys pushing us along, making sure everything is just right.”
Connecting with MTB fans, old and new, has become easier than ever with technology. The Internet has allowed one-of-a-kind stories and memories to resurface from people who were there during some of the band’s first ever concerts. “It shows that technology is not a bad thing, but it also shows that if a band is going to be out there, and you read something that touched you, now you have a reason to come see what this all about,” Gray said.
Holding the Marshall Tucker Band together isn’t just their classic tunes and unforgettable sound — it’s the fans who keep coming back for more. If you’ve never had the chance to see them live, do it. You’ll feel the same joy and magic that the original band created in 1972, and if you’re lucky, you may even get a wink or two from the loveable southern gentleman himself, Doug Gray.
See the Marshall Tucker Band LIVE with the Atlanta Rhythm Section this Saturday night at the Medina Entertainment Center!
