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Your history in music predates the Marshall Tucker Band. Tell me about the music scene in the mid \u201860s in Spartanburg.<\/b><\/p>\n
It was bigger than most people can imagine. There were bands playing at every bar. You could walk into one and see one of your friends playing in that particular band, and you\u2019d see another friend or two playing in another band. It didn\u2019t matter where you were; these were all places where people would get together.<\/p>\n
And we had a lot of things going on because people were realizing that music<\/i> would draw people in; that was the key right there. Everybody understood that it wasn\u2019t just the food \u2013 and beer, of course \u2013 that was bringing people in. It was music.<\/p>\n
Even back then, you and (guitarist\/songwriter) Toy Caldwell were in bands together. What was that like?<\/b><\/p>\n
I think I was in the 7th grade when we were the Guildsmen, and that was with a couple of guys who are doctors now. Hell, they\u2019re probably retired<\/i> from being doctors by now. I\u2019m<\/i> not going to retire. What would I do then? I\u2019d have to become a doctor, I guess!<\/p>\n
Then we were the New Generation. Then we did the Toy Factory, on and off.<\/p>\n
How did that group get its start?<\/b><\/p>\n
We played together for two or three years, \u201865 to \u201867. That band was named after Toy. Then after we got back from Vietnam in \u201869, Toy worked with his dad, who was a master plumber. I went to work for a finance company that turned into a bank. But we knew that we wanted to do [music] again. One day, Toy said, \u201cI got us a gig at the VFW.\u201d I said, \u201cToy, you\u2019ve only got three songs that we\u2019ve even thought<\/i> about playing!\u201d He said, \u201cYeah, but we can get a steak for free, and probably drink a few.\u201d Now, Toy didn\u2019t even drink; he was just trying to pull me in.<\/p>\n
So I said, \u201cWell, we\u2019ll go up there. What\u2019s it going to hurt?\u201d Toy said, \u201cThe problem is, we\u2019ve got to play three sets.\u201d \u201cSo what are we going to do, Toy?\u201d He said that the best thing we could do was do<\/i> it, and just learn from it.<\/p>\n
So what sort of songs did<\/i> you play?<\/b><\/p>\n
I think we played \u201cMisty\u201d fifty different ways! We\u2019d get them dancing slow. And then we\u2019d play it really fast; I\u2019d add some lyrics to it, and it kind of grew. Those people would dance. They weren\u2019t embarrassed to dance.<\/p>\n
Most people don\u2019t have a clue that we were playing [Eddie Floyd\u2019s] \u201cKnock on Wood,\u201d [Question Mark and the Mysterians\u2019] \u201c96 Tears,\u201d and stuff like that. I actually have a recording; we went to Arthur Smith Studio up in Charlotte, North Carolina. The tape has about four songs on it, and it\u2019s been baked [preserved] so we can listen to it. Nobody but me has heard it in the last 25 years, and it\u2019ll probably never see the light of day. But it sounded good.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve read the story of how the Marshall Tucker Band got its name, but I\u2019d rather hear it in your words… <\/b><\/p>\n
We\u2019d been practicing at a funky little place about a block or two away from a club that we played on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We\u2019d rehearse for an hour or two, or until the beer ran out.<\/p>\n
The promoter\/talent buyer wanted us to open a show. So when he came down, he said, \u201cI\u2019ve got to have some handbills.\u201d Toy and I just did not want to keep calling the band Toy Factory. So we told him to come back in an hour, and we\u2019d have a name for the band.<\/p>\n
Well, we found a key in our rehearsal space. And on the key, there was a tag that had the name \u201cMarshall Tucker\u201d on it. He was a piano tuner. Somebody said, \u201cWell, hell, looky here. We\u2019ll just call it \u2018Marshall Tucker Band\u2019 for this weekend.\u201d So that\u2019s what we told the promoter. And then we asked him, \u201cWho\u2019s headlining the show?\u201d he told us that it was the Allman Brothers Band! So the timing was right, and our attitude was right.<\/p>\n
About three weeks after we opened for the Allman Brothers Band at that club, Phil Walden from Capricorn Records called up and said, \u201cI want y\u2019all to come down here to Macon [Georgia] and play at Grant\u2019s Lounge. I want my whole staff to hear you.\u201d<\/p>\n
So we said, \u201cMaybe we\u2019ll just keep the name!\u201d<\/p>\n
Were you surprised when your first single, \u201cCan\u2019t You See\u201d hit the charts?<\/b><\/p>\n
We were<\/i> surprised. It was a year after the first album had come out. We were down in Myrtle Beach, playing at the convention center. We were staying at the hotel, and just running around on the beach. And we looked up and saw our road manager waving his hands and yelling for everybody to come up to a room. We thought something bad had happened!<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cYour record just turned Gold!\u201d So we went and had a beer, and that was it. Without thinking about it, we just knew that the next show had to be the best one we\u2019d ever done. And it was.<\/p>\n
How did success affect the band?<\/b><\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t. It was unspoken, but it was like, \u201cOkay, let\u2019s see how far we can go.\u201d You didn\u2019t know what to expect, because you didn\u2019t have enough time to think about it. We were living a dream.<\/p>\n
I remember complaining to a guy in management: \u201cAll these damn people backstage here; I can\u2019t even move!\u201d He said, \u201cWhen there\u2019s nobody back here botherin\u2019 you, you don\u2019t need to be in a band no more!\u201d<\/p>\n
Was life on the road in the \u201870s as wild and crazy as legend suggests?<\/b><\/p>\n
The people who say that they didn\u2019t party, they\u2019re lying. Everybody<\/i> did. There wasn\u2019t nobody who went over in the corner and said, \u201cNah, I ain\u2019t going to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
We had this Dodge van. And every time we\u2019d hit the brakes to stop for a red light, all the McDonald\u2019s bags, all of the Jack Daniel\u2019s bottles, and all the empty beer cans would fly to the front of the van. We never threw them out.<\/p>\n
Your first album, The Marshall Tucker Band<\/i>, was released more than 50 years ago. What keeps you going?<\/b><\/p>\n
I talked to a guy just the other night. He said, \u201cWhen I was little, my dad used to drive me to school, and I\u2019d sit in the car seat in the back. I had to listen to you guys [on the car stereo] all the time. And you know what? You\u2019re actually better live than you are on records.\u201d<\/p>\n
And I said, \u201cThank you very much.\u201d And since he was hearing us just the other night, that makes me feel even that much better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Combining rock, country and even a bit of jazz, the Marshall Tucker Band earned major success in the 1970s. The group from Spartanburg, South Carolina would score six Gold albums, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26992,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,41,62],"tags":[5354],"class_list":["post-26990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-country","category-interview","category-rawk","tag-marshall-tucker-band","cat-20-id","cat-41-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26993,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26990\/revisions\/26993"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}