The Marshall Tucker Band to headline Mercer’s Ford Concert Series on Saturday

Doug Gray said playing in Macon on April 10 “is like coming home.”

Gray, 72, is a founding member and original lead singer of The Marshall Tucker Band who’ll be headlining Mercer University’s Ford Concert Series before the Bears meet Eastern Tennessee State University at 6 p.m.

Mercer makes an all-day event of Bears home games with a variety of pre-game activities. Music starts April 10 at 2:30 p.m. with Joe Lasher at Black Field, adjacent to the Bears’ Five Star Stadium. After the traditional Bear Walk at 3:30 p.m., Marshall Tucker is set to play at 4 p.m.

Daniel Tate, associate athletic director, said a survey of students and season ticket holders put Marshall Tucker as top choice to appear during the series.

In line with Macon’s Allman Brother’s Band, Marshall Tucker was among the luminaries of Southern Rock and Capricorn Records’ artists.

“We were kids from Spartanburg, S.C, who played in rock and roll bands in high school,” Gray said in a telephone interview. “I was a rhythm and blues singer.”

Out of school, several of the soon-to-be Marshall Tucker members joined the military and served in Vietnam. When they got back, Gray said they were working 9-to-5 jobs but practiced in a little warehouse to play weekend gigs.

Gray said he worked at a bank while Toy Caldwell, who would become Marshall Tucker’s highly regarded lead guitarist and main songwriter, worked at his father’s plumbing company.

“We paid like $25 a month to practice in the warehouse and one day the manager of a club called The Ruins came by,” Gray said. “He needed a band to open for Wet Willie, a Macon-Capricorn band who were going to be at his club. He booked us for it.”

Gray said the band was at a loss when asked what their name was – they didn’t have one yet.

“But on the keyring to the practice place was a tag with the name Marshall Tucker on it so we went with that and it stuck,” he said. “Turns out Marshall Tucker was a blind piano tuner from Columbia, S.C., who had rented the place before us.”

The band opened for Wet Willie and their lead singer, Jimmy Hall, took a liking to them. He told Capricorn’s Phil Walden about them and they got invited to come to Macon to play at Grant’s Lounge.

“We came on a Friday expecting to play and head right back home,” Gray, the only remaining original Marshal Tucker member, said. “Phil and Capricorn people came and liked us and wanted to meet us in their offices on Monday so we got a hotel room and stayed. We spent all we made at Grant’s on the room except for one penny each. But hey, we were meeting expenses and doing what we loved so we were happy.”

The band signed, started recording at Capricorn and began spending more and more time in Macon.

By 1973 they were touring with The Allman Brothers Band, including doing a taped concert with them at the Grand Opera House that became the pilot for the late-night weekend music TV series “Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert.” Wet Willie was included in the show but performed in what was Central City Park.

Folks at the Grand have shown that tape several times along with a Gregg Allman concert DVD and used it when they reopened the remodeled Grand two years ago.

“It’s exciting to see how the Grand and Capricorn Studios and all of Macon’s music scene is coming back to life,” Gray said. “Along with Grant’s, I hope people realize the history they have and never let these places go away.”

Both the Grand and Capricorn Studios were remodeled under ownership of Mercer University and Grant’s Lounge has seen restoration and new popularity.

“Playing at Mercer is also like a homecoming,” Gray said. “I remember really early on we played at a Mercer cafeteria. We just moved tables and chairs aside, set up a small PA and people stood all around. And we had a funny story at Grant’s that kept us laughing for years. We were playing there and it can be a pretty tight fit, you know. A girl was heading to the bathroom and somehow pulled Toy’s guitar chord and he fell back into his amp. But he kept on playing and didn’t miss a lick. We all said it was his Marine training coming through.”

Tickets for April 10 are $20 and include all the day’s activities. For tickets, go to tickets.mercer.edu. Other information is at mercerbears.com and facebook.com/mercerfootball.

Contact writer Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com.