Spartanburg, South Carolina is on the musical map for exactly one reason: The Marshall Tucker Band.
There never was anybody in the outfit named Marshall Tucker; the name was discovered scratched into a key that opened their rented rehearsal room. And they just thought it sounded cool.
The Marshall Tucker Band was (and is) usually classified as a Southern Rock band, like Lynyrd Skynyrd or the Outlaws or Molly Hatchet. But the MTB in its heyday was much more eclectic: Although there were two fiery guitarists in Toy Caldwell and George McCorkle, there was also a full-time flute player (Jerry Eubanks) who also played piano, and a repertoire of tunes that blended rock with folk, jazz and more than a little country music.
Much of the country element came from the baritone vocals of lead singer Doug Gray, a Spartanburg native who started the band with Caldwell, his bass playing brother Tommy Caldwell, and Eubanks.
Listen to “Take the Highway,” “Fire on the Mountain,” “Heard it in a Love Song” or any number of Marshall Tucker Band classics from the 1970s. That’s Doug Gray.
(Not on “Can’t You See,” however. Toy Caldwell sang lead on that one.)
Fast-forward to 2026. There is still a Marshall Tucker Band. The Caldwell brothers and McCorkle are dead, and Eubanks retired 30 years ago, which leaves Doug Gray to carry that big ol’ torch.
Which he does, as you’ll see at Sunday’s BayCare Sound concert with .38 Special, the Marshall Tucker Band and former Eagle Don Felder. Tickets for the 6 p.m. show are at this link.
We spoke with Gray, 78, by phone from a tour stop in Las Vegas.
You, my friend, have been doing this a long time …
When I was 7 years old, my dad took me to the only kind of bar where they could have dinner, the VFW. I’d heard “Wipe Out” on the radio, and we were talking about it. And as we were leaving, one of the guys in the band said Man, do you know the laugh to “Wipe Out”? I said yeah! He said you do that, we’ll appreciate it and you’ll be a star! Things were different 71 years ago.
I did the laugh to “Wipe Out.” They played the song. Three guys up their playin’ their butt off. As far as I was concerned, it sounded great. We started to walk out. A man sitting over in the corner said “Wait a minute, son,” and he handed me a five dollar bill. I thought maybe somebody else had dropped it, and he thought it was me.
Anyway, that was the start of my career earning money playing.
This band has been on the road steadily since I was in junior high school …
I had triple-bypass surgery when I was off the road last year. We put out a press release calling it back surgery, because I didn’t want people comin’ up to me (saying) How you doing?
The heart doctor told me, you’re free to go, but I want you to remember one thing: Try to do it at 50 percent instead of a hundred percent. He said you’re older now, but you don’t act that way. He said, you freak people out by the way you act. Try to do 50 percent and you’ll last a lot longer.
I said, can I quit takin’ these pills now? He says yeah … I’ll see you back in the hospital [laughter]
The laugh is yes, I feel like that’s how much it’s worth. And do I get tired out on the road? Everybody gets tired doing anything.
We’re lucky. We’re probably the luckiest people in the world. To have a job, to have the income. Sometimes you worry about people standin’ on the corner, people doin’ without, and their families, stuff like that. But you pray, and know that your heart is open for anything that comes your way.
Because you’re taken care of, and I’m taken care of, or we wouldn’t be sittin’ here jokin’ and laughin’ and havin’ a good time.
Do you think about the old days, or is it all about tomorrow?
The old days were special. I was just talking to an old friend, he’s Hank Jr.’s road manager. He said I wish people could go back to that period of time and learn a lesson. Our ability to talk to each other, see each other in a truck stop going up and down the highway, going to do this show or that show, walking by and saying hello, holdin’ the elevator while y’all went up to the rooms …
That’s what keeps me out here. That kind of thing, being concerned about somebody else besides me.
The legendary status that everybody puts on me, it’s not really legendary. That’d be like Merle Haggard, George Jones, Kitty Wells, some of those old artists.
When we got invited to go to the Grand Ole Opry for the first time, Toy and Tommy, that was the way that they were brought up, in country music. When the band got invited, like 20 years ago, they were gone.
We walked in, and I didn’t feel like I deserved to be there. But I felt like Toy and Tommy deserved to be there. I got out to the circle there, and I was thinkin’ about them. What would they have felt like? Would they have cried like I did?
I cried, because it reminded me of the day that Tommy left, and the day that Toy left. And I got to say my words to George the day that he passed.
We’ve had so many wonderful people around us, it’s a blessing.
And it was fun in the early days, but it’s more fun now, seeing the people bringing their kids to the show, 12 and 14 years old. This little girl, probably 9 years old, was sittin’ up there singing to almost all of the songs – “Fire on the Mountain,” “Take the Highway.”
You could tell that her mama probably busted her down in the car seat for years, taking her to school, forcin’ her to listen to the Marshall Tucker Band! Because she knew the words.
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