The Marshall Tucker Band – Doug Gray
By: Lori Smerilson Carson | Photos: Mariah Gray / MG Photography
Kindness is king and legendary Singer/Songwriter/Bandleader Doug Gray truly exemplifies this statement. For over fifty years of releasing world renown hits, he has stayed rooted with communities and his fans which is ultimately displayed with The Marshall Tucker Band’s music and performances. Beginning with their self-titled debut LP released in 1973 which reached gold status and continuing to release hit records like their Platinum album Carolina Dreams in 1977, they have been going strong and are not slowing down. Now, fans can re-live The Marshall Tucker Band’s music as they hit the road in February with their new While I’m Young Tour 2026. Florida fans can experience their shows in Plant City at the Florida Strawberry Festival on March 6th, as well as in Palm Beach at the newly renovated Glazer Hall on March 7th.
Catching up with Gray prior to the tour, he revealed some details about the tour, his music, other past projects, and what fans can look forward to.
SFL Music Magazine: What can fans look forward to with the new show in Florida and at Glazer Hall?
Doug Gray: Well, what I look forward to is something I have seen before passing that’s been around that hasn’t been used. I’m sitting here looking at a picture of the actual venue now of a new auditorium. You get excited for those kinds of things because most people enjoy coming to places that they can hear well. The band can touch the audience as well. They feel like a part of it. That’s why Marshall Tucker has been around so long because regardless if it’s ten thousand people or it’s twenty-thousand people or it’s two thousand people, it’s a wonderful thing. We play a lot of organizations that work with the city. Buildings that we’ve helped to restore like the Fox (Theater) in Atlanta, and you know what? We feel good going in there because I like seeing something that was history. That somebody’s taken the time and the energy to be thoughtful enough to try to make it come right. That’s one of the reasons the guys and I were talking about, especially Palm Beach. We like to touch everything and know that boy, we was part of that. Just like I told you about raising money for different places all through the country based in the Northeast because they had so many places that because of times and change, sometimes cost and the city didn’t want to sponsor it or whatever. We’ve done all those things. By us coming back to another place that I know has been restored because I can see it, I think it’s being something what it is before. I remember going to some of those back in the old days. Going to a movie theater and standing there, and your biggest thing was to look at and want to be part of that movie screen. This is larger than that but think of all the things that have been in that building. That’s what I like. We’ve been together fifty-six years in February. The original band was only together for eight years. So, I’ve been kind of directing traffic and singing those songs for that long and that length of time. You know what? The older you get, the more appreciation that you have for other buildings that people remember and loved. I always said, man I wish we could go back to that era. It’s like going back to an era because you’ve made it new, and people have treated you that way or you wouldn’t be opening again.
SFL Music Magazine: You’re the founding member of the band. You’ve achieved many accolades including gold and platinum records over fifty-six years. What would you say is the key to the Marshall Tucker Band’s success and longevity?
Gray: I’ll start out by saying that we played the Grand Ole Opry a year or so ago. It was presented by Pandora, the Billionaires Plaque. That’s heavy. That’s really good for a band that’s been around that long because Pandora wasn’t even invented until ten years ago. So, as you look at those things, that’s what we live for to going back once a year to the Grand Ole Opry and being invited. They’ve got people in there that’s the young people, but I will say that a lot of people market us, and we have some good marketing companies that I’ve helped to start or endured or went with certain labels and they said, “well, we know how to market you better,” and you know what? They do. Marketing Marshall Tucker band is pretty good because our audience age is between eighteen and forty-four. So, that’s the largest market, but people always want to come. Just the other night we played in Connecticut of course, because we play up there a lot. We were playing at Foxwoods Casino and the place was sold out. We went in and those people were adoring us as if we were something special. We’re just happy to be there. It’s that simple. That’s what makes us who we are. That’s what I’ve continued on all these years, basing my life and my way of living, and looking towards better ways to connect people and not just talk about it.
SFL Music Magazine: What would you say inspires The Marshall Tucker Band’s music like “Heard It In A Love Song” and “Take the Highway”, all those great hits?
Gray: If you put them all together and you put them in a line, and we’ve had thirty-three albums out there, ok? Some of them are platinum and gold, but there’s been a whole lot of stuff and people forget about the movies that we’re in and songs that we’ve played more than a billion times, not just on certain radio stations and downloads. I think that if you can give back and make those people memorable and ask us back every other year, or every two to three years when you put out your feelers. Delegated members want to vote on who they want back. They always want Marshall Tucker band because you have to realize that I have people that run halls. Those people come back because they’re sixty-five, seventy years old. They remember the hippie stage, then they remember going to work. Then they remember working towards a family so they put their time aside of music. Then they continued on, and now they’re older like me and they still want to come out and relive that moment. Knowing Marshall Tucker band, we’re going to touch part of your soul.
SFL Music Magazine: I read you were in the Army, and you went to Vietnam. First, thank you very much for your service.
Gray: You’re welcome.
SFL Music Magazine: What inspired you to become a musician? We’re all very glad you did!
Gray: (He laughed). So am I as I sit out here and look at the beach right now. I have homes up in Spartanburg as well where I grew up and have both of my grandkids there and both of my daughters, all fully grown up now and everything. I started when I was seven years old. My mom and dad took me into a place that had rock and roll before it was rockabilly. That was early. So, who did we have? We had Elvis Presley, Bill Haley and the Comets. We had all kind of doo-wop type bands and stuff like that, but I didn’t do that. I listened to the radio. Somebody asked me to get up and do a song. Mother said, “why don’t you go do it because you do it all the time at home. You’ve been doing it since you was a baby because you’ve been screaming loud. She said, go up and do it.” And as I walked off the stage, some guy, I don’t know if he was drunk or not (he laughed), maybe he was, but he walked up and he handed me five dollars. I was seven years old. I said, well. So, after I got through high school and knew that war was on, and know I had to go to Vietnam and be in the military which was the only thing for me really to do, and having a lot of friends that joined. I did not join. I was on the number system. Nobody really wants to go. You don’t know what you’re going to do. You don’t know where you’re going to be, but that is when I started. I didn’t realize that I was going to start back but someone asked me in an interview years ago, they said, “when did you make money the first time?” I said, I was seven years old and for five dollars, I think I did “Wipe Out”, a drum song. Those were the strong songs then that everybody wanted to hear. Sure enough, I thought back to it, and I can tell that story now with a whole lot of peace in my heart knowing that mom and dad was there. When we played at the White House for the inauguration, I took my mother and father there. It all happens in steps, and you never know what’s going to happen tomorrow as long as you look forward.
SFL Music Magazine: What would you recommend to a new musician or band?
Gray: Talk to people that are willing to give you experience and not just sit there and try to make money off of you. I got a book. We wanted to put it out because a lot of people didn’t want to do it. That’s when books were selling a great deal. It was definitely not a large book, and it was written by a local guy, but it was called Carolina Dreams. It started out with all the people that were from South Carolina and if you look it up, maybe Google it or Siri or Alexa, they’ll tell you how many real established musicians come from South Carolina because we have South Carolina Entertainment (& Music) Hall of Fame. It’s unbelievable of all the people that are in it. I know we do good. Do right at one hundred and fourteen shows a year and all my guys, there’s twenty-one of them. There’s only six that play in the band, but all my guys go home and they get with their families. Then all of the sudden, we all show up and it’s like, hey, how are you doing? What’s going on? How’s the oldest doing? How’s the youngest doing? There’s more to life than just being in a band. Most people say, “well, I want to be in a band.” All of the sudden, that band disappears in five years.
SFL Music Magazine: Life changes.
Gray: I’m glad It does a lot of time, but for some people it’s best, and then some people it goes to their head and you’ve got more (he laughed), I’ll say it a funny way. I call it head room. You start thinking that you’re better than what you are and then people start resenting it. That plays a big share in the market, not that I’m in or my band is in, but the newer bands that come out. They feel as if well, it’s going to keep being successful. I play this one hundred-seat club, and I go and play twenty thousand seats and sell out Madison Square Garden in three days. Then I’m the biggest star in the world. Your head won’t come out of the building, it’s so big. But with us, we never got that way because obviously, there’s no arguments in our band primarily because the musicians that want to be in this band have depended upon me and their music, and their ability to keep doing what we do.
SFL Music Magazine: Will there be any recording of some of the shows?
Gray: We will be. We just finished one in Arizona. That’s without any sponsorship. I mean, Freightliner’s wanted us to do one for years. BMW wanted us to do one. So, the larger companies, they don’t mind paying the money. That’s not a problem. The problem is it doesn’t fit what Marshall Tucker’s feelings are about. I have a flag outside my house. Why? Because I was in the military. I support the military no matter what, and the police and everybody else. So, supporting everybody, that’s just a symbol. What we feel is, we have a symbol on the band that lets everybody know that we’re part of the general public wanting the right thing to be done.
SFL Music Magazine: Is there any new music coming out?
Gray: We do music whether it’s a jazz festival that we’re on or whether it’s a rock and roll festival. We’ve got all that covered. I’m telling you, we play the Grand Ole Opry once a year, maybe twice a year. That tells you that we go back to the country roots. So, we have many genres of music that we play, but most of our audience already realizes that because of the thousands and million gold records and platinum records that we’ve sold. And we’re still downloading stuff. Yes, we’re in the process every day of writing new stuff, but as far as putting it down, it’s not time yet. We did record a show for a major television network for New Years. It was a pre-New Years show because not everybody wanted to watch Ryan Seacrest, that’s kind of the way I look at it. As you noticed, I didn’t pick out a particular company because you never know when somebody’s going to call up and say we want to sponsor your whole tour, and maybe next year or next five years. You never know because it’s happened more often than not, and it was our choice to say no, not this time or whatever. Not being an A band and you probably know this. We’re a C band. We can fit everywhere. We’re not an A listed band. We go into places and we sell them out. The deals that are made means that we do better and have constant business overall for years because we make friends. We make friends and family if you want to know the real truth. There’re some people that have been around with us ongoing for the last fifty or forty years. Then some of them for thirty. Some of them just getting out of college. So, if you go backwards like that you’ve got nothing to lose, but everything to gain. Some of the faces you remember and some of them you don’t remember, but they’ll tell you about it. The interviews that I do, they’re mostly fascinated with not the history but the beginnings of the band, and then some of them want to know what we’ve got to do tomorrow. Instead of planning tomorrow, let’s wait and see what happens because all we’re going to do is make it better.
SFL Music Magazine: Is there anything else Floridians should know about the new show?
Gray: The new show is the old show revised in such a way that we can satisfy everybody through those fifty something years. Fifty plus is what I call it sometime.
SFL Music Magazine: Well, we look forward to the show.
Gray: Well, I tell you what. I will be seeing you there, I promise. We’ll be having a good time!
