Unless you’re a die-hard Marshall Tucker Band fan, you could easily think the Southern Rock group was named for it’s lead singer or another member of the band. Not so, says a recent post in a Classic Rock blog that I subscribe to. It seems the real Marshall Tucker was a blind piano tuner who passed away recently, on January 20th, 2023, at the age of 99. The band mourned his passing as they prepare to embark on a 50th Anniversary Tour this spring
It seems the band were practicing in an old warehouse, in Spartanburg, South Carolina, when they first formed in 1972. At that time they were called Toy Factory, after founding member, Toy Caldwell, but were not happy with the name. One day during practice, they found a key chain with Mr. Tucker’s name on it. It turned out that Marshall was renting space in that very same warehouse so he could repair and rebuild pianos there. The band were desperate for a name for their group and decided that Marshall Tucker had a nice ring to it, so they adopted the moniker for their own purposes.
In a 2020 interview with Mr. Tucker, writer Jack Lunn learned that Marshall never even knew the band had used his name until a friend told him. He said he really didn’t mind as long as they didn’t desecrate his name. In the long run, he said it helped his business as many young musicians sought him out to work on their pianos. Marshall Tucker actually was reported to have perfect pitch, meaning he could distinguish any note just by hearing it; only about one in 10,000 people have it.
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