Guitarobit: Stuart Swanlund

Stuart Swanlund grew up hearing a lot of the Marshall Tucker Band's Doug Gray - he rehearsed an earlier band across the street from his grandparent's house. He would go on to cross the road and join a later version of the MTB.

The guitarist, who was 54, died this weekend.

Talking to Tuckerhead, Swanlund recalled what it was like to suddenly step up into a successful band:

It was a real experience. I’d never been out of Spartanburg much. My dad was in the Air Force. I was born in Puerto Rico, but we moved when I was about one. He got transferred to Massachusetts for a few years. Then he went to Thailand and while he was stationed there my Mom and the kids lived in Spartanburg because that’s where she was from. But since I’ve joined the band we’ve played in every state but Hawaii, so I’ve got to see a lot of the country. Playing in Alaska was kind of unusual. It was in the summer and we did our second set after midnight – and it was still daylight outside! But it’s beautiful up there.

He'd been a member of Marshall Tucker more-or-less continuously since he joined in 1986, except for a short period when he was awaiting treatment for dupuytrens contracture.