Andy Sapp photo
Charlie Starr of Blackberry Smoke
Charlie Starr.
Amid this modern era of rock music, Blackberry Smoke is the absolute epitome of what it means to plug in your guitar, crank the amplifier and tap into that sacred two-way interaction of sound and scope, energy and enthusiasm residing at the heart of live performance.
Led by front man Charlie Starr, the Georgia-based outfit is a well-oiled melodic machine of soaring lyrical aptitude backed by snarling six-string electric guitars, thunderous bass-n-drums and an ethos of connectivity and compassion through the old adage of “three chords and the truth.”
Speaking to Smoky Mountain Living in preparation for his solo tour this year, Starr addressed not only what it means to be a songwriter and the role of the performer, but also the significance of BBS crossing over the quarter-century mark.
Smoky Mountain Living: With this solo tour, what does that outlet do for you? Not only as a performer, but as a human being—that space of vulnerability, all eyes on you and no band behind you?
Charlie Starr: It’s extremely intimate and I love that about it, because it sort of gives people the opportunity to see the way those songs were born. Just an acoustic guitar or two, with no bombast and no pomp circumstance—just three chords and the truth.
And also, I’m a big mouth, so I talk a lot. I love to tell the stories about the songs. I don’t ever plan anything. It all just happens in the moment. And sometimes the songs being laid bare bring memories back to me in the moment—that’s as much fun to me as actually playing the songs.
You really get to peel the layers back of where it all begins—you, a guitar and an idea. When you start thinking about where it began for you, were you writing songs first or were you playing guitar first?
I played guitar first. And I didn’t want to be a lead singer. I wanted to be [Aerosmith’s] Joe Perry to someone’s Steven Tyler. [I] started in cover bands down around my hometown [in Alabama]. I was 15 years old [when] I started playing in bars and was a grumpy old man by the time I was 19, playing all these honky-tonks, you know?
And I thought, “Man, I want to play. I want to write songs,” or I want to go co-write songs with a singer and live out that kind of band fantasy. I quickly realized that lead singers were all crazy as hell and I couldn’t deal with ’em. [Laughs]. So, I thought, “Well, screw it. I’ll do it myself.” And I moved up to the Atlanta area and found some like-minded people to play with who are still my best friends to this day.
And, little by little, that group got kind of whittled down to just a few people and it wound up being me and [Blackberry Smoke’s] Brit and Richard [Turner]. (To note, Brit Turner passed away on March 3, 2024, after a courageous battle with glioblastoma, a cancer of the brain.)
Then, I called up [guitarist] Paul [Jackson]. He was a cover band buddy from down in my hometown. I said, “You’ve got to get up here and be in this band with me. I’m the singer now and I need you to come sing harmony vocals with me and play guitar.”
Was writing songs something you learned or was there a template that you had in mind about how you wanted to go about it? Or was it trial-by-fire?
Well, it wasn’t necessarily trial-by-fire. I watched and learned with these different guys that I was playing with, some fantastic songwriters in Atlanta—Chris Edmonds, Tommy Rivers and Gary Stier.
I kind of watched them operate and what they do is they write the kind of song I like, which is pretty straightforward and simple. I didn’t have in mind to write prog [rock], something that was more akin to [The Rolling Stones’ Mick] Jagger/[Keith] Richards and Tom Petty. That’s where my heart was living. Still does. And those guys were really good at it. [So], I’m going to apply myself. Eventually, I worked up the nerve to be like, “Hey, I’m going to be the songwriter then.”
It’s interesting you bring up Tom Petty, where you look at him and the songs are deceptively simple. They were made for you to move, beautiful songs made for you to dance.
Totally. Yeah, that’s right. Jagger said the same thing about his job as a front man and a songwriter and singer for The Rolling Stones. He’s like, “It’s my job to make you dance.” And [he’s] been doing that successfully now for 60 years—making people dance.
Blackberry Smoke will celebrate 25 years together in 2025. And even now, y’all are still evolving and growing. Where does that hunger and thirst come from?
Because it’s an addiction just like anything else that gets under your skin and you can’t get it out. It’s, I mean, going back to the [Rolling] Stones, but they don’t need the money. Why do they keep going on the road? Because they’re addicted to it.
When you think about everything within those 25 years, what’s been your biggest takeaway of this journey thus far?
Man, it’s just the fact that when you fall in love with doing something as deeply as we have, it’s just nearly impossible to even think about stopping. Even with losing Brit, he knew even. He’s like, “Well, we didn’t do all this work to just stop,” you know? So, it goes as long as it can.
Want to go?
Rock juggernaut Blackberry Smoke will hit the stage for a special three-night run May 15-17 at The Shed in Maryville, Tennessee. The gigs will feature opening acts Rob Leines, Taylor Hunnicutt and Bones Owens on separate nights. BBS will also be a featured act the Railbird Festival on June 1 in Lexington, Kentucky. blackberrysmoke.com.