Interview: Marcus King
After a five-year hiatus, the Marcus King Band Family Reunion is back in action and in a new spot.
Held at Pisgah Brewing Co. in Black Mountain 2017-19, the two-day festival shifts to Simpsonville’s CCNB Amphitheatre on Saturday, Aug. 24, and Sunday, Aug. 25, featuring the Marcus King Band, The Avett Brothers, Band of Horses, Sierra Ferrell, Richy Mitch & The Coal Miners, Nikki Lane, Darby Wilcox, Kashus Culpepper, Ethan Regan, Barrett, and Britti.
While out on the road in Columbus, Ohio, King spoke with Asheville Stages about curating this year’s Family Reunion, working with Rick Rubin, and the lasting impacts that his home away from home has made on him.
Edwin Arnaudin: Of course, you have a very long history here. Looking back, what role do you feel like the city has played in your career?
Marcus King: Man, when we were coming up, Greenville was like a home, but Asheville adopted us — me and all the guys. I was up there from the time I was, like, 14 or 15, and I was working rooms up there. I had two house gigs and I’d drive up every Monday, and every Thursday, I think it was, I had two different house gigs, and I just fell in love with the city and the people.
Just the way Asheville embraces the arts community — it was really moving for me, being from a small southern town. And now Greenville, in the last 10 years, it has become this mecca for the arts. I think we must have had to have borrowed a lot of ideas from our sister city up in North Carolina. But, actually, it was just a place where we felt embraced and we really kind of felt like a hometown band from there.
EA: Were there any standout gigs or relationships that you felt were especially impactful in Asheville for you?
MK: Yeah! Well, my buddy Rocky Lindsley, he's passed away now, unfortunately [in March 2020]. But Rocky, he was the owner of Rocky's Hot Chicken [Shack] and he had [The Guitar Trader] guitar store over across from the Isis Music [Hall].
We struck up a friendship and he really saw a lot of potential in me as a young'n and introduced me to folks on the scene and gave me a shot. People like Warren Haynes and artists like that who probably get a million tapes a day from young kids…Rocky was the one that was like, “You gotta sit down and listen to this particular guy. There's something there.” I really miss that boy.
And that's indicative of everybody I know from Asheville. Two of my horn players still live in Asheville. And they play in bands like Empire Strikes Back. We used to play the Funk Jam together. It was just a hotbed for great players.
EA: Thanks for going down memory road with me there.
Moving on to the new album, Mood Swings — it's excellent. It's a fun listen, and obviously huge to work with Rick Rubin. How did that opportunity arise?
MK: It’s just one of those things. Rick called me out of the blue back in 2019, and it all happened rather organically. I was in between label deals at the time and we started working on that.
He's obviously a lot more eccentric than any other producer I've worked with. And it was an interesting experience. It was, like, two or three years of my life working on that album. And we put the care and the time and the attention and the detail into that album — unlike I have ever done before. Painstakingly long hours. But it was all worth it.
EA: What did you learn from him in those sessions?
MK: Well, what Rick likes to do — the way I've described the way he works is it’s almost like interior design, you know? Because the way he decorates the house is kind of similar. He finds a place that’s inspiring, and that's what he did with the music. He comes in and he decorates the place lavishly, and then he strips everything away, down to just the support beams. And then we find everything in the song that's of structural integrity, and we find everything that absolutely is essential for the song to exist. And once we have that, we're pleased with it, then we start adding back some decoration.
EA: I like that.
Shifting to the Family Reunion — back in 2017, what was your original inspiration for the event?
MK: The initial inspiration was…I'm on the road so much. I don't get to see my family as much as I'd like. And, growing up, family was such an important thing to me — just being able to see your family. Sometimes, you wouldn't see these folks but once a year.
When I went out on the road, we'd meet people and make new relationships, and it would kind of be the same thing — you don't see these people every day. We only get to see them, like, once a year or so at a festival or some kind of musical get-together.
So, he initial inspiration was, like, “Well, I need to bring my family together and I reckon I should bring my extended family into that as well” — which is all these other artists that we made friends with. That's how it started.
It was based off of my grandfather — where he left off when he passed away. He was the one that always brought the family together, and around the time he passed is when I started going on the road and when the family reunion just kind of stopped happening. So, I wanted to bring it back.
EA: You mentioned Warren Haynes, and the Family Reunion almost seems like it's an outdoor Christmas Jam. Are you influenced by that event when you plan it out and envision it?
MK: A little bit. The concept of it, infrastructurally, I think we brought some ideas from shows like that, or even Healing Appalachia with Tyler Childers. Infrastructurally, I definitely brought some ideas from friends who have had similar get -ogethers for the right reasons.
Ideally, as this thing continues to grow, now that we're back I'd really love to have it be in the mountains — somewhere up in the Blue Ridge Mountains. And I'd like there to be camping availablea and I'd like there to be more of a sense of seclusion. You know, get out in the woods and experience some nature as well as some music.
But this year, it made the most sense to do it somewhere that already had an infrastructure in place. And the folks with the Heritage Park Amphitheatre, they were kind enough to host us this year. So, it's really exciting.
EA: I know it had those roots at Pisgah [Brewing Co.], so I can see you wanting to be back in this area for that. Seems like a nice home for it.
I'm also curious about how you picked your collaborators this year. I'm guessing you go back pretty far with a lot of these folks.
MK: Yeah, man. People like Sierra Ferrell, one of my first friends in Nashville. She's an artist that inspires all of us and she just really lights a fire in my belly, seeing the way she operates and how passionate she is about her craft. And people like The Avett Brothers who have been kind enough to invite us to work with them. We wanted to return the favor and have them come be a part of what we do.
And “family” is the key word. We want to bring in people that we feel a kindred spirit with, and people that are making music, like I said, for the right reasons and in it for love of the craft.
EA: And what’s the general flow of the show? Are you introducing everyone and being like Warren and popping up to play on a song here and there?
MK: Yeah! I'm sure I'll be dropping around, maybe trying my hand at emceeing a little bit.
EA: Nice. Well, lastly, what do you hope people get out of the experience, both on the artist side and the fan side?
MK: I just want folks to come and experience a day or two days of fellowship. I want people to feel closer together. I want this to be an event that brings people together. There's plenty of things to keep us divided and I just want this to be a safe space for people to come and share a common interest.
And in this case, it's good food and good music. We hope we have a little something for everybody there and just want folks to feel comfortable enough to take their shoes off and stay awhile and just enjoy themselves.
(Photos courtesy of Big Feat PR)
IF YOU GO
Who: Marcus King Band Family Reunion
When: Saturday, Aug. 24 & Sunday, Aug. 25, 3 p.m.
Where: CCNB Amphitheatre, 861 SE Main St., Simpsonville, tinyurl.com/975yntxx
Tickets: $59.50 one-day pass-$350 two-day super VIP
