Onstage Friday night at Atlanta’s Chastain Park, Blackberry Smoke’s Charlie Starr sang about home in the slow-burn rock ballad “Azalea,” a track off the group’s latest album Be Right Here : “Maybe it’s not out there/Maybe this leads nowhere/Home will always be right here.”
For Blackberry Smoke, home is Atlanta. Since forming in 2000, the Southern rock outfit has grinded it out across the country and around the globe as one of the premier acts of bluesy country-rock. But onstage at Chastain, it was about circling back to where it all began — to founding member Brit Turner .
The beloved drummer and humorous heart of Blackberry Smoke died March 3 after a courageous battle with glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer. He was 57. At the time, the band had just launched a nationwide tour for Be Right Here , which included Turner’s final recordings and contributions.
“I think about him every day, every show, every set list,” Starr tells Rolling Stone backstage beforehand. “He was just ingrained so deeply in all things that we do. Every aspect of it. Not just the songs and playing the music, but it was his drive in the early days that kept the band going.”