BY AVERY GOODSTINE for WEEKLY VOLCANO 6/12/26 |
For Charlie Starr of Blackberry Smoke, it’s laughter and a lack of big egos that have kept him and his bandmates sane over the last 25 years.
“There’s always going to be arguments and disagreements,” he said. “And when you spend as much time on the road together as we do, you escape from each other, you have to, you know, and find your own happy places. And then it’s how you deal with the arguments and the disagreements that keeps you together.”
Blackberry Smoke is coming back to the Event Center at Tacoma’s Emerald Queen Casino and Hotel for the third time on Friday, June 12, for its Rattle, Ramble, and Roll Tour. The show starts at 7:30 p.m., with doors opening at 6:30 p.m. The Event Center is located at 2920 East R St.
Made up of four core members and two touring bandmates, Blackberry Smoke was born in 2001 with Starr as lead guitarist and vocalist and brothers Brit and Richard Turner on drums and bass, respectively.
The band’s 2026 tour lineup includes original members Starr, Richard Turner, Paul Jackson on guitar, and Brandon Still on keyboard, and touring members Benji Shanks on guitar and Kent Aberle on drums, who took over after the late Brit Turner in 2023.
Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, Blackberry Smoke takes inspiration from blues, country, and classic rock, forming its own signature sound marked by gritty guitar riffs, lyrics filled with storytelling, and energetic live performances that attract lively and diverse crowds.
Starr grew up in a small textile mill town in east Alabama, about 85 miles outside of Atlanta. The blues and rock influences of his musical upbringing can be credited to the rustic and soulful sounds of his father’s bluegrass guitar playing and traditional string-band music, his mother’s love of classics like the Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles, and his sister’s taste for the ’80s with bands like Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, and Def Leppard.
“I had music everywhere, and I was instantly, just, fascinated with it all,” Starr said. “And it started with my dad, just because he played guitar, and I wanted to be able to do that.”
There isn’t a time he remembers wanting to do anything other than be in a band, Starr said. However, reaching the fan base and notoriety the band has now wasn’t always an easy ride.
For about the first decade of Blackberry Smoke, Starr said they were “slugging it out,” until something suddenly changed.
“Finally, something clicked around our third album,” he said. “I think I started to see the lines get longer and longer, and the venues got a little bigger and a little bigger, and nothing’s ever come in a huge windfall, you know. It’s always been a slow build, and that’s OK, because that way you can adjust as it comes.”
As the primary songwriter for the band, Starr said “there’s no rhyme or reason” to his writing process, and it changes day to day, song to song. In fact, he said he often writes from a perspective other than his own. He said he particularly enjoys writing from a sad point of view as opposed to a happy one.
“Sometimes things that happen to other people are way more interesting than things that happen to me,” he said. “There’s a whole lot more to complain about, you know what I mean, than it is to be, like, I’m good, I’m good. That’s boring.”
Starr’s favorite songs change by the day as well. Usually, it’s whatever he finished up most recently, he said.
Right now, that would be Rattle, Ramble & Roll: The Best of Blackberry Smoke, Volume One, which was released last year in early November. The album is a compilation of some of the band’s most loved songs, like “Sleeping Dogs” and “One Horse Town,” along with two new releases: “We Got Company” and “Southern Child (Live).”
In an interview with Rock & Blues Muse, Starr said the album felt like the right way to celebrate the band’s 25th anniversary and to honor Brit Turner and the legacy he helped create. This is the band’s ninth album.
Throughout its prolific career, the band earned a No. 1 spot on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart, the first independent artist or band to do so. Its album Be Right Here, released in 2024, debuted at No. 1 on the Current Country Albums chart, Americana/Folk Albums chart, and Current Rock Albums chart.
They’ve played on major stages around the globe, including Austin City Limits, Bonnaroo, Summerfest, Glastonbury, and Download UK. And they’ve made appearances on well-known late-night TV shows like The Tonight Show and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
The band’s first South American tour sold out and holds the spot as one of Starr’s favorite tour destinations, with Starr calling the crowd the “most passionate music fans” he’s ever seen.
As Blackberry Smoke prepares to come back to Washington, Starr said they are excited to play in the Emerald Queen’s beautiful Event Center.
Starr said Washingtonians are “happy people that want to dance and have a good time and escape from all the woes of their lives for a couple hours.
This article is paid content for Emerald Queen Casinos
