The Marshall Tucker Band will perform Saturday at Struthers Library Theatre, 302 W. Third Ave., Warren. Submitted photo

WARREN, Pa. — Listening to the radio or a streaming service, you are bound to hear The Marshall Tucker Band.

The band has been performing since the early 1970s, and is celebrating its 50-year anniversary.

And founding member, lead vocalist, and bandleader Doug Gray still loves performing and doesn’t want to start relaxing.

“Hell, I’m not about to slow down now,” Gray said.

Gray will turn 75 in May.

“We have appreciated the fact that we continue to have as many people as we do, turn out,” Gray said. “At this period of time, it’s not about the amount of it’s not about the money. It’s not about trying to break through to have another hit song. It’s not about any of that stuff. It’s about the band wanting to get up there and get together and sound good.”

The current lineup is drummer B.B. Borden, bassist Ryan Ware, keyboardist, Marcus James Henderson, guitarist Chris Hicks, and guitarist, vocalist Rick Willis.

The musicians in his band play all of the notes from the recordings, but Gray allows them stretch out and give their interpretations to the music. That way, he said, makes for a better performance.

The original bandmates, were guitarist Toy Caldwell and his brother, bassist Tommy Caldwell, rhythm guitarist George McCorkle, drummer Paul T. Riddle, and flautist/saxophonist Jerry Eubanks.

Gray said there are some musicians in their early 20s that were inspired by listening to Marshall Tucker Band songs growing up.

Others were forced to listen.

Gray recalled a story of a girl who came to a show with her mother, and told Gray heard Marshall Tucker Band songs daily for five to six years while being strapped in the back seat of a car, traveling to and from school.

“It makes for a hilarious journey,” Gray said.

She told Gray that she understood why her mother did that. He said the she understood that her mother was not trying to force the music on her, but rather her mother was just trying to make her understand that was the music her mother loved, and it emotionally satisfied her.

The band is known for radio-friendly songs like “Can’t You See,” and “Heard It in a Love Song.”

Gray said he did not sing lead vocals on the song “Can’t You See.”

Gray said during demo versions of the song, Toy Caldwell presented him with some music.

“And he said ‘man, I’ve got this great song. Why don’t you write all of the verses down.’ And so I did. … I’d change a word here and there, so I could sing it,” Gray said.

The band leader explained that he would sometimes delay more work on the song because he wanted to put more feeling and add more emotion to it in the studio.

Toy Caldwell, Gray admitted, didn’t want to originally sing the song.

“But Toy came up to me and sang that song to me. I said ‘man I can’t sing that song. That’s a song you are going to have to sing,’ ” Gray noted.

According to marshalltuckerband.com, the band began in Spartanburg, S.C. in 1972, and got its name from blind piano tuner after they found his name inscribed on a key to their original rehearsal space.

Marshall Tucker Band is scheduled to perform Saturday to a sold-out audience at Struthers Library Theatre, 302 W. Third Ave., Warren.

Gray said the audience members will like the performance this weekend.

“Well, I think they’re going to be uniquely surprised that some of those old songs sound very familiar to them,” he said.

For more information call (814) 723-7231 or visit strutherslibrarytheatre.org.