Marshall Grant K-4

[Master Oil Racing Team]

ALSO SEE: http://www.boatracingfacts.com/forum...marshall+grant

Marshall Grant was one of the guys to beat in the Alky division. I don't know when he started. Maybe Randy will fill us in on Marshall's early career. I also don't know when he quit driving himself. When I started in 1966 I think it was Dick Pond who was driving for Marshall. Every driver he had was a winner. Of course, Marshall is an expert mechanic and he was good at set ups. He has tons of trophies in his house.

In 1972 Marshall was President of N.O.A. At that time NOA was floundering and trying to find direction. A lot more of the APBA drivers came from the north to race in NOA than NOA drivers went north. AOF was just starting and a lot of us went to Gravois Mills Missouri to see what it was all about. We had a meeting at one of the rooms saturday night and Marshall layed out what he thought were some of the troubles of NOA and how to provide a better show. That was the main influence on how my Dad approached his organzation of races after that. Marshall had seen all this coming almost a year earlier when he and Joe Rome spent several hours discussing it at Alexandria in 1971.

We had a lot of enjoyment being around Marshall and his racing crew. My favorite engine was one that we bought from Marshall and was I think the last 700cc alky engine that Billy Seebold ran while he drove for Marshall. Whenever Johnny Cash's band was playing in Houston, San Antonio or Corpus Christi, he would let us know and we would go to the show. Something Joe Rome told me that I wasn't aware of was the show they put on in San Antonio around 1970 was a benefit for a friend of Johnny and Marshall, Tex Ritter. Tex had lost all he had, (I forgot the details), and the show was to help him out. Ironically, Tex's son John Ritter (one of the stars of Three's Company) died the same day that Johnny Cash did.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

...I wish I would have been able to spend more time visiting with you at the races Randy. I can still visualize looking down the lovely rolling hills overlooking the barns where the horses were. I had no idea how much you guys traveled with the horse shows until Joe and I talked with your Dad just before the DePue Reunion.

[Ron Hill]

I just read on AOL that Marshall died yesterday, he was 83...I have is book on the table next to my TV chair......Always felt good to see it sitting there....

Marshall Grant, Bass Player With Johnny Cash, Dies at 83

By WILLIAM GRIMES

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Marshall Grant, a bass player who, as an original member of Johnny Cash’s band, the Tennessee Two, helped create the group’s pulsing “boom-chicka-boom” sound, died on Sunday in Jonesboro, Ark. He was 83.

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His death was confirmed by the Memorial Park Funeral Home and Cemetery in Memphis. Mr. Grant, who lived in Hernando, Miss., was in Jonesboro for the Johnny Cash Festival, an event to raise money to restore Cash’s childhood home in Dyess, Ark.
Mr. Grant, who played acoustic and electric bass with Cash from 1954 to 1980 and was the road manager for the group, provided the thumping foundation on “Folsom Prison Blues,” “I Walk the Line,” “Ring of Fire,” “The Man in Black” and many other songs and on the live albums that Cash recorded at Folsom prison and San Quentin.
Luther Perkins, the other original member of the Tennessee Two, played lead guitar and created the scratchy rhythm pattern overlaying Mr. Grant’s bass lines. With the addition of the drummer W. S. Holland in 1960, Cash’s backup became the Tennessee Three.
The group’s signature sound came into being overnight — literally — as Mr. Grant recounted on a number of occasions. Shortly after he switched from rhythm guitar to bass, which he did not know how to play, he and his fellow musicians began experimenting with the group’s new configuration.
“We finally got it tuned, and then we stuck adhesive tape all over the neck with the notes on it, and then we started playing little rhythm patterns,” he said on being inducted into the Musicians’ Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville with Mr. Perkins in 2007. “The only thing that we could do was what the world now knows as the boom-chicka-boom-chicka-boom sound that we established that first night.”
Marshall Grant was born on May 5, 1928, near Bryson City, N. C. He moved to Memphis in 1947 and worked as a mechanic at several auto dealerships At the Automobile Sales Company, a Plymouth dealership, he began playing guitar with two fellow employees, Mr. Perkins and A. W. Kernodle, known as Red.
Cash was introduced to the group by his older brother, Roy, the service manager at the dealership, after returning from military service in the Air Force.
Initially, Cash, Mr. Grant and Mr. Perkins all played rhythm guitar, but when a collective decision was made to have Mr. Grant play bass, he bought a battered instrument for $25.
Inspired by Elvis Presley, the group auditioned for Sam Phillips at Sun Records, playing gospel songs, which Mr. Phillips said he could not sell. Mr. Kernodle, who was now playing steel guitar, found the experience unnerving and dropped out of the group.
It was while working out the accompaniment for “Hey Porter,” a song written by Cash, that the group hit on its signature style. After a return audition at Sun, Cash and the Tennessee Two were signed by Phillips, and along with Presley, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis, became part of the brilliant constellation of stars that emerged from Sun’s studios.
Mr. Grant recorded and toured with Mr. Cash for the next 25 years. A teetotaler and nonsmoker, he took on the arduous task of shepherding Cash to performances through the years of his well-documented drug abuse and erratic, self-destructive behavior. “I took every step that he took, I looked out after him,” he said in a 2008 interview with the Web site classicbands.com. “I did everything you could do for a person.”
He chronicled the ups and downs in a memoir, “I Was There When It Happened: My Life With Johnny Cash” (2006). The title alludes to the gospel song that the group played for Phillips at their first audition.
The relationship came to grief in 1980. After a series of disputes, Cash fired Mr. Grant, who sued for wrongful termination and embezzlement of retirement money. The suit was settled out of court.
“Marshall was a solid, solid rock,” Roseanne Cash told The Nashville Tennessean. “I cannot imagine what would have happened on those tours without him. He understood how complicated my dad was, that he was a great musician who had real demons.”
After parting ways with Cash, who died in 2003, Mr. Grant managed the Statler Brothers, with whom he had recorded the 1965 hit “Flowers on the Wall.” He later reconciled with Cash and performed with him onstage in 1999.
In addition to his wife, Etta, survivors include a son, Randall.

[F-12]

Sad to hear of his passing. Great musician, outstanding mechanic and set up man, fierce competitor, and wonderful guy. He will be missed.

[Allen J. Lang]

I am sorry to hear of Marshall's passing. I found him very pleasant to talk to. The racing and music world has lost a great man.

[Gene East]

Marshall was always a gentleman and I was proud to know him and call him my friend.

He spent many days at the shop in Quincy back in the "good old days".

Another great one is racing on "Lake Paradise"

As I was reading the email from Paul Simison this morning stating Marshall was no longer with us, I received an unrelated cell phone call that made the hair of the back of my neck stand on end.

My ring tone is "Ring of Fire", Marshall's ring tone was "I Walk the Line"!

Years ago, The Righteous Brothers had a hit recording with the lyrics,"If there's a rock and roll Heaven, well you know they've got a hell of a band".

Hey listen; the band in Country Music Heaven ain't too shabby either!

Rest in Peace Marshall

[Bill Seebold]

Etta and Randall please accept condolences from the entire Seebold Family, Ralph Donald called me last night to give me the sad news. A lot of people knew and raced against Marshall . I had the honor of Driving for him, we did some thing's that were history making !!!
I talk about that wonderful time in Alexandria when we won 6 - championship, what a week end and crew, Marshall on engines, My DAD (Grandpa) on Propeller's, Ws Holland helping, Jerry Penalton & Duke Johnson crewing, Carl Perkins (Blue Suede Shoes) carrying me to and from the boats. A Great Time in My Life and I'll never forget it, something I owe to Marshall !!!!

Bill Seebold, Jr.

[Gene East]

Great picture Karen. Wouldn't it be great to be that young again and know what we know now.

Who is that behind you looking into the cockpit?

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I was in shock yesterday when Joe called me early in the morning and didn't get much of anything done. I know when Joe calls early, it's usually bad news, but I didn't expect him to tell us we lost Marshall.

I had lowered my U.S. flag to half mast on Sunday in honor of the Seals and others that lost their lives in Afghanistan. Yesterday I replaced the Texas flag at half mast with the Tennessee flag that Marshall gave my Dad. I last flew it at half mast when Johnny Cash died. Marshall and my Dad were great friends and him along with Jerry Waldman, Tim Butts, Joe Rome, Harry Bartolomei and myself were working a plan to professionalize the appearance and shows of PRO racing. Having been a member of one of the greatest and most popular bands ever, it was Marshall's ideas that formed the basis of our plan. The rest was just logistics and publicity.

And Bill.....I was able to get my hands on the last D Konig you drove for Marshall, winning I think two D Runabout titles with it. It was faster than anything else out there despite the slight miss it developed after 9800 rpm's. Before I had it, both Billy Hulgan and Jerry Simison drove it for Marshall. I think everyone who was fortunate to have come in contact with Marshall and Etta must feel very blessed to have done so. Rest in peace Marshall, and god bless Etta and Randy.

[David Mason]

Although I never really knew Marshall, for I was too young at the time he was involved in Pro Racing, I heard a LOT about him. To this day I have never heard anything about Marshall that would indicate anything except excellence. We should all hope to develop character such as his.

May he rest in peace, and race again in the Great Boat Race above. Prayers and thoughts to the entire family.