ROBERTA NEE ADAMSStaff Writer

Tullahoma native and 1973 graduate of Tullahoma High School Robin Majors was honored this year at the Country Music Awards as the “Unsung Hero of the Year” for the touring awards. Majors is the assistant to the road tour manager for Kenny Chesney, and has been with Chesney for nineteen years now.

Majors attended Motlow State Community College from 1975 through 1977. While there he was offered an internship at Tullahoma’s then WJIG radio.  As the position was unpaid, he declined, but got interested in music with friends David Carr and Sandy Garrett, also of Tullahoma. The guys were in the Ridge Mountain Tower band, all of whose members were University of Tennessee students.

Carr built the band their sound system, and Majors started learning about working sound systems early. When the band opened a Charlie Daniels concert, Daniels was so impressed with their sound system that he had one made for his band. The Marshall Tucker band followed. Carr and Garrett decided to form Mountain Sound of Tennessee, leasing sound equipment

Majors moved to Knoxville and worked with the company. He set up sound systems for bands, sometimes traveling with them. He set up the sound system for Neyland Stadium. Then another opportunity arose when the Marshall Tucker Band offered him the position of sound engineer. And so began his forty nine year career as roadie, sound engineer, and road manager.

Majors has traveled with Bill Monroe, Firefall, and 38 Special. In 1985 he worked on the Michael Jackson Victory Tour, handling ticket sales and accounting. From 1986 to 1987 he worked at TNN, the country network. Later in 1987 he traveled with Guns and Roses handling merchandise.

In 1988 he became tour manager for Highway 101. It was then he knew he wanted to stick with country music bands. He worked as tour manager with other bands as well, including John Berry, Black Hawk, and Montgomery Gentry. In 2006 he went to work with Kenny Chesney, and is still with him today as assistant to the tour manager.

Chesney’s road tour has a crew of ninety seven, with eleven tour busses, and 17 semi-trucks. Managing a tour of that magnitude is an immense undertaking. Planning starts in January, with shows starting in May for 19 weekends. Some tours will do shows in stadiums. One tour did shows in nineteen stadiums, including three shows at Foxboro Stadium in Massachusetts. All three shows sold out to crowds of 180,000. Other tours may be conducted in arenas or amphitheaters. Then there is the residency in Las Vegas. Different venues require changes in set ups, all of which are handled by the road crews.

Concerts typically last about four hours, from opening band through the headline band. Set-up for the event will begin at 8 a.m., load out will finish up around 2 a.m. the following morning. Then it is back on the road for the next show.

Robin’s talents do not all lie behind the scenes. A musician himself, he plays harmonica, and has performed on stage with various artists, including Charlie Daniel, Montgomery Gentry, and Kenny Chesney. One of his “road stories” features a “famous” harmonica. While touring with the Marshall Tucker Band, the crew was staying one night at the same hotel as Bob Dylan’s crew. Dylan’s bus driver, Danny Love, knew that Majors played harmonica, and gave Majors one of Dylan’s harmonicas. He later told Majors that he had to go to three pawn shops to find another to just like it to replace the gift.

In his years on the road, Robin has crisscrossed the country many times and has toured internationally as well. He toured Europe with Highway 101, and again with John Berry, as well as the UK and Australia at least three times. He later traveled with Montgomery Gentry to Germany, Kuwait, and Iraq on a USO tour. 

Not all of Majors’ life has been music and traveling. In 2014 he was diagnosed with liver cancer and was facing a liver transplant. Shortly after receiving the diagnosis, he ran into longtime friend Mark Aguilar (guitarist for Jefferson Starship, KC and the Sunshine Band, and others) who had recently undergone a liver transplant himself. Robin tells that Aguilar was his rock during the ordeal, and helped him immensely through the process. The transplant was done in Nashville at Vanderbilt Hospital, and Robin has been an advocate of organ donation since then, and regularly attends functions Vanderbilt hosts for organ recipients.

Asked what he thought the downside of touring was, he replied that getting stuck on the road with weather delays was very boring. He also found that while being in a city with free time to visit the sights, he missed having loved ones with him to share that experience. When asked what the best thing about the last forty nine years was, he immediately answered, “Raising three good children.” He has three children, Anna, 41, Emma, 31, and Gus, 28.

Robin currently lives just outside of Nashville with Misty, his wife of 21 years. When not on tour, he tends to his bee hives, collecting Tennessee Wildflower Honey, which he generously shares with friends and family. Yes, he has stories. Many, many stories. Maybe he will write a book.