Brit Turner, the drummer for seminal Southern rock country-crossover band Blackberry Smoke, has died. He was 57.
Turner was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a cancer of the brain, and underwent surgery to remove the tumor in November 2022 before continuing to tour with Blackberry Smoke. His death was confirmed in a post on the band’s social media pages.
“It is with the deepest sorrow that we inform everyone that our brother Bri Turner has moved on from this life,” the band wrote. “If you had the privilege of knowing Brit on any level, you know he was the most caring, empathetic, driven and endearing person one could ever hope to meet. Brit was Blackberry Smoke’s True North, the compass that instituted the ideology that will continue to guide this band.”
For over 20 years, Blackberry Smoke has continued to carry the torch of Southern rock in the tradition of the Allman Brothers Band and other luminaries. After forming in Atlanta in 2000, the group became the first independently released artist in modern history to reach #1 on the Billboard Country Album chart with its 2003 debut, Bad Luck Ain’t No Crime. Across eight albums spanning 21 years—including the band’s most recent release, Be Right Here, which arrived last month—the band has also enjoyed significant success in the country market, touring with stadium acts like Eric Church.
Born in Mt. Clemons, MI on May 8th, 1966, Turner got his Southern soul from his upbringing in Smyrna, GA. A young metalhead, he developed an early affinity for Judas Priest and Iron Maiden along with other harder stuff like Rush and AC/DC. Brit and his brother, Blackberry Smoke bassist Richard Turner, even opened for Maiden, Metallica, Motörhead, and others in the late 1980s/early 1990s before, as Brit put it in a 2015 Modern Drummer guest piece, “I got the heavy metal out of my system.” After that, “it was on to straight up rock ’n’ roll, Americana, Southern rock.”
Turner was an undeniable presence with Blackberry Smoke, from his thunderous percussion to his wiley beard and affable, quick wit. When Rolling Stone pointed out that his kick drum was emblazoned with “Rock & Roll,” during a 2015 interview with about the band’s country chart success, he quipped back, “I have another one that says ‘Country.’”
With Turner behind the kit, Blackberry Smoke straddled the line between introspective country lyricism and ass-kicking Southern rock n’ roll. The band has toured with everyone from Zac Brown Band to Lynyrd Skynyrd to Tedeschi Trucks Band to Guns N’ Roses. Despite its hard-touring ways, Blackberry Smoke maintains a familial connection with its hometown, returning to Atlanta for annual Thanksgiving concerts.
The band struck a mainstream breakthrough with The Whippoorwill, which went #1 on iTunes and Amazon and #8 on Billboard Country Albums without a video or radio play. The hits kept coming in 2015 with Holding All the Roses and breakout singles “Too High” and “Rock and Roll Again”, propelling the album to #1 on the country charts.
Despite his cancer diagnosis in fall of 2022, Turner continued to tour with Blackberry Smoke. He sat out a series of shows back in December, with Kent Aberle subbing in behind the kit (the band has made no official announcement regarding Turner’s permanent replacement). Turner played drums on the band’s most recent album, Be Right Here, and is also credited with the art direction, a role he took on throughout Blackberry Smoke’s career.
“I’ve recorded and performed with George Jones, Jamey Johnson, Billy Gibbons, Slash, Grace Potter, Rickey Medlocke, Rich Robinson, Luther Dickinson, the whole damn Zac Brown Band, Bobby Keys, and Blondie Chaplin from the Rolling Stones for gosh sakes!” Turner wrote in Modern Drummer. “But more importantly, I’ve played with Blackberry Smoke in every hole in the wall from Bangor, Maine, to Marseille, France, on to the Hollywood Bowl and now Madison Square Garden (with the Zac Brown Band). This climb has been, for the most part, on our own terms. We’re proud of our hard-won accomplishments and are glad that we’ve earned the respect of some amazing people.”
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