As Blue as Gold: In Memory of Brian Gray
As Blue as Black, in memory of Brian Gray
by Jason Jones
October 18, 2024
A rockstar, a tattooer, an artist, a man with a highly underrated t-shirt collection, and a human in the best way, Brian Gray leaves behind a heartbroken family, including his wife, Katie, along with a weary legion of family, friends, bandmates, and the rest of us lucky enough to pay witness to his legend in the flesh. Maybe you’ll carry the memories of him playing guitar on stage with you everywhere you go; maybe you’ll move around the world with his art on your skin, his songs in your mind; maybe you’ll keep a conversation with him in your soul for the rest of your days; and maybe you wouldn’t be where you are now without Brian Gray in your life.
I’m writing this now because I know for certain that I will never be the same now. I’m writing this for myself, selfishly, trying to make sense of the senselessness of this loss, a triumphant loss with enough gravity to turn me inside out a hundred times over. Brian has been an inspiration, a role model, an otherworldly artist deserving of adoration since I first met him, more than a decade ago, playing solo gigs with an acoustic guitar, until the day that we last spoke, this past Saturday, at his band War Chile’s show. The last thing we talked about was his iconic white guitar with the stickers, the one he used for playing slide.
Barely old enough to be in a bar, seeing Brian Gray’s gigs was a revelation to me, a portal into the power of live, local music. As a kid my parents took me to dozens of big concerts, Aerosmith, John Forgerty, Tom Petty, and The Rolling Stones among them, ensuring I’d be a lifelong showgoer, but never did I imagine that I’d see an authentic rockstar play a bar and then get to hang out with them after the gig and talk music, until I saw Brian Gray. He changed my life and I’ve been firmly cemented in whichever local music scene I’ve found myself ever since. It’s safe to say that I never have and never will see a solo acoustic show more entertaining, rocking, or satisfying than a Brian Gray show. His setlists were treasure troves of flawless songs written by outlaws, ranging from Bob Dylan to The Misfits, from Hendrix to Hank Williams, from Elvis Costello to Bruce Springsteen, from Son House to Scott Biram, and none of ‘em were any better than his originals.
Back then Brian was an apprentice in a tattoo shop, but soon he would step into the limelight as one of the busiest, most celebrated tattooers in Virginia, doing work in both the Roanoke Valley and Harrisonburg, before opening his own shop in Salem called Sly Devil. There’s a huge community of folks connected forever by his ink. Much like his original music, he was a master of traditional designs crafted with singular finesse that beam with unflinching attitude. Everybody fortunate enough to hold his ink near and dear is far cooler for it.
As tributes, condolences, and goodbyes continue pouring in from every corner of social media, the spirit of community and camaraderie that Brian cultivated in the name of music, art, and good living is undeniable. It is a mighty void today that we are tasked with filling, a black hole if you will. The legacy Brian Gray leaves behind is unimpeachable, one that saw him leave an indelible mark on the skin and in the souls of so many of us around Virginia. I was personally able to see him play music with his bands Stadanko, Aurora Observatory, Mexican Seafood, and War Chile, plus many shows with Mad Iguanas and Foster Burton. In a career that ran the gamut from the blues, country, classic rock, grunge, folk, indie, new wave, jam band, punk, prog, and metal, Brian built a following of the savviest music lovers in town.
Last weekend at Parkway Brewing in Salem, I saw my last Brian Gray show, with War Chile: there were punks, salesmen, bartenders, hippies, truckers, metalheads, barbers, rockers, lovers, cowboys, poets, line cooks, and nurses in the audience, it was a family of friends brought together for the best of reasons, in celebration of a life and living it to the max—little did we know. A couple days after the show, a friend of mine said, “I think that’s the best War Chile show I’ve seen yet,” which says a lot about the man, the artist, our friend, gone too soon, Mr. Brian Gray. <>
Photo credit: Openhead Takes Photos