‘He was the Johnny Cash of Ireland, he’ll never be replaced’ – country stars pay heartfelt tribute
THE so-called ‘First Lady of Irish Country Music’ Susan McCann said the song that launched her career pretty well sums up the legend that was Big Tom McBride.
Her 1977 number one ‘Big Tom is Still the King’ not only kick-started her career, but the lyrics encapsulated the huge popularity of the singer back then and today, she said.
“Big Tom was so massive at the time and still is,” McCann (69), said from her home in Newry, Co Down, yesterday. And while the song propelled her to the top of the Irish charts at the time, she said it was Big Tom’s popularity that helped to carve out a career in Irish country music that she still enjoys today.
“All of his fans bought it (the song) and they stuck with me through the years,” she told the Irish Independent.
“I was known all over Ireland because of Tom.”
It wasn’t just McCann’s own career that took off thanks to
Big Tom: “If it hadn’t been for him, I don’t think country music would have taken off in Ireland.”
And the man credited with coining the phrase “Country and Irish” was such a draw that even the Troubles didn’t deter fans from travelling across the Border and elsewhere to see his shows in the 1970s.
“Everyone flocked to see him from across Ireland,” she said.
“He could have played six nights a week.”
Yet despite his massive popularity, he never let his fame go to his head.
“He was the total opposite of a diva,” McCann said. “He was a very ordinary man. Tom loved the normal things in life and I don’t think Big Tom realised how big he was.
“He was like a father figure to every one of us.”
Along with performing on the same bill with him many times over the years, McCann fondly recalled chatting with him after gigs: “After the show, he would talk to you for hours.”
But he would also talk to anyone, she added.
McCann remembered Big Tom had once told her that “the people who come to see you have to be treated like royalty”. “He said, ‘If they don’t come out to you, then you go out to them’,” she said. Along with his down-to-earth appeal, Big Tom had a truly unique voice. “Tom didn’t try to sound like anyone else. You could hear his Castleblayney accent,” she said. “He’ll never be replaced.”
Fellow Irish country music legend Philomena Begley – known as the ‘Queen of Irish Country Music’ – also paid tribute to her “king”.
“I’m devastated,” she said yesterday.
“He was the Johnny Cash of Ireland.
“We’re all devastated. There’s only one Big Tom. Nobody else sounded like him.”
She laughed when she recalled how some singers from America once insisted on drinking only Perrier bottled water while Tom was happy enough with tap water and “a wee drop of whiskey”.
As for his infectious music?
“If you couldn’t dance to Big Tom, you just couldn’t dance,” she said.