Blackberry Smoke drummer Brit Turner died recently at the age 57. The Southern rock band announced the news on Sunday (March 3) through a Facebook post.
"It is with the deepest sorrow that we inform everyone that our brother Brit Turner has moved on from this life," the post reads. "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. Brit has battled glioblastoma since his diagnosis in the fall of 2022 and fought every day. We ask for prayers for his family and band brothers. More information on arrangements will be forthcoming. Thank you to everyone who has supported and been there for Brit and his family through this fight."
Fellow Georgia-based rocker and former Katy Perry collaborator Butch Walker was among the commenters on the post.
"My longtime brother has moved on. I am heartbroken and have been crying all night but I know he's finally at peace. Long live Brit Turner," Walker wrote.
Brit and his brother, bassist Richard Turner, were among the Atlanta-based Southern rock band's co-founders. Beforehand, the siblings played together in the Atlanta thrash metal group Nihilist.
The Turner brothers have joined their fellow band founders —singer and guitarist Charlie Starr and lead guitarist Paul Jackson— onstage and in the studio since 2000.
The band's 2015 album Holding All the Roses topped the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, making it the first independent release to reach No. 1 in modern history.
On Feb. 25, Brit's widow Shannon Sorrels Turner had posted on Instagram about the couple's 20th anniversary.
"[Twenty] years married to the love of my life... this is what I get and I will happily take it," she wrote. "Loving you is the easiest and most natural thing I do. When others say marriage is hard work we always say no, not for us. I will love you forever."
