If Roger Marshall ever gets in the mood to write a heart-tugging country ballad, all he has to do is look back on his own life.

Cancer derailed the area musician’s promising music career in the mid-1980s.  As he was poised at age 54 to take another shot at stage success, doctors discovered his cancer had returned.

But the Warsaw resident isn’t about to let a little bad luck tear him down.

“Nothing is going to stop me,” said Marshall, who will be in Fort Wayne for two performances this weekend with his band, The Law.

Friday, the group will celebrate release of its new CD, “Hiding in the Wide Open,” with a show at A.J.’s on Getz Road.  Sunday, they will team up at the Embassy Theatre with rising country stars Billy Currington and Josh Turner at a benefit concert for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Born in Floyd County, Ky., Marshall has spent most of his life in the Fort Wayne area and around music.

His father was in a country and bluegrass band that played gigs at area nightspots on weekends.  As a youth, however, the younger Marshall gravitated toward the rock music sweeping the nation.

“I wanted to be a musician, and grow up and act like the Beatles,” he said.

Marshall started playing in a band in 1972.

In the 1980s, playing a blend of rock and country, Marshall appeared ready to break through to the big time, he said.  That’s when doctors diagnosed him with testicular cancer.

Radiation put the disease into remission.  But he discovered a lump about three months ago, a sign it had returned.

Surgeons removed the lump.  Marshall now plans to throw himself into taking a second shot at becoming a major country act.

“Unless you go out and put your heart and soul into it,” he said, “you are never going to know.”

He’s excited about the group’s new CD, an upbeat blend of Southern rock-spiced country and a few ballads.  He’s also hoping for big things from “I’m Tired,” a song on the CD that is getting some radio play.  He describes it as “almost an anthem” for working people.

Marshall also has strong support backing him on stage and off.

The band includes his sons Brandon on guitar and Jesse on drums.  Jeff Ude handles keyboards, Bob Van Ryn plays bass, and Gary “Meatball” McMeekin joins in on guitar.

Marshall credits local fans with encouraging him to get back into music after the first bout with cancer.  They’re still out there, pulling for him again now.

“They mean a lot to me and my wife and family,” he said.

more news