Musician George McCorkle dead at 60

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LEBANON, Tenn., June 30 (UPI) -- One of the founding members of the Marshall Tucker Band, George McCorkle has died at age 60 in Lebanon, Tenn., after being diagnosed with cancer.

The man who wrote the Southern rock anthem "Fire on the Mountain" died Friday at University Medical Center, The (Nashville) Tennessean reported Saturday.

"George was such a big, big part of the sound of that original Marshall Tucker Band," said Charlie Daniels, a friend of McCorkle. "If you took him out of it, the Tuckers would not sound like the same band. He played that electric guitar wide open."

The Marshall Tucker Band was a bridge between musical styles in the 1970s, helping bring rock fans to country and to bring country fans to rock and blues.

"Kids aren't ashamed of country anymore, and they're not ashamed of blues," McCorkle told writer Frye Gaillard in an interview that was included in Gaillard's "Watermelon Wine: The Spirit of Country Music" in 1978. "And when you mix it all together and the music gets to cooking, it's a pretty ... exciting thing to be around."

McCorkle is survived by his wife Vivienne and son Justin McCorkle.