Amid firecracker fun, singing of an unsung hero

For 70 years, the military life of Josh Turner’s grandfather was tucked away in a drawer, unseen.
For 10 more, it was in a songbook, unrecorded. “Everything happens for a reason,” Turner said, and there’s a right time for things.
Now is the time. At “A Capitol Fourth” (8 p.m. July 4 on PBS, rerunning at 9:30), he’ll sing “Unsung Hero,” a tribute to one guy — or to millions.
Turner (shown here) will also do “Firecracker,” which amuses him. “That song has nothing to do with fireworks,” he said, but people like to hear it on the holiday.
“A Capitol Fourth” is like that, mixing some serious moments with lots of festive ones. This year, it will have the Beach Boys and Temptations, plus gospel great Yolanda Adams, contemporary Christian singer Lauren Daigle, jazz’s Trombone Shorty, and two country acts, LoCash and Turner.
As a South Carolina kid, Turner said, the Fourth was “just shootin’ fireworks and grillin’ and having fun.” Later, he learned about the serious backdrop:
“On the Fourth of July in 1776, everyone was scared to death. We were going to war with the most powerful country in the world …. The real time to celebrate was 1783, when we actually beat those guys.”
In 1942, it was a serious time for many regular folks like his grandfather.
This was a quiet guy, Turner said, who worked in a factory, went to church and “had the most impeccable garden anywhere.” His son was an insurance agent who married a teacher turned at-home mom; his grandson, Josh, became a star with four singles at No. 1 on the country charts and two (including “Firecracker”) at No. 2.
During a Christmas visit to his uncle in 2014, Turner asked to see the old military records. He learned his grandfather spent a year-and-a-half in Europe as a medic and received a Purple Heart.
These were specifics Turner hadn’t heard before. His grandfather, as the song says, “was a man of few words about everything.” He wrote the song, sang it occasionally, but waited another decade to record it.
What the grandson shares is a life of consistency — church and music (even as a teen, he was singing bass in a gospel quartet) and family and Belmont University.
“I didn’t want to go to college,” he admits. “I hated school …. I was all about huntin’ and fishin’ and sports and girls.”
Then he read about Belmont. “I thought, ‘Man, I could actually go and major in country music.’ That’s the way I thought, anyway.”
He spent a couple years at a local college in South Carolina, to save money (and, for a year, to do vocal rest and learn how to preserve his voice). Then it was on to Nashville and Belmont, where his life changed.
It was after a long night in the library, studying Hank Williams, that he wrote “Long Black Train.” Later, when he introduced it at the Grand Ole Opry, he drew a standing ovation in the middle of the song.
And it was at Belmont that he met Jennifer Ford, a classical-music student. “We never really dated at Belmont, though.”
That was later, when both were working in Nashville. Now they’re married. For years, she toured with him, sang back-up; she also starred in the smoldering video for “Your Man,” his first No. 1 hit. More recently, their four sons joined him for a Christmas album.
Now the oldest son is headed to Belmont. Turner has also stayed with the same label, MCA Nashville. There’s a consistency to all this; his grandfather, the immaculate gardener and unsung hero, would understand.