Two country music artists will be in town for the unveiling of a veterans monument at Tooele City’s Veterans Memorial Park on Nov. 10.
J. Marc Bailey will come from North Carolina and Jamie Lee Thurston will come from Tennessee for the unveiling of Stansbury Park sculptor Dan Snarr’s statue of World War II veteran Robert Calder.
Following a one-hour unveiling ceremony, Bailey and Thurston will perform a free concert in the parking lot west of the park that will begin at 3 p.m., according to Jon Gossett, president of the Life’s Worth Living Foundation.
The foundation raised over $50,000 to place the statue in the park, not only as a monument to veterans, both living and dead, but also to call attention to the alarming number of veterans who made it home from war, but later died by suicide, according to Gossett.
“An average of over 20 veterans are lost each day to death by suicide,” Gossett said.
This will be Bailey’s third appearance in Tooele County in the last 11 months.
Gosset, who has known Bailey since they were in third-grade, invited Bailey to perform for the Hunter family benefit concert at Tooele High School in December 2017.
Bailey, who is a Nashville, Tennessee, recording artist, also performed a concert at Tooele City’s Pratt Aquatic Center Park following the city’s Fourth of July parade.
Bailey also recorded “Some Gave All,” and donated all proceeds from downloads of the song to the completion and installation of the veterans memorial statue.
“It’s going to be great to be in Tooele and see all the efforts for this memorial come to fruition,” Bailey said.
Bailey said he patterns his music after Chris LeDoux, a singer who also was a champion rodeo rider from Biloxi, Mississippi. LeDoux died in 2005 in Casper, Wyoming.
“I met him (LeDoux) and became friends with him and played some shows with him,” Bailey said. “His music was a super influence for me. The style is rodeo-style, rock-’n’-roll.”
Thurston, who is also a Nashville, Tennessee, country music artist, said he has been singing since he was three years old. He started traveling with his father’s band when he was 15 years old.
“I play a variety of music including AC/CD, Lynryrd Skynyrd, Bad Company, The Doors, Jerry Reed, and Deep Purple,” Thurston said. “The only thing I don’t play is pop country.”
Thurston said he was introduced to the struggles of returned veterans, including post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, a few years ago after talking to a friend’s brother who had been deployed in Iraq,
“You can’t even imagine what these veterans have seen and had to do,” Thurston said.
Thurston, who suffers with severe depression, said he can understand what veterans mean when they talk about being in a “dark place.”
“When you’re in that dark place there is no light at all,” he said. “Even the smallest sliver of light can help you get going in the right direction.”
Through his music, Thurston wants to provide that light for veterans.
Thurston wrote and performed “Ghost in His Eyes,” a song that describes what it’s like for soldiers who return home to face what Thurston describes as the invisible wounds of war.
When Thurston received a call from Gossett asking him to perform at the unveiling ceremony for the veterans statue, he said he was excited to have a part in the Life’s Worth Living Foundation’s cause.
“I’m willing to do anything to help out those that go into that dark place,” Thurston said. “And music is what I do.”
The Veterans Statue Monument Unveiling begins at 2 p.m. on Nov. 10 in the Tooele City Veterans Memorial Park at the southwest corner of Main and Vine streets.
The free concert will follow from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the parking lot immediately west of the park. Gosset said he has indoor plans for the concert in case of inclement weather that he will announce, if needed, during the ceremony.
“The concert is free,” Gosset said. “The performers are donating their time. This is our thank you for the community and for our donors, which ranged from $20 to $17,000.”
