Marc Phillips, a longtime Birmingham musician and producer, has died after a battle with COVID-19. (Screenshot/ Alabama NewsCenter video)
By Mary Colurso
Marc Phillips, a beloved Birmingham musician known for his work in the 1970s rock band Hotel, has died after a battle with COVID-19.
Phillips’ daughter, Whitney Phillips Thomas, confirmed her father’s death on Thursday via Facebook, where she’d been sharing information on his illness and progress.
“Dad is with Jesus now,” Phillips Thomas said in a Facebook post. “And Heaven rejoices! Our family is so incredibly appreciative of all the love, support and prayers from everyone during this time. We are working on arrangements for a celebration of life service that will likely be live-streamed. We will be posting more info on Facebook as details come together.”
Phillips, a cancer survivor, was hospitalized on Jan. 2 after contracting COVID and struggling with symptoms at home for 18 days, his daughter said. Phillips was moved to an intensive care unit on Jan. 8 and placed on a ventilator four days later, Phillips Thomas said via Facebook.
“Calling all family, friends, and prayers warriors,” Phillips Thomas said in a Jan. 17 Facebook post. “Dad’s condition has worsened and doctors have done all they can to save him. We need a miracle only God can provide. Please join us in prayers for our sweet dad.”
Friends, family members and fans responded with an abundance of support, posting hundreds of comments and sharing the updates Phillips Thomas posted on her Facebook page and her father’s page. Some of these folks had known Phillips for decades, making music with him during his long career.
“There’s a huge hole in my heart, Marc Phillips,” singer-songwriter Alice Bargeron said in a Facebook post. “I will always love you. I know I’m gonna have to try at some point to imagine a life without you in it. But I’ll need a minute. Rest with the angels, my beautiful friend.”
“Dear Brother, You left this world today amidst an outpouring of love and with a level of integrity that reflected you well,” Birmingham musician Rick Carter said via Facebook. “Such a bright light, you were! ... To me you were my friend, my brother, band mate, producer, engineer, co-writer, arranger, fellow dreamer ... You were fearless ... an overall, outright BADASS! I will revere you forever in song and story, my friend. I can see that cocky walk of yours sashaying into Heaven right now.”
Phillips, who was in his late 60s, grew up in Jasper and attended Walker County High School. He played trumpet in the marching band in high school, and played piano, drums and guitar for an assortment of garage bands, according to a 1997 profile in The Birmingham News.
As Phillips confided to reporter Kathy Kemp, he took piano lessons during his childhood, but was less than enthusiastic about them. His real musical revelation came in the 1960s when Phillips saw the Beatles perform on television, on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
“That’s when I thought there might be something to this music stuff,” Phillips said to Kemp. “I decided right then that I wanted to be a Beatle.”
During his teens, Phillips moved closer to realizing his dream as a singer and keyboard player.
“By the time he graduated in 1972, he was part of a brand new, ambitious group called Hotel, a regular attraction at Birmingham’s old Cobblestone nightclub,” Kemp wrote. “So popular was the band on the Southeastern club circuit that (record label) MCA issued consecutive Hotel albums in 1977 and 1978. The band opened shows for a popular act of the day, Little River Band, and found no shortage of temptations on the road. ... After Hotel broke up in 1982, Phillips helped form Split the Dark, another popular local club act that won an MTV contest for unknown bands in the 1980s. But real success remained elusive and the group broke up in 1989.”
Phillips rebounded to become one of the owners of Airwave Production Group, a recording studio in Homewood. In the mid-1990s, he joined the Church at Brook Hills, a non-denominational, evangelical Christian congregation in Birmingham.
As his faith blossomed, Phillips performed at the church on Sundays and began to forge a music ministry. He produced and performed on a recording, “Praise From Our Hearts,” that featured about 60 musicians and singers from the Brook Hills congregation. Phillips later served as worship leader for a youth group at Double Oak Community Church in Mt. Laurel, and led music and worship at Gracepoint Church in Pelham.
Over the years, Phillips continued to make his mark on Birmingham’s music scene as a producer, songwriter and performer in bands such as Groove Daddy.
Birmingham's Marc Phillips, third from right, performed with the band Groove Daddy.(AL.com file photo)
In 2004, Phillips was diagnosed with throat cancer.
‘I was pretty devastated,’’ Phillips said in a 2005 interview with The Birmingham News. ’'I felt like I had been hit by a Mack truck. ... I had to really deal with the fact that I had it and then understand that I was not in control of it, that God was. I had to let Him deal with it and let Him deal with me, as well, and then do what the doctors tell you and pray for the best.’'
In March 2005, several of his fellow musicians united for Phillips Fest, a benefit to help Phillips pay his medical bills. Four bands were on the agenda at Alabama Theatre in Birmingham: Brother Cane (with Alabama native Damon Johnson, who regarded Phillips as a mentor), Rick Carter’s Telluride, the Locust Fork Band and Mr. Lucky, featuring Rick Burgess and Bill ’'Bubba’' Bussey, the radio hosts known as Rick & Bubba.
’'You see all of these musicians coming around to help him because he was first,’' Burgess told reporter Bob Carlton. ’'A lot of these people went on to success of their own, but Marc was kind of the pioneer out in front of everybody. And he used the connections that he made to help other people achieve their dreams in the music industry.’'
Phillips wrote an autobiography, “Pouring It Out On Me,” that came out in 2012 from Crest Publishers.
“Marc Phillips is a godly man of integrity, and it has been my honor to know him for almost 40 years,” James Spann, the ABC 33/40 meteorologist, said in a review of the book on Amazon.com. “Perhaps best known for his musical talent and gifts, I know him better for his servant’s heart, and close relationship with God, even during some of his darkest hour when he was fighting cancer. His unwavering and very real faith is an encouragement to me, and countless others. It is my honor to serve in the ministry alongside Marc.”
Phillips also talked about his cancer diagnosis, music and faith in a 2015 interview with Alabama NewsCenter. (Watch the full video below.)
“I dug deep into scripture and I dug deep into meditation and prayer with the Lord,” Phillips said, “and came to the conclusion that I’m in a win-win situation. And if God heals me, I win. And I’m still here, and I’m doing life, and I’m still composing music and still doing what He has gifted me to do, and I love it more than ever. But if he takes me home, I win. ... I surrendered myself and my disease to God and said, ‘I’m yours. You do with me what you wish.’ And it’s been an incredible journey.”
Marc Phillips shares his reason for singing
https://www.shelbycountyreporter.com/2017/04/17/facing-the-music/
