“It’s going to be a great culmination of everything I’ve strived for my entire career,” he said. “There’s going to be people that have seen us for the last 25 years, and there’s going to be people that have never seen us, but they are traveling from out of town just so they can be there. There’s going to be a ton of my family there, close friends and musician friends.”
From playing the first Middletown Blues Festival with Gregg Clark in 1999 at only 11-years old, to traveling the world more than 25 years later, Bratcher’s homecoming show will be a memorable night.
“A lot of it comes with being older and never losing pride in my hometown. It built my family for generations, and I’ve always called Middletown home. It will always be home,” said Bratcher. “We’ve been playing theaters for the last few years, and it really seems to fit what we’re doing.”
Bratcher has wanted to play at the Sorg for a long time. and he’s looking forward to the concert.
“I’m looking forward to the very first note that we’ll play, when I’m standing in the middle of the stage at the Sorg, looking out and seeing all the people that made it possible for me to be standing there,” he said.
Bratcher has played with and opened for names like Ted Nugent, Little Texas, Blue Oyster Cult, Buddy Guy, Joe Bonamassa, Chris Duarte, Anthony Gomes, Foghat, Lonnie Mack, Walter Trout, .38 Special, Styx, Peter Frampton, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Matthew and Gunnar Nelson and many more.
“Every year, I want to do something new, exciting, and something that will get people excited about where we are headed with our career, and people enjoy seeing us in theaters. It’s a perfect fit,” Bratcher said.
Dad life
Recently, Bratcher has been performing across the Tri-state with The Danny Frazier Band. He and his family currently reside outside of Dayton.
“The dad life is a real thing, and I’ve got a two-year-old now, and the time that I’m not busy playing music, and other stuff, I’m taking care of him and my wife, and doing grown-up stuff. Things I didn’t ever think I’d be doing when I was 21 years-old playing 300 shows a year,” said Bratcher.
With Father’s Day right around the corner, he reflected on what being a father means to him.
Whether he is out at the family farm riding a tractor with his son, or playing music at shows, Scotty said he enjoys fatherhood and watching his son grow up.
“The greatest thing in the world is to look in the rearview mirror, when I’ve got the baby boy in the back seat, and he’s head-banging to music, and learning words to songs, and songs he has no idea what he’s singing, but he knows the words. It’s so amazing to see him excited about music, and he has a genuine interest in all the things I’ve always been interested in. Whether that’s being on the farm with tractors and animals, or music, or cars. Anything with a motor or a speaker, he’s into it. He’s very much like me in that way,” Bratcher said.
Growing up, he learned of life-lessons from his dad, such as the value of hard work and what it means to make sacrifices for your family.
Bratcher has always looked up to his dad, and he talks about what a hero he’s been. His dad, Scott Bratcher, is a second-generation AK Steel/Armco worker (now Cleveland-Cliffs.)
“I tell everybody, if I can be half the dad that my dad was to me, it would be an extreme success. That’s all I can ever hope to be is half of what my dad was to me. He was the greatest, and he taught me how to be driven. Another big lesson that I learned from him was if you want something, you have to work for it. Don’t expect anybody to give you anything, and become as good as you can be at as many things as you can be, so that there’s no reason for anybody to ever tell you, you can’t do something,” Bratcher said.
Scotty also shared about the time his parents spent every dime they had to buy him a PA system, so that he could play shows at 11 and 12 years old.
“They believed in me so much that they spent their last dime, and now as an adult, I understand what that means. My parents have been such a blessing and I appreciate the sacrifices they made even more. Now, I what it’s like now to be down to my last dime. I can’t imagine what they spent on me, because they had faith in me. My dad was the one that showed me my first guitar. He bought me my first guitar, and he taught me everything he could possibly teach me, to a certain point, and he spent every waking moment trying to help me.
“If he wasn’t at work, he was with me, or my sister, or both of us, just being a dad. That was his whole life. He worked hard so that he could be a dad when he got off work,” Bratcher said.
His parents will be at the show, sitting in the balcony, by request. Scott Sr. was also born and raised in Middletown, until he was 10 years old. Then, the family moved out to Preble County, where the family still had a Middletown address. When he grew up, the Sorg was a movie theater.
“I don’t know that he’s been in there in decades, so he’s excited to see the room, and he’s really excited that I’ll be the first show that he’s seen there since he was a kid, and that’s how it is for me, too. I remember riding in the car when I was a kid, and going by the theater, and just dreaming of being able to play there one day. Somehow, the stars aligned this year, and we made it happen.”
When Bratcher first announced the show on Facebook Live, he said more than a third of the room was already sold before he got offline.
MORE DETAILS
Scotty Bratcher will make his Sorg Opera House debut at 8 p.m. June 7 with special guest CFG & The Family. Advance tickets are $20, and day-of-show tickets are $30. For more information, and to purchase tickets, go to www.sorgoperahouse.org/tickets/scottybratcher.
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