Growing up in Apopka, Sawyer Brown keyboardist and singer Gregg “Hobie” Hubbard had a pretty big dream, but he wasn’t sure it would ever come true.
The dream was a career in music – playing the piano, singing, and writing.
After 38 years as a key member of country music band Sawyer Brown, it’s safe to say that Hubbard’s dream has been fulfilled and then some.
“I think there were moments where the dream almost felt like too big of a dream,” Hubbard said during a telephone interview.
“There were moments growing up where I knew I hoped I would get to do something that involved writing and music, but there was that thought, ‘Oh, I wonder if you do it for a living, would that make you stop enjoying music.’ I couldn’t risk that in my head, but fortunately, that is not the case because there is probably not a day that goes by that I don’t listen to music. Not ours, but somebody else’s.”
A 1978 Apopka High School graduate, Hubbard thinks he might have followed his parents, C.W. and Myrtle Hubbard, as an educator had that dream not come to fruition.
“What I thought about was I would have loved to write for a newspaper or magazine, but probably the apple wouldn’t have fallen far from the tree and I would have been a teacher,” he said.
Both of his parents are gone now, but they had influence on thousands of Apopka High School students through the years, especially Hubbard’s mother, who was a senior English teacher, Apopka High Senior Class sponsor, and gentle corrector of grammar for former students many years out of her classroom and even those who never were in her class.
Apopka Proud concert
Hubbard and Sawyer Brown, including fellow Apopkan Mark Miller, will team up with Apopka native John Anderson for the Apopka Proud concert on Saturday, May 4, at the Apopka amphitheater that is located at the Northwest Recreation Complex off Jason Dwelley Parkway. While tickets for seats under the amphitheater covering sold out very quickly a few weeks ago, seating on the vast lawn area at the amphitheater will be free. Parking will be $10 per vehicle.
The full story appears on page 1A of the March 22, 2019 issue of The Apopka Chief. To read it, pick up a copy at one of many Apopka-area locations or subscribe today.
