'Great to be home': Massillon native and Tim McGraw drummer playing Neon Nights in Stark

Shawn Fichter doesn't know what path his life would have taken if he hadn't joined a songwriting friend on a trip to Nashville a few years after graduating from Washington High School in Massillon.

Accountant. Teacher. Police officer. Software engineer. Artist. Nothing came to mind when the question was posed Thursday afternoon during a break from his job as touring drummer for country music superstar Tim McGraw.

Fichter, a 1988 Washington High grad, will be performing with McGraw when he headlines the Neon Nights music festival Saturday at Clay's Resort Jellystone Park in Stark County. Neon Nights starts on Friday with headliner Travis Tritt. Other artists during the two-day event include Rodney Atkins and Wynonna Judd.

Tickets are for sale at https://www.theneonnights.com/.

"I don't know how to explain it, but I always felt like I never really had a choice," said Fichter, who played in the symphonic and jazz bands at Washington High School while playing weekend gigs with rock and country bands. "It was something I was so set on. Doing music does something for me, and it's kind of my No. 1 hobby. When I'm not working playing music, I'm usually listening to music or writing new music.

"I just can't help it," the 53-year-old percussionist said. "That's just what I feel like I'm meant to do, and I'm very fortunate because I know there's a lot of talented people. I'm just very thankful I'm able to keep playing music."

Friday fun Hardcore country: Neon Nights fans cheer on Tracy Byrd, Rodney Atkins through sun and rain

Fichter has been McGraw's touring drummer since 2012. He previously toured with Trisha Yearwood.

Fichter lives in Nashville with his wife of more than 20 years, Roberta, who is also from Massillon. They have two sons, Dylan, 21, and Michael, 19.

During the rest of the phone interview, Fichter discussed touring with McGraw, visiting his hometown, making his own music in the studio, and his love for Massillon Tiger high school football. Highlights from the conversation follow:

Returning to Ohio for concerts

Previous Ohio shows included McGraw headlining a concert at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium during the 2016 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival. McGraw also headlined a show at Blossom Music Center last summer.

Another home state appearance was in 2012 when McGraw and Kenny Chesney co-headlined a tour and performed at Cleveland Browns Stadium.

"It's always great," Fichter said. "I usually see quite a bit of family, and that really makes it great to be home and visit and do the show."

"We're going to take a tour bus from Nashville Friday night, and we'll get in Saturday morning," he said of Neon Nights. "I think my brother's just going to pick me up, and I'll spend the day at my mom's house (in Massillon) and see more family. That will be fun. I'll get the whole day to visit."

What's life on the road like these days?

"I'm pretty fortunate that with Tim's schedule, he doesn't do like a ton of dates all year-round, so part of it is probably easier than in the past. I've done longer tours where you stay away from home much longer, so the schedule is a little easier I guess than it used to be.

"... I like getting out and playing the shows. The traveling part is what definitely takes most of the time, and that's the toughest part, but we have it pretty nice. I'm thankful I get a lot of time at home and can do recording sessions and do other things and work on my own music and things like that."

Why is Tim McGraw so successful?

"He definitely has something, and for one thing he's a really hard worker. ... I can't really speak for him, you know, but I just feel like he works hard at staying current and is constantly checking out new tunes and wanting to make great albums, and he's really motivated to put great shows together.

"And I just think he has a really high energy live performance. I think people still love the shows and get a lot out of it."

What is a Tim McGraw show like these days?

"Every year he'll mix up the set list and incorporate different songs, and there's a lot of the classic hits we do, and almost every year, we kind of do a fresh version of those, and so if you've seen the show three or four years ago, you'll hear a lot of the same tunes, but you'll hear some slight revisions to those songs to keep them fresh, and I think this year it's probably the most packed with his biggest hits we've ever done in one tour, and I think that's just been great. People seem to love hearing of course the songs they know and spanning several decades."

Playing drums for Faith Hill and Peter Frampton

"I rarely do any other shows like bigger live shows other than Faith Hill (McGraw's wife). She has toured on and off sometimes with Tim. Sometimes we've done a few shows just of hers, so it's the same band that will play for either one of them, or both, and then back in January, I played a show with Peter Frampton, who I used to tour with in the mid-2000s ... so that was a blast to get back together with him and play his music."

"Peter is great. We've remained friends for a few decades, and he's actually played on two of my albums where we wrote together and he played guitar, and he's in his 70s, and he's so enthusiastic about music and so creative, and he's just incredible sounding, so I was thrilled that he would play on one of my records, and it was great to do that show with him in January."

Making his own music

"I play sessions for a lot of different people, some country artists, some artists in rock or whatever, and then I've been making my own records for a while now. I think I've put out six albums on my own. It's instrumental music, so it's not the widest audience; it's just something I really enjoy doing.

"I bring in a lot of other musicians. I play drums, and usually write the song on piano and usually I'll play piano or keyboards, but sometimes I hire an additional piano player and a lot of my friends. There are really great musicians (in Nashville). I'll add their guitar parts and bass."

"... It would probably be considered instrumental rock ... and it lends itself a little more towards jazz. Some of it sounds a little bit more like movie soundtrack kind of stuff. I just let each song go wherever it wants to go."

Rooting for the Massillon Tigers and Cleveland Browns

"I love to watch football, and there's been times in the past several years where Massillon was in the (high school) playoffs. I got on my computer and bought the game on whatever site that is where you can stream it live, and me and my family would watch. Yeah, I'm still rooting for the Browns and Massillon all the time.

"I remember watching Brian Sipe and the 'Cardiac Kids.' Man, that was really exciting. I'm hoping one day we get all the way to the Super Bowl. That would be amazing."

Reach Ed at ebalint@gannett.com

On X (formerly Twitter): @ebalintREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Massillon native and Tim McGraw drummer comes home for Neon Nights