T. Graham Brown will perform at the John Hunt Auditorium at the UGA Tifton campus May 31 at 7:30 p.m.

TIFTON — T. Graham Brown remembers the first real band he ever heard growing up in Arabi.

He was sleeping on the floor next to the window in his parents’ house, something he did on hot nights.

A set of railroad tracks ran just past the backyard and across the tracks was a black church.

“The first band I ever heard was a black church band across the tracks,” said Brown.

That church band combined with his transistor radio to give him a musical education and a view of the world.

“At night, that transistor radio was awesome,” said Brown. “You could scroll through and pick up stations all through the United States. It was real exciting, hearing all the stuff from far away, dreaming about it. My folks would yell at me to turn it off. I’d be hiding underneath the sheets.

“Hearing all of those stations, you’d know there was a big world out there.”

Brown eventually moved from Arabi to Athens, a change he compares to “going to Oz.”

“It was awesome,” said Brown. “I loved it. I thought I had gone to the Emerald City. I liked Arabi, don’t get me wrong. But Athens was years ahead.”

Brown was playing baseball, but “not getting anywhere,” he said.

When a local Holiday Inn offered him $150 a week to sing, he asked his baseball coach what he should do.

“He said ‘Tony, if I was you, I’d go sing.’ That was the end of my baseball career and the start of my music career,” said Brown.

That music career started in the 70s, got a big boost in the 80s when he signed a record deal, and continues to now, as Brown readies to play the John Hunt Auditorium at the UGA Tifton Campus on May 31.

“We had a good run,” said Brown. “We had a bunch of hits. But I’m having more fun now. We’re just wandering around. And now we’re going to wander to Tifton, with the best country singer around right now, Gene Watson.”

Lorrie Morgan will join them as well.

Brown’s last few albums were the 2015 releases “Forever Changed,” “Christmas with T. Graham Brown” and the compilation album, “Snapshot.”

He’s got a couple of records in the works. He hopes to do another gospel album and to head back to Muscle Shoals — where he cut his first two albums — and record an R&B album.

And there’s still a couple of musicians he’d like to record something with: Sam Moore of Sam & Davie, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, the Rolling Stones, Chris Staples.

But this week he’s got an appointment in Tifton to keep. He might stop in Arabi on the way.

Brown plays the UGA Tifton Campus May 31. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available through Ticket Alternative at https://www.ticketalternative.com/venue/tifton-conference-center-tifton-georgia.