MACON, Ga. — A Macon musician is taking his talents to center stage to celebrate being alive.
Joey Stuckey, a Maconite and award-winning singer and songwriter, is a survivor of a brain tumor that left him blind along with other health challenges.
However, he didn't let those challenges stop him from making a life for himself.
At one year old, Stuckey had a brain tumor and lost his eyesight, sense of smell, and at the time it could possibly have taken his life.
"Obviously here I am, and I'm alive," Stuckey said. "I walk and talk, probably talk too much. If I didn't have the surgery, I was for sure going to die. But if I did have it there was still a good chance I would die or if I survived I would never walk or talk."
Instead of living in fear, Stuckey's family wanted him to live his truth. Stuckey knew he had a passion for music and for his community.
In 2017, he gathered Central Georgia artists and musicians to celebrate the day he successfully survived the brain tumor surgery and called it his "Alive Day".
"What the world needs is a day of affirmation where we can stop our busy lives, get together, and celebrate each other's triumphs and revel in the joy of life through the best vehicle I know which is music," Stuckey said.
From a traumatic experience to a triumphant life, Stuckey now mentors up-and-coming artists and helps them reach their goals.
With the 6th Annual Alive Day Music Festival happening on Friday, Stuckey said it's a day dedicated to positivity and to uplifting the community.
"Focus on the solution and not the problem so we acknowledge our limitations without defining ourselves in terms of those limitations. That's really what Alive Day is about when you get down to the heart of it," Stuckey said.
This year, the Joey Stuckey Alive Day Music Festival will be at the Douglass Theatre from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., and it's free!
Performers Tom Rule, Pam Bedwell, Nick Malloy, and QuestionATL will take center stage before Joey Stuckey and his band end the night.