Anthony Davis still loves to hit the low notes, but is happy in his calling in law enforcement

By John Herndon, KentuckySings.com

CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. – The smile on his face left no doubt that Anthony Davis knew he was where he should be for the weekend.

A Southern Gospel fan favorite, Davis can still go low with the best of them despite leaving rigors of traveling music ministry behind more than two years ago. That was more than apparent over the weekend as he manned the bass spot during the third annual Firm Foundation reunion tour. 

Davis spent nearly a decade with the Owensboro-based group prior to becoming a household name hitting the low notes for Tribute Quartet for another 10 years. 

But shortly after Firm Foundation brought the house down during Friday night’s appearance at Taylor County High School, Davis reflected on life’s journey taking him to a place in small town law enforcement.

Today, there’s no main stage at the National Quartet Convention. There are no album projects to push. But Anthony Davis believes that life as a sheriff’s deputy in Rogersville, Tenn. – population less than 5,000 – is where he should be too.

“I was on the road about 20 years and that’s a long time for anybody,” Davis said of his decision to leave Tribute to become an East Tennessee cop. “We were in the throes of COVID and I started getting a pull. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy singing. I love to sing.”

For nearly two hours last Friday, that love for music shone brighter than the stage lights. Yet, nearly three years ago, Anthony believed something – or more accurately, Someone – was leading him in a different direction.

“It’s just that it was ‘Anthony, there is a need for you in law enforcement again,’” he says.

Davis had gotten his start with Firm Foundation while serving in law enforcement near his home in Dyersburg, Tenn., just a stone’s throw from the Arkansas state line, and was still serving there when he accepted the call to Tribute Quartet in 2011.

Could the upheaval that gripped America in 2020 have affected Davis to return the only other career he loves? He pondered for a moment. “They say that once you are a cop, you are always a cop. I agree with that,” he said.

“You know, riding the bus out on the road, I see blue lights. The first thing I do is gather. What happened? Where is that police officer? Where are the people? What is going on with them? All those things, you just look at them and see them. … I still felt that draw to help people in that way. I am not saying singing doesn’t help people. It’s a different kind of help. 

“So did (2020) affect me? Yes, I think so.”

For the last three summers, though, Anthony Davis and his Firm Foundation friends have been helping people with a weekend reunion tour through the Midwest, singing some of their hits, some southern gospel classics and allowing Firm Foundation founder Steve Bridgmon to highlight some of his Inspirational Country solo work. The 2023 tour covered over 1200 miles for four concerts in Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. 

Davis had become part of Firm Foundation soon after the quartet had won the Kentucky Farm Bureau’s Gospel Quartet Contest at the state fair in Louisville. Working the 10-hour overnight shift, he would quickly get out of uniform, then hop in his car for the three-and-a-half hour drive to Owensboro for a weekend of singing.

“We would hang out and I would rest wherever we were. We were usually singing somewhere on Friday night, then on Saturday night and usually Sunday morning then somewhere on Sunday night. Then we would go all the way back to Owensboro from wherever we were singing,” Davis remembers. “Then I would get up and drive three-and-a-half hours home. I would shower and shave and put on my uniform and do it all over again.”

That ended, however, when a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes dictated Davis would have to make some lifestyle changes. He decided to give up the hectic lifestyle of being a full-time cop and part-time singer. “I told Steve I was going to have to come off the road,” Davis remembered. “That was tough because I love singing.”

Southern Gospel fans know he wasn’t off the road for long.

On Dec. 31, 2010 he got a call asking if he was singing. “I said, ‘Sure! I sing in the car. I sing in the shower,” Davis laughed.

However, the call was inquiring about his availability to fill Tribute Quartet’s bass spot temporarily. He was told to expect a call from Tribute’s Gary Casto, which came six days later. “At the time, their song on the radio was ‘I’ve Been Blessed.’ I said I knew that one,” Davis smiled.

“Gary called and said he had about 35 songs he needed to pass on to me. He said, ‘Can you do that?’” Davis smiled. “I said I had a thousand songs up here (pointing to his head) so what is 35 more? When do you need them?”

Davis said Casto replied, “Friday.”

That was two days later. 

A trip through Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia went so well that soon after returning to Dyersburg, Davis received a call asking if he would consider traveling with Tribute full time.

“I told Gary I wanted to pray about it and not make any rash decisions,” he said.

A few days later, Davis drove to Nashville to join Tribute for another weekend trip. Davis recalls that the next morning Casto called him to the back of the bus. I told him, ‘You know this is all I ever really wanted to do, singing, other than being a cop. This is just incredible, being offered a position. I am just amazed.”

However Davis bluffed a reluctance to travel full time.

“He said, ‘I appreciate you filling in for us until we find somebody,’” Davis grinned. “I took about three or four steps down the bus hallway and turned around and said, ‘Hey boss!’

“He said, ‘What?’ I said, ‘I will take the job.’”

That meant leaving law enforcement, but it also meant that the dream so many strive for had become a reality for Anthony Davis.

With Tribute, Davis became one of Southern Gospel’s most well-known voices. But eventually one love gave way to another when he resigned to become a deputy sheriff in Rogersville.

But he’d never forgotten how answering a Singing News ad had given him an opportunity to sing and form bonds of brotherhood he can’t describe. Even though the group disbanded and went in different directions more than a decade ago, the bonds are still strong.

“We were always on the go,” Davis says of his former Firm Foundation colleagues. “It was never that we were not friends, but with Steve teaching and singing and all of those things going on, we just were not in touch as much.

“When I left Tribute, Steve messaged me and told me, ‘I just want you to know we are praying for you and all that. Then he just messaged me one day. It had been 10 years since Steve and me and Josh (Brown) and Josh (Teasley) had even been in the same room. Steve said, ‘I just wish we could get together somewhere to just talk.’

“I said, ‘Let’s get together somewhere and sing!’

“He said, ‘Do you really think we oughtt to try to have a reunion? I said, ‘Absolutely!’”

It first came together in 2021 with a weekend of music, memories, hugs and tears.

The tears came back Friday as Davis recalled that first reunion.

“We got together and started singing – I am crying. It was like we never missed a beat. When you travel with somebody as much as gospel music artists on the road do, they become your family. In a lot of instances, you are with those people more than you are with your own family. These guys are like brothers to me.

“And to be back in the same place after so many years and you feel like the magic is still there – and I know the word is the spirit of the music was still there – but to me it was just magical.”

The magic was still there in Firm Foundation’s third reunion tour. The group promises another reunion in 2024.

And, if something starts pulling Anthony Davis back to the gospel music lifestyle of buses and truck stops?

He chuckled a bit.

“I didn’t know I had such an itch the first time,” he said. “My first concert was Gold City with Danny and Tim (Riley) and Jonathan (Wilburn) and Jay (Parrack). I was mesmerized by those concerts and their vocal ability.

“If the Lord told me to, I certainly would.”

But for now, Anthony Davis believes the Lord has led him to law enforcement in Rogersville, Tenn. He also believes the Lord has led him to reunite with Firm Foundation.

He’s is a very happy cop. And a very happy bass singer too.