It was good to be from Spartanburg and good to remember the old days Tuesday, as the state and the music industry honored the Marshall Tucker Band with speeches, mayoral proclamations and good old Southern rock. A packed house at Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium got to its feet time after time to cheer the '70s-era rockers who - as country music legend Charlie Daniels pointed out - brought a little bit of Spartanburg, at least for a while, to the world. "There's not a corner of this world where the Marshall Tucker Band is not known," Daniels told a raucous crowd. "And they've taken Spartanburg along with them." The band that helped pioneer the Southern rock genre became the 22nd act to be inducted into the S.C. Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame. The members joined musicians James Brown and Chubby Checker and even letter-turner Vanna White as honored representatives of the Palmetto state's entertainment. The cheering throng has aged a bit from the band's glory days, and many of the old rockers are now parents. Some of the performers showed a little gray in their hair, and there were more mini-vans in the parking lot than there were jacked-up Camaros. But the music had an ever-young beat, and the fans were appreciative as the band rolled through "Heard It in a Love Song," "Desert Sky," and "Fire On the Mountain." Jamming right along from their seats were 39-year-old Arlen Johnson, a former teen-ager, and his soon-to-be-teen-ager, Ricky, 12. Both sported matching pony tails, although dad's showed hints of silver. "I just wanted him to know what we used to listen to. The music they listen to today isn't the same," said Johnson, as he and his son waited for the show to start. "He asked me, `Is it country? Is it rap?' and I said, `Naw, it's Southern rock.' " Dancing in the lobby was Jill Bowers, who grew up listening to the Marshall Tucker Band in Pittsburgh. She was holding her hands over the ears of her 41/2-month-old daughter, Rayna Sky Bowers. The tot was asleep. The evening was thick with nostalgia and touched on some bittersweet memories. Daniels, who hosted the event, donned his reading glasses and got a little misty as he read dedications he wrote for two deceased band members, Tommy and Toy Caldwell. He had to pause to wipe away the tears while he read one dedication to Toy, "Though that guitar's been silenced for good, it's so hard to believe you are gone .... I miss you old friend. There's a piece of my heart that will never belong to anyone else but you." Then from the somber moments, the evening came back with some heart-felt thanks from living band members and a reunion concert that featured former members, new members, Daniels as well as performers from the Allman Brothers, Wet Willie, the Outlaws and Firefall, all Southern rock performers. And the players rocked on, jamming to a funky, free-form version of "This Old Cowboy" that had to make some wonder why it all slipped into the past, and why disco ever caught on.