I still get chills thinking about the time Marty Robbins risked it all to save a fellow racer at the 1974 Charlotte 500. With Richard Childress’s car stalled dead across the track, Marty made a split-second choice to smash his own stock car into the wall rather than cause a catastrophic wreck, walking away with broken ribs, a fractured tailbone, and thirty-two stitches—and that humility when he said all he felt was relief that Childress was safe still speaks volumes about who he was as a man. That fearless spirit and selflessness in the face of danger is the very heart of his song “Big Iron” by Marty Robbins, a musical tale of a lone hero who steps forward when no one else can
“Scroll down to the end of the article to listen to music.” Introduction “Big Iron” is a classic country and…