Lynyrd Skynyrd...
Dan, I was a big Skynyrd fan "back in the day" too, and wasn't sure how I'd like them without Ronnie and Steve Gaines. We went to see them when they first had Hughie Thomasson (Outlaws)and Ricky Medlocke(Blackfoot) on guitars, with Johnny, Gary, Artimus, Leon and Billy. They were freakin awesome! (Love the Honkettes too!) Then Artimus quit, and Leon died and I thought it might suck, but we went anyway and it was STILL great! Now Hughie and Billy have passed away too, AND the replacement bassist Ean Evans also died....backlash bass wrote:Saw them a couple of years ago. Went in expecting the worst. Ended up being one of the best shows I've seen. Not sure what it will be like without Billy Powell (RIP).
I think there's a curse on this band! We went to see them at least once a year for a long time and it was always a great show, but now there down to 1 original member, Gary, and Johnny, who isn't, but "feels" like he is, and Ricky has been there awhile now... I'll probably still go, but I'm stating to feel like it's a "tribute band" other than Skynyrd.You don't shoot a man in the dick!
Many people don't know that Rickey Medlocke actually played drums and sang with Lynyrd Skynyrd and recorded with them back in the early 1970s on Skynyrd's First And...Last album before his Blackfoot's success.Bag wrote:Dan, I was a big Skynyrd fan "back in the day" too, and wasn't sure how I'd like them without Ronnie and Steve Gaines. We went to see them when they first had Hughie Thomasson (Outlaws)and Ricky Medlocke(Blackfoot) on guitars, with Johnny, Gary, Artimus, Leon and Billy. They were freakin awesome! (Love the Honkettes too!) Then Artimus quit, and Leon died and I thought it might suck, but we went anyway and it was STILL great! Now Hughie and Billy have passed away too, AND the replacement bassist Ean Evans also died....backlash bass wrote:Saw them a couple of years ago. Went in expecting the worst. Ended up being one of the best shows I've seen. Not sure what it will be like without Billy Powell (RIP).
Medlocke grew up with the founding members of Lynyrd Skynyrd. When Blackfoot's attempts to move north and play New York and New Jersey weren't successful enough for him, he called up Ronnie Van Zant and was asked to play drums for Lynyrd Skynyrd. Medlocke very briefly played the drums and sang lead on a few songs for them in 1970, sometimes playing alongside the band's original drummer Bob Burns but came to feel that sitting behind a drum kit could never satisfy his energetic personality since he also is a lead guitarist' so, in 1971, he reformed Blackfoot and began touring incessantly with them, producing hits like "Train Train" and "Highway Song". he rejoined Skynyrd in 1996 and has been with them ever since.
As a side note, his grandfather was Shorty Medlock, a well-known delta blues musician and he taught Medlocke how to play a miniature banjo. Shorty plays that great harmonica intro on the song Train, Train. From there on his musical abilities grew and he had taught himself how to play guitar by the age of five and he was playing drums in Shorty's band at the age of eight. Medlocke was raised by Shorty and his grandmother. Over the next several years Medlocke mastered the banjo, guitar, drums, mandolin, dobro and keyboards.
Yes, the current Skynyrd lineup is really tight but signing up for that band is sadly almost like an early death sentence.