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EDIT0RAL DIRECTOR Br.dlolin.*i E D I T 0 RN C N l E F J . f i X h l ! EXECUTIVE EDITOR Chrl.loDh.r5..r.Uiii S E NO RE D I T o R 8r.dlntt. MASC0TZi9,rh. J..k |}rhr.l.-.wrttr.s.hlhF
SENIOR MUSIC E DI O R J I N h Y B ' ! h MUSICED TORx.n s.h:rrelrs MUSICEN0RAVERSsr.<{. U.di.6rdP,1...,
(lFS{IUTHENI N|ICK IOTHEHISTONY
Rebels,rednecks and triple-threat guitars. For sevenshort years,southern rock lived a fast, furious and ill-fated life.
C L E A R A N C EC&C P Y R GHTS MUSIC
ATLMAII 18 I}UAIIE A R T D I R E C T o RiA. t C o o * DESIGNER Jo.hL.l.!v. PH0T0EDTORSJ|mnyu!b.rd,t b....F.ir D GITALIMAGNGSPECIALIST Ju.llnPhlttlD. 14tsrhlv..,tthFlo.r,X.wYo.k,IY100i0 EMALLtouhdl.gbo.rcntunrrw.rld..oh WEBPAGE r ull.rworld..on PUBLSNERor.rDlt.n.d.lto A D D I R E C T Or o Rb . r r D y . 646-?24-8431,r.h.{ntunrrworld..om J..ohP.rt A D V E RS T N GS A L E S 6{6-723'54lt,iF.rmtutur.u.-ih...om SALESs.o s.lr... ADVERTISING C L A S SF I E DA D M A N A o E lR. l l t y . . t r 644-?23-6421,lly.onnlutur.u.-iM,r.n AD c00Ro NAToRlnn.Bluh.nrh.L 6a6-7?3-5a04,.nn.Aouft .ruorld.con P R 0 D U C0TN D I R E C T o n Rl . h l . l . . o v o y P R 0 0 U C T I OCN0 0 R 0 l N A T 0t R alrol.shillhg INT L PUBL5H NG D RECTOR Domtf,v.n
In a freewheelingconve$ationftom 1971,DuaneAllmantalks aboutslide guitar, Eric clapton, unsung guitar heroes and the pleasuies of performing.
(lf IYNYNI} SKYilYAD 22 A HIST{|NY
Fist fights, premonitions and a plane that fell from the sky.This is the tale of Ronnie Van Zant and Lynyrd SkJ'nlrd.
GNASS & IIIGHTIIIES" 32 Ht|WT|lPIAY*GNEEil Adown-and-dirty lessonin playingthe Outlaws'greatesthit.
HATGHET 40 M(ITTY
The iconic-and slightlyweird-artwork of Molly Hatchet'salbumsleeves-
MEETS !'lUtE 42 IAMES HETFIELII G0V'T
In the springofl998, Metallica'sJamesHetfield camefaceto.facewith his favorite power trio, Gov't Mule.
48 BtAGIfftltlf NEWSSTAND 0 RECTOR alllSh.w.y C i R C U L A0TN M A N A 0 E Fo y t r . l H u d . o n F U L F I L L M E NMTA N A G E P R. g O y x o r . . cUSIoMER S E R V I CM EA N A o E R lllk.xrnriq!. I N T E R N E I S U B S C RC I PNTM A R K E T NG
The hardluck storyof Blackfoot,southernrock'sgreatunsungheroes.
50 TIIEMAKING OTATilLLITOBEEAST
In a retrospectivelookbackattheirtlassic 1971livealbum,DickeyBetts and GreggAllman recallthe recordthat madethe Allman BrothersBand the kingsofrhe road.
4 0 O 0 S h o r a L i n e C o u 4r l0, S 0 ,u ' l e
PRESIDENT Jo..th.n5hr.on-Brnl VlcE PRESIDENT/cFo TomY{..rho PIJBLSH N0 D RECToR/oAMES slmonrvhlt.onb. P U B LS H N 0 D R E C T o R / M Uc S^ n l h o h y D . n r l PUBLISH N GO R E C T O R / B LN. E ] SS S DEVEL0PMENT Dd. B.r..r E D I T 0 R I ADL R E c T 0 Rr o n P h r r r r p . E 0 l T 0 RA L 0 l R E c T 0 R / M U SB I Cr . d t o l h . r l D R E C T OO RFH U M A NR E S O U R C E S P R 0 D U C0TN D R E C T o R tl(hl.L..owy
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56 ZAKKWYTIIE MEETS tYilYNDSIffilYND
In a rollicking,rowdy round tableinterview from the fall of1992,lifelong southern rock fan zakk wylde pays homageto Lynyrd Skynyrd's cary Rossingtonand Ed King.
64 PNIME CUTS
Guitaristcary Rossingtontells the storiesbehindsomeof Lynyrd Skynyrd's finestmoments.
TRAI{$IRI PT I0I{S':r'i:'.*::'rT 70 "flirlin' wilhDisqsler" byil0UYlltftllEf 80 "CunilYouSee" bylllElilnSilU.IUGXEn B ilD
88 "Illhat'sYourlfame" bytYllYR!SIYIiYRD 92 "Ramblin' ltlan" bylllEltlil l{SilIltlERS llt{D
N 0 N E X E C U TV E C N A I R M A Nt o g . r P . r r y C H I E FE X E C U TV E 5 t v i . s B r i n s G R C U PF I N A N C ED I R E C T o RJ o h n B o * m r h
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ers,TravisTritt and Leroy Parnell not to mentionthe currentversionsof the Allmar. Brothers Band and Lynlrd Skynyrd. But its heyday as a musical entity was relatively brief, lasting from the Allmans' 1969self-titled debut to SkJ'nrd's tragi c 1977plane crashon the heelsoftheir greateststudioeffor! sfreefsurviyors.The deathof Skynyrd asa sparklinglyenergeticcreativeentity signaledthe start ofsouthernrock'scommercialdecline,althoughMolly Hatchet,Blackfoot,.38Specialand otherswould frnd success wavingthe starsandbajs foryearsto come.
Ihe Allman &otheE tand: (trem l.-ft) Du.ne Allm.n, Dkkey Eltte Oldden), Cr.gg Allman, r.imo€,8€ry o:Ll.y a.d Eutch lruGk5
tor, thought the band should move to New York rather rhan remainingin a sleepysouthernbackwater.lhe groupwould havenoneof it. "Everyonein the industrywassayingthatwe'dnever ********* do anything out of Macon, that Phil Walden should It allbeganin 1968when red-hotsessionguitaristDuaneAllman returnedto Jackmoveus to New York or L.A. and acclimateus to the indusfy," Bettsrecalls."Ofcourse,noneofuswould do sonville,Florida,lookingto put togethera band.Onething led to another,and soon he had a hard-rockingoutfit featuringtwo verydifferent,but highly complementary that, and thankfully, walden was smart enough to see drummers(JaiJohannyJohansorLa.L.a.Jaimoe,and ButchTrucks);aninventivebass- that that would ruin what we had." ist who could hold down the bottom end evenwhile displayingmelodicflair (Berry This wasacrucial developmentfor the future of Oatley);and anotherhot leadguita st (DickeyBefts).This unusuallineupwould besouthernrock. By stayingin Macon,the Allmanshad a comethe templatefor southernrock: two drummersand at leasttwo leadguitarists. much greaterimpacton southernmusicians.The small, The latter addition proved to be monumental,as Betts and Allman would soon sleepy city 87 miles south ofAtlanta becarnea magnet, redefine the way two guitarists can work together,completelyscrappingthe tradidrawing talented and crcative people from all over the tional rhythm/lead roles by swappingleadsand-in a revolutionarytwist playing region,cultivatingthe careersofcountlessmusicians, harmony lines. This idea camefrom both the modaljazz ofJohn coltrane and manyofwhom verywell may neverhavemadea mark if Miles Davis,which the whole band listened to, and the western Swingfiddles that they had headed North. Betts grew up listening to. "Maconbecameknown asaplaceto go ifyou were The unnamedgroup immediatelybeganplayingasoften aspossiblein Jacksonville, a musicianin the Southlookingto get somethinggooften appearingatfree Sundayconcertswhere audiencemembersincludedthree ing" explainsScottBoyerofthe bandCowboy,which teenagers:guitarists cary Rossingtonand Allen Collins and singer/songwriter Ronnie releasedfour albumson Capricorn. Van Zant.The trio had alreadybeenplayingin aband for severalyearsandwould soon Meanwhile,Duanetook time to join Eric Clapton changeits name to Lynyrd Skynyrd to mock a high school gym teacher infarnous for in the studio to record Ldyld dnalOtherAssortedLove harassinglong hairs like themselves. songs,itselfa southern rock landmark, and atvariAll threewere familiarwith Duanefrom seeing him and his brother cregg perform in Dattona Beachclubs severalyears prior. Those ous times to join up with his pals Delaney& Bonnie showshad helpedthem determinethat they too wantedtobe musicians;seeingDuane and Iriends, a rollicking roadshowthat occasionally performwith his extendedbandinspiredthemto mastertheh instruhents. included Clapton. "Whenever Duane and them played,Allen and I were the first onesthere, hours The Allmans' brealthrough album, 1971'sAt Fillmore beforethe show sowe could standright in ftont of him," Rossingtonrecalls,nearly tdsf, not only establishedthem asrock's greatest live four decadeslater "Hewas mesmerizing,and it's hard to describethe impactit had on bandbut alsoshoredup a strugglingCapricomRecords, youlg guitarists guitariststo stand play." us asyoulg standthere there and seethat that guy play." leadingthelabelto start signingmorebands.Soon,alRossingtonand companystill had lots ofwoodsheddingto do to catchup with were coming out of Macon at a furious pace,and idols.Meanwhile,Duaneand companyhad addedcregg asorganistftinger/songgreat era of southern rock was underway. While writet renamedthemselvesthe Allman BrothersBandandmovedto Macon.Ged acts shared a certain sensibilitv. thev were wheretheir manager,Phil walden,wasforminga new recordcompan different from one another Southcaro- . The Allman Brothers were its frrst act. Although many at Atlantic, the T\rckerBandtemperedtheir rock with
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country bluegrass, blucs andjazz influences; Mobile, Alabama's WerWillie mined southern soul and kept the gxitars relatively toned dow[; Oklahoma native E]vin Bishop, fonnerl]' of the Butterfreld Blues Band, played jokey, good time blues with a twang; and the Dixic Drcgs invented a jazzy style ofproto-shred soulhern rock jazz fusion. W h e n D u a n e A l l m a D w a s k i l l e d i n a m o t o r c y c l e c r a s h o n O c t o b e r 2 9 , t 9 7 1 ,w h i t " h i s b a n d w a s i n t h e m i d s t o f r e c o r d i n g t d t d P e a c / r , a r e a s o n a b l eo b s e r v e r m i g h t have started writing the obitlrary for southern rock almost before it was born. " E v e r y o n c a r o u n d M a c o n w a s j u s t s t u D n e d , "B o y e r r e c a l l s ." D u a n e w a s s u c h a n i n c r e d i b l e p r e s c n c € -H e h a d s o m u c h e n e r g y t h a t h e j u s t m a d e t h i n g s h a p p e n . H e r-as always kicking evcryone in the butt. It was inconceivable how someone who's that alive could be dead." Nonetheless, both the Allman Brothers Band and Capricorn Records pushed forward after a briefpause. In fact, greater success for the band, the label and the genr. a l l l i e a h e a d .T h e A l l m a r s ' f i r s t p o s t - D u a n ea l b u m , t 9 7 4 ' s 3 J " o r f i e rdsn d S i r r e r s ,b e came their best seller, dfiver by their only Top-t0 hit, "Ramblin' Man." Srill, though they tourcd as the natio n's top d fawing band, the album was somewhat of a last cr eative gasp lor the group's first incarnation. Their energywas lagging, and the torch had been passed. RossiDgton, Collins and cornpany were no longer sittingaround gaping at the Allmans. Influenced by English bands like the RollingStones, Cream, Free, the who and Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd had hardened their sourd white they retained its gr itty country and blues shadings. Demo tapes rccorded as early as l97o display a remarkably mature, radio - ready band. Still, they couldn'tget signed-proo{positive that northern record executives still considered Capricor'n's successsomething ofa red[eck fluke. Capricorn itselfwas irterested in the band, but Van Zant hedged, reportedly becausc he fealcd being lost in the shufllc ofthe label's southern acts. The $oup moved to Atlanta and fbund a home at Funochio's, knownby many ns the most dangerous bar ir town.Itwas there thatthey honed their edges and earned thcir rcputation for drinkingalld brawling as hard and as wellas they played.It was also where thcy u,er€ discovered by Al Kooper, the producer/performer who $'as in towr scoutingtalent for his n€w MCA-distributed label, Sounds ofthe South. As they began to record their debut, which wolrld become 1973'spronounced.l6hi
'ntrd 'skin:nird,yolrngbassistL€onwilkeson panicked and bolted.Needingareplace ment,VanZant trackeddown Ed King, a foundingmemberofStrawberry
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GreSgahd Duen.Allman at"Summerthlng" SuBet concertSerier, Eortonon lheCommon, sumnerr9T; (ihret) Du.neat"Summerthlnt"
a bandfor which Skynyrdhad openedor their Iirst national tour when wilkeson returnedimnlediatelyafter the album'srecording,King, an accomplishedguitarist, switchedinstruments,allowirgtheband to duplicate Iive the album'smultiple guitar tracks.And so the next greatadvancementof southernrock wasmade.If t\i,o leadguitarsaregood,three must be betterl While manyoftheir imitatorswould abusethe lineup by almostconstantlyoverplayilg,Skynyrdneverdid, displayinga remarkablerestraintin the faceofoverkillThe band'sthreegtlitaristsusedalmosteveryconceiv ablemethodto complementrather than crowd one another,playingharmonylines,arpeggiatedchords, complementaryhlls,evensharingsolosby tradirgbars. "Youjust haveto know bow and when to stayout of eachothers'way,"Rossingtonerplains."We'vealways tried to work out our partsto preventchaos,but r lot ofit cane from just how longwe playedtogetherand happenednaturally.I think havingthe different sounds keepsthingsinterestilg cspcciallyiive.C)aptonor somebodyofihat calibercanstard front and centerand soloall night, a]rditwon't gerboring.But there'snot that manyplayerson that level.And one ofthis group's trademarksis trading licks." Skynyrd'sdebut was releasedin August'73,but as with thc Allmans'in;tialoffering,it didn'tcatchon right awa)',despitcthe presenceof"Free Bird," which would soonbecomea FM radio staplcand the nrtional anthemofsouthern rock. But the band didn't havcto longfor succ€ss.Their follow-up album,Second was released less than a year later, and its sec"sweet Home Alabama," shot the band to
term "southernrock" in people'sheads
f o r t h e f l r s l l i m c . H c r c $ ' a s a s o D gt h a t r : r i l c L.l r g i i n s t t h c Y : r n k c oe s t a b l i s h r r e n t ,\ \ ' i t h s D i d er e f c f c n c c st o w a t c f s a t c a n d r p i s s c L lo l l r e b u k e t o N c i l Y o u n s a n d h i s o u r s i d e r ' sv i s i o n o f s o u t h c f n m c D . S h o r t l , \ ' . r l i e rt l r e a l b u m ' s r e l e . r s es, k y n r ' f d a l s ob e s a n L r s n r sa s i a n t ( i ) n f c d crarc liag es a srage beckdrop. And it ivas theil sLrcccss, couplcd rvith the Allnrrns' Ir1)t/rrrr !rn.1.\istrls, that sent , \ & R n c n s c l a D r b l i n gt h r o u g h $ c b a r s r n d b v i v l r s o f r h e S o u t h i n s c u f c ho f i h c D c x t l . i g t h i n g . Anlong the groups wht, trencitcd $'ere the outla$.s. of tampa, flofnt:r, $ho signecl to AIist{ tteco|cls alld i s s u e da s c l f t i t l c d d c b u r a l b u m t h r t r e f l e c t e dI $ i d e g e n r u t o l s o u t h e r n r o r k i n f l u c n c c s ,i n c l u d i n g N l : u s h . r l l r u c l i c r ( i n t h e g e n t l e ,c o l r n t r y i s h " l h e r e C o e sA r o r h c r L o v e S o n 1 . aa" )n d S k v n y r r l( i n r h e . r n t h e n i c , s o l o f i l l e c l " l ; f e e n L l r . l s s& H i g h I i d c s " ) . A t d r € s : r n r et i n t e .e s l . b l i s h e d C , r p r i c o r na ( t s L r e s l l nt o h a v c n r o r o r n d m o f e s l r c r c s s .n r o s t D o t N b l y\ V e t W i l l i e a r d N t r r s h r l l f u c k c r . N l e x n l v h i l c .s k y n i , l 1 tu c | e L i c k i l r ga s sr n d t a k i n g n o p r i s o n e r s .B u t t h c c o n s t i n t g r i n d o f t h e f o : r d w r s \ ! e r r i n g r h e m d o $ r . I l r L l m l n c r t s o bB u I n s l c f t t h c b a n d n r i d r{)ur, followcd by Ed Iiing both no lougcr ablc to handlc r h c p r e s s u r c .B t t h c t i m c o f t h c i r i o u r t h . r l b u n i n l i r u r ' !ears, 1976'sCinnr{ 3d.1rlrr, Srrllfts, lhe b:lnd \r'.rs irr a b i t o l ! ( f e r t i v e r L r t .l ! u t b e i i r l c t h c y f c l l t o o 1 o $ ,t,b o l a d d c c lg l r i t N f i s tS t € v eL ; a i n c s a , n d t h c f i e r y ,h i g h l l s k i l l c d pickcr' .rnd songwritcr lcch.rrged the gfoup 'l he results sele r kickin'ln'c albLrrro l . n r M o r f t o n r / r cR , ) d d , I ( , 1 l o w e d b ] t h e i r t i g h t e s t .n o s t p o l i s h e d s t u L l i oc f f o r t , .Sfrcct .Su ryivors. The s.rnre\e.rf. the Chrflic Dtllliels rlLrndrele:rscd thcir best :rlhum,,sddrilf ?)drt): NlNrsll.lll T u c k e f s ( o r e d t h e i r b i S S e sh t it $,ith 'Hc:l|d Ir In x Love song ; |rndthe outl.r\!s reco|dedand plcparcd to Ic l c r s c s f i r s J . 3 d . l , . t/ i f r , r f L r l l l c h r r y e d l i r e r l b u n l c r t L r r i n g n l o r r g i t a r j i m n r i n g t h a n : l N A N ' l l \ ' 1 c o. ,e n t i o n . S o L r t h e f ur o ( k w a s b r c k a n d a t a n a l l t i m e h i g h . '1'hcn, o n O c t o b e f 2 0 . l 9 7 Z i l . r l l c h a n g c di n a n i D s t : u t . S k ) n v r d ' s t o u r p l a n e | a n o u t o l g : r su n d c r - a s h c d
into the swampsoutsideofcillsburg, Mississippi,killing three members,including caines and VanZant, and seriouslyinjuring everyoneelse.The heart had been ripped out ofone ofrock's greatestbands-and out ofsouthern rock. with the Allmans havingbrokenup in acrimonyon the heelsoftwo mediocrealbumsayear prior, and Skynyrdnow effectivelydead,the genrewas on shakyground. Molly Hatchetwould debutthe followingyear,andthoughthey found somecommercialand creativesuccess-particularlywith 1979's"Flirtin'with Disaster"-they rarelydispensedmuch morethan third-rate Slryrrlrdimitations.Blackfoot,frontedby former Skl.nyrddrummer RickeyMedlocke,alsomadeacommercialbreakthroughin 1979with their fine third album,Sfril(es.CharlieDaniels,alongtime presenceon the southernrock and country scene,had his biggesthit that year$r'iththe fiddle-driven novelty tune "The Devil Went Down to Georgia."But while these and other bandshad their moments.southernrock had dried uo.
sayswith asnort "the day Molly Hatchetcameout." But, ofcourse, a vibrant musical genre can'tjust die. The music ofthe Allmans, Skynyrd,Marshall Tucker,the Outlaws and others remained alive in the hearts oflisteners and the music ofyoung players. Then, in the late Eighties,the Allmans and Skynyrd with anotherVan Zant brother, Johnny,taking over as singer-reunited. To almost everybody'ssurprise,both are still going strong. And new generationsofmusicians havesoakedit all in and createdtheir own bend ofsouthern rock, heard most clearly in the music ofthe Black Crowes, the Kentucky Headhunters,Drive-By Truckers, Kings
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As a new decadedawned,southernrock'ssurivors movedeverfirrther awayfrom their roots..38Special, frontedby VanZant'syoungerbrotherDonnie,had their biggesthit with 1982's"Hangon Loosely,"a genericarenarockerwhich bore little soundsofthe South.The RossingtonCollinsBand,formedfrom Skynyrd'sashes, releasedtwo decentalbums,butneverquite recapturedthe originalband'sspark. the Allman Brothers,who madea promisingreturn with 1979'sEnlrghtenedRogues, releasedtwo rnorelamealbumsbeforebrealing up againin 1982. "Southemrock becamea parodyofitself," saysAllman Brothers/Gov'tMule ist warren Haynes."Much like alternative rock did in the wake of Nirv3na." ' Skynyrd'sEd King is evenmoreconcise and lessfriendly."Southern (fEm |.ft) M.|lh.ll Tu.k{ Band, Molly H.tdet rnd th. Ouths
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ofLeon, cator Country,Travis Tritt and Black Stone Cherry.Not coincidentally,the key membersofall thesebandsgrew up in the South at the height ofthe southern rock explosion. "It had a hugeimpact,"saysHaynes,who grew up in "We all identiliedu ith and Nonh Carolina. a connection to the musicbecause itwas made bv
who lookedlike us,actedliLe us alrdlived like we the first time the Southwastakenseriouslyas rock musicto comefrom.Itletus know male it without changing." *
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fiAxDELHow did you put the Allnan Brothers together? Au.ru 1 was working in Muscle Shoals, and [soon-to-beAIIman Brcthers' manager] Phil walden liked my playing. He said, "Do you want to sigi on the line?" So I signed up, and he said, "You've got to get a group and get ou! on the road." And I said,,,well, yeah, that's for mc." And he said, "Listen, I've got this drummer over here in Macon who plays so weird nobody knows ifhe's any good or not." And I said, "Send him over her€ and we'll see." It was Jai Johanny Uoftdnson,d.ft.d.Jdimoel, ard wh€n he came ovcr here, I said, "You're kidding. This cat's bulnin.' " So me and Jai got in a car, man, and went to St. Louis andjammed a little bit and went to all the little towns looking for pickers. Then we eased on down to Jacksonville, and Berry lodirley, bdssisrl met us thcre. we didn't have any moncy, and we were huddled around a goddamn fireplace, throwilgcoal )umps in the fire to keep warm. And Berry and Dickey petrs, Suirdrisrl mef us, rnd tsutch Llrucfts, dr&mmerl was there, too, and theysaid, "Yeah, man,let's make us a group." And so we all gottogether in a bighouse in Jacksonvill€, and Sanra C l a u sc a m ea n d b r o u g h t u s a b e n d . I t w a s d y n a m i t e l r,raxDEL Are vou particularly comfortable playing in a group with yourbrothcr? AILIAN No, it docsn't matter lt'sjusr that he happens to be the best singergoing 'round today. You want to work with as good a group ofpeopte as you can. I feel like evclyborly in the band can smoke mc. That's why we're in the band together to keep each othcr kicking. MAxoE|'Who are some ofihe other artists you've been playing with lately? Alula Just whoever calls me up. Delaney Bramlett is a partner ofmine, and I go play with him and his band iDelaney & Bonnie and F endsl whenever I can. Eric Clapton is a prilce, and it's a plcasure to go play with him anltime. Making records, well, a lot of it is done ior thc mollcy, and a lot ofit is done for the fun. When I was doin€]Aretha Franklin' records and wilson Pickett records, I needed the bread, and t was glad to have the opporhLnity to do it. And I wanted to gct away lrom theband.I was ljvingin L.A. and said, "Boy, thc bard business stinks, and I don't want any part ofit, manl It's terrible!'' The[ I worked down there oD ihe sess;onsfor a wlilc, arrd I thought, wait a minute, manl lt
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doesn'! have !obe rotten; youjust have to make a good onc. Then you don't have to sniffanybody's fect to gct a break, and youjust go ahead and do what you piease.So rhat's what I did. I found five ofthe smokinest cats I've metin my life, and we hit the road playing [axDCl How did you meet Eric Clapton? Attfiaf, I wentto watch him cut the rdyld album. I said to Tom Do\rd broducer for both the AlmanBrothers dnd Derekand the Dominosl, "Man, you've got to callme when he comes to town,'cause I want to hear him play, and I want to meet him-" He's a good piayer and I've always admired him a lot his style and everything he ever did. So Dowd told me, "He's going to be in- Come down." So I got down there, and Eric knew who I was he'd heard some ofmy records and stufl And he said, "Okay, man. We're going to make us a record here, and we're goingto hav€ two guitar players instead ofone." Thcn we made the rdyld album. And we worked our butts off on it! Ifs agood record! Everybody got behind it, with no [cgo] trip or anything. It's just good music:rllthe way through. And itwas a pleasure to do it. fi xDrt I understand that Eric was influenced by your' slide playing. How did you develop your approach to bottleneck? All.[AI It's allin the wrist. Eric is comingalongon lis slide, He's doingokay. He ain't no Duane Allman of the slideguitar, but he's doilgall rightl I heard Rv Cooder phyingitabout three years ago, and I said, "Man, tbat's for mel" l got me a bo leneck and wcnt aroulrclthe house
for about three weekssaying,"Hey, man,we've got to learn the songs-the blues to play on the stage.Ilovethis.This is a gas!"Sowe started doingit. For a while,everybodywould look at me lwhenI picked up a slidel,thinking, Oh, no! He' getting readyto do it againlAnd everybody wouldjust lower their heads-asifto say,'cet it over with-quick." Then I got a little bit befter at it, and now everybody'sblowing it all out of proportion.It's j ust fine for me asarelief ftomthe other kind of playing. It's just playing. flr|lDcl Are you planning to add horns to the band? a|'rra Yeah!We've got some horn players. We'vegotsomesmokerslWe'vegot "Tic Tac" and ".Iuicy"and "Fats."They'll comeand play for us prettysoon,There'satenor and trumpet and soprano.Theyare bad,boy,they'rekickin' it! The baddest,smokinest,dynamitestdudes ever,man.They canplaylA soonaswe get the money-as soonaswe get famousand rich and get to be stars-we'll hire somemorecats.We're waitingfor morebucksto comein, so we can hire thesehorns,man,and maybegetsome strings.It doesn'tmatter how manypeople you'vegot in the band,aslongaseverybody knows what to do. As long aseverybody knows howto play,and everybodywon't be getting into eachother'sway and hoggingit and not k i c k i n g i \l a h e r e i t d o e s n t n e e d k i c k i n g . H o w do you thinkLeonard Bemsteindoesit? He sit up there and says,"Okay,you catsoverhere,you play something."That'show it's done-in rock and roll orjazz or orchestrasor whateveryou're doing.Everybody'sgot to work togetheror it ain'tworth a damn.Youcan't getinto a musical fistfight on the stage.It's aggravatingand it's obnoxious,and it's no goodat all. Either you play togetheroryou play like hell. fiAxDC!Did you everfind yourselfagainst somebodyyou were playingwith? arurAx I've jammed with people like that. l've packedmy caseand duffed very quickly; I don't stay on for that kind of a set.That's nowhere, that's just wasting time. Theret a lot of that in New York. One night, though, I had a good-ol' smokin' jam there with a cat namedTodd Rundgren,and Buddy Miles. Todd Rundgen, he was doing a little punching and stabbing and Buddy Miles sat on him a liftle bit. He said, "Okat man,just rel&x,let's do it all together."Sothen it was all cool, man. What a night. And Buddy Miles blew everybody'sheadoffl He started screaminghis guitar line into the microphone,andIjust split.I said,"Jesus, you don't needme up here.He cando it all." maxirflWho is the mostexcitingpersonthat you've everjammedwith? AUfiAI I'd rather jam with my own band than anybody aliv€!I've got thebest playersthere are.But I'd like to jamwith anyonewho likesto play,and anybodywho likesto can comearoundto our setanltime, Now,Jerry Garcia there'sone I loveto playwith. flaxDErDoyou lhink dlat asa resultofso mary musicians playing in so manygroups,music is beginning to soundrepetitious?I'm referringin particularto Eric Clapton'sfirstsoloalbumandthe DelaneyandBonni€ alDums. A]lflAt{ You meaneverybody'stakingon eachother's style?well, that'sa lot offun. E c'sreal music,though, is on ldyld. when you hearthat music,it's asifhe selfwere playingin the room.That albumisjust he'slike. { xDll How hasyour southern ch.F.l
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AltIAI I don't know!You can't askaboutsomethinglike that. How doyou think it's affectedour music?Youcould look at it objectively,but I'xasbusy doingit, so I don't know AIDE Wher€ do you like to do mostofyour recording? AllflAI It doesn'tmatter;anyplacewith goodfacilities. There's a standard,and anlthing abovethat standard is great. I'd loveto cut somethinginJimi'sstudio,ElecfficLadyland, on Eighth Streetlin New Yor&].If it didn't costsomuch,we would.I bet that placeis fantastic. The Atlantic studio in New York is grcat, but my favorite thing aboutAtlanticisn't the facilities-it's the people.They havedone me right. They've got heart. They've got guts. They've got balls. They are out of sight. Every one of them, starting with Ahmet [trtegu/1,Atlantic president],and down to C.8.,the catwho answersthe door I haveno complaints. And I've beenthrougha lot ofjive-assrecordlabelsthat I'm not evengoingto talk about,becauseitt not very pleasant. But Atlanticis the one.becausethev canfeelit. fAxrnr What haveyou learnedfrom travelingacrossthe country? AllIAa{ That everything'sthe sameeverwvhere-thatthere are nice folks and assholes,andyou haveto learnto distinguishbetweenthe two in order to get by.And someonewho's an assholeto somebodymaybe a nice folk to somebodyelse,soyou've to learnto be nic€ to everybodyand showeverybodyrespect.That'sthe only way ple respectyou.You'vegot to havemutual respectand a little bitoflove ifyou can it up.And don't be afraidto sharewhat's insideofyou with other people.That's way you re evergoingto get free.or haveany fun ar all. Sojusr rocl on. and
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time. IfI have a choice between having a good time and a shitty time, I'm me agood time, because I've had enough shittytimes.:{€
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{back roe, froh left) L6n wiltesn, A.timus Pye, AllenCollint BillyPomll,6.ry Ro$ingtonand Stew clingi (front, fEm left) jo Silling3ley,tldie Hawkins,RonnleVa. znnt.rd c.si.6aids
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Skynyrd soundmal Kevin Elson is another who heard Ronnie foretetl ofhis early demise. "I think it was becausehe lived hard everyda), and anyole who does that l;ke Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix-is gone by the time they're 28 or 29," saysElson, who uent on to produce Journey, Mr Bigand Night Ranger,amongothers. "He and ldssisfant road mdndgerl Dean Kilpat ck were the same.The,vwere like, 't have this tunny feeling aboutthis.I don'tthink I'n goingto nuke it-"' Elson u'as also on that rented twin-engine plane the day it fell out of the Mississippi sL1'. Had he been older and wiser, he says, he never would have climbed those rickery steel stairs. "we had problems on the plane before that last flight," Elson says."We had a day off, then a show, then a da1'offlying." They flew a mechanic in itm Dallas 1,r,horvas supposcd to repair eveq'thing. Though the band remainedwary ofthe plane's condition, everyone had confidence in the pilot. "Except CassieGaines,"explains Elson. "But itwas one ofthose things where intuition should have been followed. Cassiesaid, 'I'm going to dde in the truck; but she changed her mind atthe lastminute. There was so much lea
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In Kooper'seyes,lynlrd Slf'nyrd werehis Allman Brothers,thejewel in the southernrock cror.r'n. Skynyrd transcended the southernrock genre*'ith their swaggering,dangerousmusicthatconjuredthe dark fury of betrayal,perlidyorjust plain ornerinessand hopelessness overthe diminishedprospectsof the rural south. Thesewereguyswho neverexpectedanlthingbut {.antedever}'thing. Youcouldhearit in the antebellurn talrntof"SweetHomeAlabama,"to the prosaicpleaof "GimmeThreeSteps,"andthe statelyrequiemof"free Bird."That anthe -turned albatrossbeganlife asawistful lovesongabouta manwho wastryingto extricate himselfliom a claustrophobic relationship.Itglew to epicstaturewhen the]'graftedon a mad combaliveclosing codathat buildsandtumbleson itsell then doubles backagain,makinganine-minutesonicedificethat stretchesrightacrossthe Mason-Dixonline,purloining fills from DuaneAllman andtravellingall the way to ]-ondon to sit at the right handofJeffBeck,siphoningoffhis "Beck'sBolero"riffs. Skynlrd were alwaysmoreinfluencedby secondwave British invaders(Eric Clapton,Frceand the tough,garageythud ofthe RollingStones,Kinks andYardbirds) than by the Allmans'jazzy,free-wheelingimprovisations. With their talesof beautifuI losers,thwartedromanceard dashedambition,Skyn],Td were a moremenacingbunch. Peace,love and understanding nevermadeitto Jacksonville.VanZant'slip would curl into a surly halfmoon as he spatoutthe lyricsto "On the Hunt," "PoisonWhiskey" or "Thingscoingon." The attitudeandthe lifestylethat lurtureo rt u-ere capturedinthe sneeringlysarcastic"Workingfor MCA:' The songwaswritten lor the Soundsofthe Southlaunch party,held atRichard'sinAtlantaon Sunday,July 2q 1973, whereSkynyrdandotherhopefulsperform€dforjaun-
dicedrecordexecutives, radioprogrammers, discjockeys, promoters,rock cdtics andT.RexkMarc Bolan,allof whom new in on McAs tab.Duringthe song'sperformance,VanZantstoodiDonespotbarelymoving,hisbare feetsquarelyplantedon the stageashe spatoutlyricsthat told the m)'thbehindthcbtnd's creation."Sevenyearsof hard h.rckcomin'downon me/Froma motorboat,yes,up in Nashville,Tennessee/lworkedin everyjoint you can name,yes,everyhonkytonk/Theyall cometo seeYankee slicker,saying'Baby,you'rewhat I want."' Behindhim.r wrllofguirarswailed.Ed King,lhe StrawberryAlarmclock expatriatewhod beenhiredto playbasson Skynyrd'sdeb\rtalbum,pronounced'\dh-'nird 'sftin-'ndrd, hadswitchedto guiiar,rippedoffnotesthat nibbledat the far endsofpsychedelia, his Stratocaster fillingthe psychicgapbetweenCollins'cibsonfirebird and Rossington's LesPaul.Behindthem,the rhlthm section of Powell,bassistLeonwilkeson anddrummerBob Burnsplayedwith military precision. The pressand hangers-onwere out of their chairs fiom the very first assaultof "\Morking for MCA' to the final lingering note of "Free Bird." Sodevastatingwassk'.nlrdt performancethat the other actsshowcasedat the eventMoseJonesand Elijah-were forgotten.Lln},'rd Skln rd, thatsevenyearwork-in-progress, werereadyat last creggAllmansaiduponmeetingRonnievan Zant in you the guy that'stryingto soundlike me?" 1972,'1{Ie Anyoneactuallyiisteningwould know that wasn'tffue. Maybeit had moreto do with the factthat Allmanonce datedvan zant'swinsomewife,Judy.Therewasalwaysa whiffofcompetitivenessbetweenthe two of them. with their take-no-prisoners attitude,SLTnyrd themselves a formidablereputationascontendercwe get on that stage, it's war," Van Zant told me in
"There are no friends. no relatives.We are the3qt
I lovedond respecled RonirieVqn Zqnt.But
I hsve seenlhe munturn intothe devilriqht in lrofit ol me undhurl people."
_ARTIMUS PY1E
He drilled his bandmercilessly, drivingout to creen * CoveSprings,Florida,to a little tin shackon 90 acres north ofJacksonville. which quick- * This swelteringshed, ly earnedthe nickname"Hell House,"becrme thc boot * campwherevan zant moldedhis raw recruitsinto musi calmen.He pickedup hisbleary-eyedandgrumbling * troopsin hisbatteredold'55 CheWtruck everymorning * at 7:3oA.M., stoppingforjugsofcoffeeat the donutshop wherehis notherworked. By 8:30he'dbe puttinghis * chargesthroughtheir pacesinworkdaysthat regularly * ran eightto 12hours.Sometimes they wouldn'tstraggle backuntil the next morning. * It paid off.with Kooper'shelp,Skynyrdlandedthe * supportsloton the Americanlegofthe who's Quddropfieniatour Theywent Iiom headliningsmallvenues * in the southto performingin front of20,o0oat someof Americat largestfacilities.Attheir first showatSanFran- i cisco'sCow Palace, they sawhow dauntingit couldbe. * The audiencepeltedthe little-knownbandwith quarters, ostensiblyto get them offthe stage.'Anddamnthat hurt," * van zant said at the time. * But almosthalfan hour later,that sameaudience calledSkynyrdbackfor an encore."No bandthat hasever * openedfor the Who hasever gotten an encore,"Who * managerPeterRudgeremarked at the time. Beforeyou * knew it RudgewasmanagingSk]'nyrd. "Theywere immediatelyaffectedby the presenceof * the who," rememberedBill curbishlet Rudge'smanage* ment partner and current managerof the who, "They wantedto be crazierthan Keith Moon.Theywantedtobe * more everttling than the who. They were naturally a bit * crazy in various ways,and all that meeting with the who did was light the fuse.It alsogavethem a hunger and a * drive anda motivation. * "I wastouringwith themquite a bit in Europe,and
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I felt this was a band that could havegoneall the way. I think they madethe qpe ofmusicthat transcended fashion.Ithink theywouldhavestuckin there.Punkor alternative wouldn't hnvedamagedthem." Evenso,damagewas alreadyhappeningwithin the group'sranks.In late 1974,on the band'sfiIst ove$eastrek, their first drummet BobBums,snappedin a northern Englandhotcl room, a breakdownthe others saywastriggeredby an unhealthynurnberofviewings of the hit film ].hetirorcrsf. Burns,who d beenplayingpoorly and sufferingvan Zant'surath regularly,fiealed and tossedthe hotel'sbelovedrcsident cat out his fourth floor window. He later went after the road managerwith a pickax.Somehow the bandgot through the two-week tour, but they madea poiDt of putting Burns on a sepamteflight home. As it happens,the membersoflynyrd Sklnyrdwere unitedby onestrangething:the bandmates, almostto a man,had losttheir fathersearlyon.ArtimusPyle'sdad hadperishedin a planecrashthat chillinglyresembled the onethat felledthe band;it took off from the same creenville,SouthCarolina,airportfrom which the band's planedepartedon its finalflight.Rossington's fatherdied while he wasstill a toddler andEd King'sdadhad committedsuicide.AllenCollins'fatherhadn'tdiedbut had beenabsent;hedreappealedin King'slife "aboutthe sametime the lbdnd'sroydlry]checksdid,"accordingto onebandmember.LeonWilkeson'sfatherwasalive.as wcll, but was"the weirdesthumanbeingl had evermet in my life,"accordingtoKing."He was abusive-anasty,meanlittle man with the personalityofa thumb." RonnieVanZantassembled this fatherlessregiment,all in ncedofguidanceanddirection, andhammeredit into atouring and recordingmachine. "Hammered"wasthe operative word. VanZant had no compunctionabouthitting a band memberacrossthe mouth ifhe sawsomederelictionof duty. Like the time LeonWilkesonwas
caughtstaringat a girl's breasts-Or when Ronniecaught Wilkesondrinkingwine during"Free Bird." Or when he knockedout two ofBilly Powell'steeth.Or the time in Hamburg,cermany,when he smasheda bottle and goredthe backofRossington'shandswith it, hissing, "I'lldo it without you!" "I lovedand respectedRonnieVanZant" sals Pyle."I meanthat fiom dre bottom of my heart.But I haveseenthe mantum into the devil right in liont of me and hurt pmple." "Ifwe were the Beatles,Ronniewasthe meanBeatle," saysRossington. "He wassupermeandndsupernice:' "They were all mean around here," remembered Van Zant's mother Marion. "But Ronni€was the meanestofthem all." allhaveit," remembersJeff "Ronnie'smeanness-they Carlisi, a neighborofthe VanZants and bandmateofRon' nie'syoungerbrother, Domie VanZan! in .38Special."He 8Tewup in Shantltown lJackson\'ille'srough-and-tumble ,esf sr'de].Violencewasjust part of the culture there. lf you didnl fight for it, somebodywould take it from you." By most accounts,Van Zant was largelyfull of ire when he drank.Judy Van Zant Jennessrecallsthe day Ronnieknockedout Billy Powell'steeth."I was there that day,and that was not a pretty day.What set him off? Alcohol...thetemper ofthe Van Zants.They all grew up in the housewith Lacy.One thingbreeds anothet you know.It's passedon and on."
Skvnvrd truniceinded lhesoulhern rockqenre withTheir
swllggenng, dungerous music lhul coniured lhe durklury ol belruyul,
perfrdy or pluin iust
orneriness und hopelessness over lhedininished prospecls in lhe rursl soulh.
Lacy Van Zant was a colden cloves boxet with no fewer than 36 bouts under his belt. From an early age he taught his eldestson Ronnie named after his favorite movie star, Ronald Reagan-not only how to fight but also how to hurt. "I stafied teaching him how to box when he was two-anda-half years old," remembered Van Zant's father in 1996. "He was very very intelligent, but he had a high temper Ifhe couldn't get his way, he d run across this room and butt a hole ghtinthe
wa1l.l taughthirn ifyou rcallywanted to hurta m.rr youd hit him lcross the facc. Don'thithim straight in the face, you ll onlybreal his nose." Over the coulse oihis life, Ronnie Van Zantwas arresG ed 12 til1les Iive of them occurring during tLe last year-of his life-and he hacl suffered enough bruises ofhis own to shou, he didn't always pick on the littlc gu,v Parked outside a club in san Francisco, a rather large Clicaro man wandered onto thcir tour bus, called "the Great White Wonder," demardingto have a ltxrk around. Van Zant took umbmge to the intrusion and lostno time n rarsinghis fists and thunping the intruder on thc side ofhis head.'l'he mar scrambled offthe tour bus, with Van Zant in pursuit, only to be mct by a croud ofthe nan's pals biggel brawnier and more lethalthar their ftiend- Before t0 mirutcs had passed,cary Rossinliton hadjoincd Van Zant at the botton ofabloody heap. The singersuffered facial injuries tl'latrequircd hc wcar sunglassesonstage. "I remember we were on the bus and Ronnie would be lying thcre with two pieces of raw meat on his cycs, and he'd weer suntjlasscsdlrring the show. A! the end of'l'rec Bird' he'd get rid ofthc rnic and take offhis sunglasses alld star-eat dre audience," recalls Billf' Powell-'And the whole flont lou, wouJd go 'Wow' " Chris Charles$,orth, a former M€lodl Mdler journal ist \,r4rob€crme Skvnyrd's press ofliccr, belicves a sense ofself lelialce rvas at the heart ofVan Zant's frcquentl). ornery pcrsonalit"v."He was the sort of guy thatpullcd himselfup by lis bootstraps. H€ 6gured, well, ifl contin uc to do it my way, I'll do okay.l've plovcd this to myself, so why shoul.l I listen to anybody else?That's thc fe€ling you got from lim. Pctcr Rudge, whom I worked for was a tough guy too. A brainy grry.lfthcr-e was any trouble, he coull handle it. They were a good pair" Van Zant and his baDd became known rs offstage boozers and brawlers who would fighr anrong themselves ifl1o external adversarieswer-eavailable.Their antics reached such proporlions lhat nany viewed the air-planecrash as
asymbolic culmination ofthe bard's violclt lifestyle. Charlesworth, however, chalks the planc clash up tojust "dumb bad luck.I don't be lieve for one minut€ that dre indiscretions oftheir lifestvle woulcl have led to this- That s superstitious bollocks." As mean as hecouldbe, there was a Jckyll and Hyde aspect to RonnieVan Zrnt. "Hetl givc you the shirt offhis back," remembers his brothcr Donnie. "H€ xlwrys paid for every !hing," renembe$writcr Cameron Crowe, who partiallybased thc band inhis filmAlaosr ?'dmouson Skynyrd.'avher wc wcrc in Japan and.Iack Daniel's was $75 rbottlc, Romric said,'I'm buying'Hewas alwaysthe firstoncto rcach into his pocket." RecallsJo Jo Billingsley, one ofthe Honkcttcs, "Ronnie was such a gentlen]an, he wouldn't let arybody messwith us." Although allthee Horlkcttcs wcrc stunning, there wasn't a man fbr miles whowould come near them ifVan Zantwas around. "Ronnie had this here charlr abouthim," remembercd his molher Marion in 1996. "He could charm anybody.But he was straightfon ard with everythinghe did. You could say he dlways kncw his own mind. He never ever changcd, cither He saw his old friends when he came off thc road and hc lo\€d to fish and would fish with allybody. Onc thing I surely lemember is he was very protective ofAllen. No one could messwith Allen. He was oldcrthan both Allen and cary. He ligured he was supposed to watch rhem when thev were outon the road." And ifyou believe ill such things, he's wrtching over them still. ****i**** BOUT T.WO-AND-A-HALEHOURSout ofCreenville, South Carolina, en route to Baton Rouge,louisian a, and only three days into th€ .Stre€t.Survivorstour, the right engiDc ofLynyrd Skynyrd's chartered 1948 twin cnsirc Convair suddenly hiccupped and dicd. Thc pilot radioed to the Houston Air Route l raflic Control Center, told the staffhe was "low on fucl" alld requested vedors for a tiny airstrip ir McComb, Mississippi. He and his copilot hacln't finished receivingthcir dircctions when rhe left engine quit. The small planc bcgan its dcath glide into the Mississippi swamp. Chris Charlesworth was due to travelwith the band on that ill-starred n;ght ofOcto ber 20, 1977At thc last miDute his plans had changed, and he decided to nect the band in Baton Rouge. Ihrec decadcs later, his ne miss still chills hin1. "Thos€ in the front ofthe plane cane offworsc. That's where Ronnie, Ste\e caines, CassieGaincs and road managerDean Kilpatrick were sitting," hc told uldssic Roc* magazine. "Those at thebackwere lessbadly injured.Inevitably, the lroup and thosc who were closest to them were up frort. That's \(,h€rc I would have sat, becauseI didn'tkno*, any ofthe crew, who sat in the back." Rccalls Billv Poweil. "we hit the trees at what seemed like 1oo miles an hour. It
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felt like we were beinghitwith baseballbats in a rrn coffeecan with the lid on. The tail'sectionbroke off. the cockpit broke offand buckledunderneath,and both wings broke ofl The fuselageturned sideways, and everybodywashurled forward. That's how Ronnie died. He was catapultedat about 80 m-p.h.into a tree. Died instantlyofa massiveheadinjury There was not anotherscratchon him, excepta small bruise the size ofa quarter at his temple." Later reports would insist that the singer was decapitated, causingJudy Van Zant to publish her husband's autopsyresultson the internet. The planewasmiredin almostthreeieet ofswamp muck in a hardwoodforest.The survivorsw€renr aware that the causeof the crashwasdueto the pilots running out offuel, sothey fearedthe planewould burst into ilame at any moment. The sunwassettingquickly.DrummerArtimus Pyle andcrew membersKen PedenandMark Frankstumbled through the wreckageand into the darkening evening to find help.Artimuq with abrokensternumandthreeof his ribs pokingout of the skin in his chesgmadehis way to a farm housea painfulthree-quarters ofa mile away, impelled by one thought. "Every painful step I took was a drop of their blood.I knew that I hadto keepputting one foot in front of anoth€r-" Scramblingin the dark-fearful of snakes,alligators or worse-the three lina1lyflaggeddown a farmer named Johnny Mote, who had come to investigatewhat the mightynoisewasthat jaIred him out ofhis house. Unnervedby the sightofa dirty,blood-drenchedhippie runningtowardhim, Mote fired awaining shotgun blast.Itdid nothingto deterPyle,who stillcontendsthat Mote shothim in his rightshoulder-a claim Mote denies. When the drumrner-could finallyutter lhe words "plane crash.Morecalledfor help.u hichu r.long in coming. Rescue$had to crossa 20-footcreekin orderto get to the crashsite.The injuredhadto wait in the mud forhours, while policeandemerg€ncyworkerscarvedout a make shift roadthroughthe woods. Horii'ingly, itwasn't onlyhelp that came.Looters reachedthe siteandpilferedthe pocketsof the deadand livingalike."Theywerehlrmanvultures,"recallsroad managerCraigReed.'All the moneythat wasin mypocketswas taLen.we had beenpiaying poker ght before the crash,andI waswinningbig.I had a coupleof grand that wastaken.All my T-shirtswere taken.All my jewellery askull andcrossbones cokespoon-allgone.They went throughour suitcases. Theytook an)'thingthat said 'LynyrdSkl.rlyrd.'Theyevenwentout andtooLthe sideof the planethat waspainted'LFlrd Sklnyrd.'" "The thingl thinkofis the constanttelephone callswith JudyVan Zant who wasat Ronnie'shouse," Charlesworthremembers.'1\ll the women,wivesand girlfriendsofthe bandand the crew gatheredat Judy's house.There must havebeena dozenwomenthere.I just couldn'thelp but try to imaginethe horror ofthe scene.Canyou imagineall thesewomen sitting around a table in the houseand noneofthem knowing iftheir husbandswere aliveor deadafter thev'dbeenin this planecrash?The horror ofall thesewomenwaiting to heariftheir husbandswere dead?" By the next day,the injured were scatteredover three hospitals,where somewouldremainfor weeks.Allen Collinsinjuredhis spine.Back-upsingerLeslieHawkins hadseriousfacialcuts,while BillyPowellandArtimus Pylewere releasedfrom hospitalsaweek afterthe crash. LeonWilkesonsuffereda brokeniaw.a crushedchestrnd b l e e d i n g a n dw a " d e c l e r e dd e a d n o t o n c e . b u l . three times, waking up only to say he had been sitting on
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ildiirdshaped log with Ronnie and DuaneAllman.
"iRonnie told me,'Boy, get yourself out of here, it's not y-oq time y,eI. Get on out of here,' " the bassist told me in
1997This would not be the lasttime the spectreof Ronnie Van Zant would pay a visit to fiiends and family.
********* S NEWSOFTHE CRASHEMERGED,family and friendshurried to the smallMississippitown where the survivorsand deadwere gathered. Judy VanZant wasthere,aswasBilly Powell's ex-wifeStella.FormerSkynyrdguitaristEd King drovethroughthe night and arrivedthe next morning to seethe membersofthe band he'd left two yearsbefore."I alwaysknew somethingbadwould happento them after I left,"the guitaristrecalled. Skynyrd managerRudgechartered three planesfor family members.Don Barnes,guitaristwith -38Special, accompanied RonnieVanZant'sfatherto Mississippi andwaswith him when he went to identit'his son. "The strengththat this man displayedwasmonumental," Barnessays."Lacywasin denialon the planeandhoped
mostly becausehis wife, Judy,was falling apart. "l went into shockwhen Ronniedied,"shesays."I didn'twantto hold the funeral untilAllen andcary got outofthe hospital.Shelooksoffinto the distance,pushinga strandofblondehairoffofher eyes."Butthatwas impossible. And then I didn'twant him buriedin the ground.I insistedon a crypt.I know I drovea lot of peoplecrazy,but I wasn'tgoingto put him in the groundandput dirt on him. I know it soundssilly now.It didn't then.Sothey put up a temporarycr!?t. Laterwe had this specialmemorialseryice just for Allen and cary and we moved Ronnieto his permanent place.TheresafGaines] decidedshewantedSteveandCassiethere,too." Shewasn't the only one who had trouble keepingit together.Lacy Van Zant wore a LynyrdSkynyrdT-shirtto the l0-minutelongfuneralserviceand had to be hospitalized for nervousexhaustionfor three daysafter-'ward.But before that, he went up to Honkette Jo Jo Billingsleyanddid sometiingthat unnervedher "Lacycameup andreacheddown andscoopedup a handfulofthe dirt andwiped it acrossmy mouthand said,'Kissthis groundyou re walkingon. Ard walLedoff The reasonfor Lacy'sratherstrangebehaviorwasbecauseJo Jo wasn'ton that flight. Shehadn'tbeenwith the bandat the beginningoftheStr€efSurriror tour-intimates say shehadbeenfired becauseshewashavingan affairwith Allen Collins-but accordingto Billingsley, VanZantcalledher the night beforetheir showin creenvilleto comerejoin
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that there was a mistale and that his son was not dead.I had to 6nd out who was where, and we had to get to the funeral home to identifu the body. 'nve then went to the hospital and sawall the other peoplewhowerehurt. They all lookedat Lacythrough stitches and swelling, and he told me not to sayanlthing about Ronnie.He just said that Ronniewas fine and You justgetbetter andrest.'Thisman hadjustbeentothe funeralhomeand seenhis sondeadanddecidedto keep that to himself for theseguys to heal. I told him that it was the suongest thing I had seena marl do." Lacy Van Zant alwaysinsisted he wamed his son not to get on that plane."On that last day,he was standing right on this step,"saidthe elderVanZan! who pointedto a spot about l0 feet fiom where we sat,"and I beggedhinl : nottogetonthecharterplane.Hetoldme,'Dadd, pilot can fly through the eye of a hurricane and com freld: It turns out that he was wrong." Ronnie'sfuneral wasn't held until almost
the bandon the road. "I thought, well, that's music to my ears,"Billingsley told a reporter from swampland. com in 2003."I said,Yes,ofcourse.'WhileI wastalkingto him I felt this strangefeeling andI heardthis word:'wait' My spirit wastalkingto me.I saidlto Ronnre],"lffell,yor: were planning to com€to Little Rock an)'way.Why don't I just meetyou there?'And he said,'cood,bring all your stuff'I wentbackto sleepat my mom's,andthat night I had the mostvivid dream.I sawthe planesmackthe ground.l sawthem screamingandcrying,and I sawfire.I wokeup screamingandmymom camerunningin going,'Honey, what is it?'I said'Mam4I dreamedthe planecrashed!'Andshesaid,'No,honey,it'sjust a dream.'AndI said'No.mom.it's too reall' "They had aheadysentme the itinerary,sothe next dayI calledGreenville.I called everybodyon the list. Finally, late that afternoon,Allen called me back. He said, '.Io,what in the world is it? I've got messagesall over creenville from you.' I said ,{len, it's $at :And I told him aboutmy dream.I said'Allen,pleasedon'tget on that plane.'He 'Jo,it's funny you d mention that, becauseI was looking out the window yesterday , I sawfire comeout of the winq' " recalls that when she heard about the crash,"the first thing I thought was, life. The Lord gave rne that drearn ro warn me, and I did rhe only Ihing I
rhem.It wasso\^eird.because someof rhemthoughtthatma)be I
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had somethingto do with it, but I had nothingto do with it." A y€ar after the plane crash, creggAllman wanted to form a band with Gary Rossington and Allcn Collins. "Iwas actingas the manager for Garyand Allen," saysJudy Van Zant Jenness."l weirt down to meet with cregg, who wanted tojoin up with them. But Greggwanted them to call it Free Bird, so we dropped the idea. lt was probabty a good thiDg. Cary andAllen weren't ready." Itwould take them two moreyears to launch Rossiryton-Collins. Byautumn oft979, the two guitarists felt corlident enough to talk to the press about their newvenrure, expl ning "we've justbeer gettingtogether and messing around...doing a little playing and a little thinking, but we're not worried about making any big rock and roll moves:' They hired singer Dale Krantz (who latermarried Rossington,after a rather torrid romance with Collins) d were eventLralJyjoinedby Skynyrd keyboardist Billy Powell and bxsslsL t eon wrlkeson It was the closest they had come to any senseofnormalcy afier the crash, but it was a fool's paradise.lt seemed fate was not done u'ith them yet. Allen Collins suffered another gut punch while on the road with his newbandAfter a performance in November 1981,he got a phone calltellinghim that his hcavily pregnantwife had started bleedingin a movie th€ater and was rushed to a local hospital, wherc she later died. The glitarist never recovered fiom the loss. He became even nore extreme ir his habits, retreatingfrom friends and family. The only thing that seemed to comfort him were rock and roll panaceas:drinking drugs ard drivirg around in fastcars. Five years after his wife's deatL Collins'plunged his car over a ravine, killinghis passenger,girlfriend Debra Jean Watts, and paralyzing him from the waist down. Iour'_vearslater, Collins died from pneumonia that resulted fiom injuries sustrined in the car accident. 'Aftor Allen's wife died, he dove into a bottle and never came out," Billy Powellsays. Adds Rossington,'Allen was great. He was so fitmry, so happy-goJucky and crazy. But after his wife died, he became real bitter, even with me...He never krew how manypeople he inspired becausehe died too early." ******t** HERE lS SOMETHING UNNERI'ING about the northem Flodda swamps at night. The brackish water is dull,with a green sheen,while Sparish moss drips from the branches ofthe oal 3rrd c)?ress trees,coatingthem in poisonousputrid icing. Jiftery t}?es like to avoid the still waters of Lake Delancy,one ofVan Zant's favorite iishingspots, where people have claimed to have spotted his ghost, dressedin black and striding purposeiy towald the waterwith the yellow cane fisl,ingpole he was buri€d with tucked under his right ann. Judy Van Zant recalled a dream sh€ had, shortlyafter she had buried her 'About six months after Ronnie's death, I woke up in the middle ofthe night. as it sounds, itjust felt like he was there. He said tl'nt he had three thinfs ro tell
me. The {irst, ofcourse, was to take care ofMelod}' lthe co ple's ddughfer]. The secondwas notto worry aboutAllen and Gary thar tlrey could take care ofthemsclves. And the third was he want€d me to know that he was okay.I kept callingto him,'Come back, don't go away-'I didnt The fact that VaI Zant would come back fiom the dead doesn't nuch surprise anyone who knew hjm.According to Sllnyrd lore, he had uncanny powers. One story ha.sit that Ronni€ could point his finger at a spot in the water and tellhis fishing companion to put his pole at exactly the spot and within minutes a lish would be flapping on the hook. And, ofcourse, lhere werc the lyrics to "That Smell," one of the last songs VIln Zant wrote for Sfreef Sun irors. The line "The smell of death'saround you" were chiilingenough, but theytook on amacabre, prescient tone afterthe crash. Van Zan! had wriften the song as a cautionary tale to his band members,inspired byRossington's neaf fatal1977 car crash end the feelingthat some ofthem were pissingaway their future with excessivedrinking, drugging and carousirg.Itwasn't only the tragic prophecy ofthe songthat's chillin6ll his owl circle, itwas common knowledge that Van Zant didn't expcct to live much longer "Ronnie could see the future, aiways hadbeen able," said his father "You know, prior to starting the Suryivors tour Ronnie gave mybrotherhis bestblack hat and a beautiful ring that he used to wear. He also gave ne sev eralthings, includinghis lawn mower and his 1955Che\y p i . k u p ( f u c k . T h a l l e d m e t o b e l i e \ e r l l a l R o n n i em r ) have knowr that he did not have longto live." Could Ronnie have really foretold his own death?His brother Johnny, who replaced him as the lead singerof Llnlrd Skynlrd, isn't sure. "Things work out in nysterious ways,"he says-"Ronnie and Stevie [Gdrneslwere only on this earth a shofttime. Cod made his mark on them for lhem to maketheir mark on the world. Hell,I don'tlnow if we'll ever figure it out.Iate takes you oD whatcver road it wants. some ofus take a good road and some ofus tale a bad road. But ifmy brother was .eaily so sure he was going to gt), don't you think he would havc made a will?" lk
I pulledinto Nazareth, wasfeelin'abouthalf pastdead I iust needsomeplace whereI can lay my head - searching lbr inspilation.he lookcdinsidchis D-18 andfoundNazareth.l96ll
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positionbetweenthe middle and bridgepickups.This settingyieldsa spa:rkling, crystal-clearsound,even when he cranksup thevolume for somehigh-decibelamp-induceddistortion. The use of this unforgiving tone only further illustrates Thomasson'sblindingguitar technique,as he effortlessly movesfrom pristine, Jimmy Bryant like countrylicks to torrid, Jimi Hendrix-inspiredexplosionsofsound,all the while displaying fl awlessarticulation. FIcURE ra illustratesthe slow,dramatic,arpeggiatedchord sequence (played by Thomasson,ctr. 1) that begins the song.Be sure to allow all notesto sustainthroughoutthis figure, which is played "freely" (not in absolutely fixed rneter). Note the useof the "c" shapefor the D major chordvoicing on beatsthree and four ofbar 2. This voicingsupplies connective yoice ledding (each note, or "voice," of one chord movesto the closestnote ofthe following chord) betweenthe c and D major chords usedhere, At 0:24,cuitar 2 (Billy Jones) enters, playing the samebasic arpeggiatedchord pattern asGuitar I while incorporatingl6th notesinto the iff(see FIGURE rb);compare this pattem with FTGURE ra to see the discrepancies betweenthe two parts.Again,allow all notesto sustain throughout. FIGURE 2 depictsthe setup to the tempo changethat occurs at 0:45.At this point (0:37),Guitar l repeatsthe initial arpeggiated figure while Guitars 2 and 3 strum the chords,also shown in FtcuRE r. This phraseis followed immediately by FlcuRE3, which initiates the changeto the quite brisk tempo of200 beatsper minute (bpm). (This four-bar rhythm figure is repdsed later in the songbehind all the outro guitar solos-) In this example,the three-guitar rhlthm part is arrangedfor one guitar.Listen closelyto the recording to hear the subtledifferences betweeneachg]litar part. one obvious differenceis the little triplet hammer-onlick Thomassonusesto end the phrase,shown here asthe down-stemmednotesduring beat four ofbar 4. This lick is notplayed when the rhythm figure is recalled later in the song. Prior to the first verse,at O:53 O:sqThomassonplayssome improvised solo lines that give an indicationofthings to come.His licls acrossthesesevenbarsarebased primarily on the E minor pentatonic scale(E G A B D), with the bief inclusionofthe ninth, F*. tught be{ore he switches back to the rhythm part, he tossesin a bit of chromaticismby quickly hammeringonto fiets 5, 6,
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FIGUBE 1 a) irtro {o:oFo:2a) Em o ooo FFFITI
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FIGURE 2 set-upto tempochange(0:37{:45) ^ E m C Efr G ct. t
Gtrs.2 and3
FIGURE 3 primary rhlthm figure (0:4i'0:s0) Fast , = 200 EmCGD Gtrs. I 3 (e. forone erJ.)
3 *Thon^son s li.k (intto onlr)
FIGURE4verserhythm figure 11:(X-1:30) Itulf Time r=100
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FIGIJRE 5 a) chorusrhl'thm ngur€, Gtrs. 2 and 3 (arr. for one gtr.) (1:s7'2t6)
I
and 7 in succession, altematingfiom b) chorusrhythm figur€ (Gtr, 1, Thomasson) (l:57-2:02) the A string to the lowE. When the versebegins(1:04),the GCG temposwitchesto half time (100 bpm). ttcuRE4 illustratesthe verce rhlthm par! with all threeguitars arranged for one guitar. Notice how effectively this part combines chord accentswith single-notelicks,pro6 Thornasson'sfirst solo (2:16-3:23) viding a solid and equallypropulsive FIGURE Em G c D rhlthm figure. This type of rhythm ooo paft is not uncommoninbluegrass r'taTTl music,which provideda largein. T-ITT' ffi fluenceon the playingofall of the I TI TTI 2 3 2 t 3 J 2 | r72 Outlaws' guitarists. As you play this G figure,be awareof the singlebar of 2/4, which occursafterthe frrst two barsof 4/4 are playedfour times. Followinga brieflead breakby Billy Jones,the songproceedsto the secondverse,for which the rhlthm part shown in FIGURE 4 is repeated. This time, after the sametwo-bar figure is played foul times, the meter remainsin 4/4, and aC chord is strummed repeatedly.After a C-G double-stopis slid up to D-A, the song'schorussectionbegins. EmG FIGURE 5ashowsthe chorus Gtrs. 2 and 3 repeat Rhy. Fig. t for rcnainder ofsolo part (r:57-2:16), playedby rhlthm Guitars2 and 3.AlternatingthirdpositionG and C barre chordsare accentedwith a subtlel6th-note s]'ncopation and fiet-hand muted strums.Thomasson(cff.I) playsa slightly different rhlthm figure for this section,addinga 16th-notelick in the secondbar ofeachtwo-bar phrase(seeFICURE 5b).After this two-chord changeis playedthree times,the progressionswitchesto G F C, setting up the return to the Em G C Dversechord progression, which is playedbehindThomasson's first guitar solo. rIGURE 5 illustrates this solo,heard between2:16and 3:23.Here,Guitars2 and 3 play a simple rhythm figure consisting entirely of first-position 'towboy" chords.This two-bar rhythm figure is repeatedthroughout the solo with slight embellishment. 5 2.9 -+9+9\7-59+9+979 #e\7 Thomassonbeginsthis solo section with a workout on blueglasstype licks, usingthe notes E, c, A, B and D for improvisation.As previouslystated,this set ofnotes comprisesthe E minor pentatonic scale,but it may also be thought of as c major pentatonic (c A B D E). G 1sthe relativemajor ofE minor. (The root ofrelative major chord or scaleis found one and one half stepsabovethat ofa minor chord or scale;likewise, the root ofa relative minor chord or scaleis found one and one halfsteps below that of a major chord or scale.) when this group ofnotes is played over an E minor chord, it sounds like E minor pentatonic;when it's playedover a c chord, it sounds like c major pentatonic.
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Thomassondisplaysnothing lessthan a master'stouch in his articulation of thesephrases,many ofwhich are accentuatedwith precision bending,pre-bending and unbendingofthe G string. Acrossthe first four and a half bars,the guitarist keepsthe D note at the B string's third fret ftetted with his ring finger the entire time; he doesnt lift this finger until beat three ofbar 5, when he plays the open high E. Thomasson usesthe first eight bars ofthis solo to play in this bluegrassvein and doesn't deviatefrom the E minor pentatonic/G major pentatonic scaleuntil the eighth bat when he throws in a C note,which relates to the underlying C chord in the progression. Followingthe doublebarline (beginningat bar 9 of acuRE6), Thomassonlaunchesinto moreofa rock style,playinghard-edged, bluesier linesbasedon the same6ve-note scale.Acrossthe 6rst eightbarsof this section,he playsfour vadations of what is essentiallythe sametwo bar lick, with melodicdeviations addedalongthe way.ln bar 16ofFtcURE 5, startingon the upbeatofbeat two, he repeatsa fast,beautifully articulateddouble-stop(two-note)
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bendinglick, usinghis ring fingerto barre and bend the D and G strings at the seventhfret. you will seethat Occasionally, Thomassontossesin the C note, especiallywhen soloingover the C chord.Addingthis note to the E minor pentatonicscalecreatesan E minor hexdtonrc(six-tone)scale, spelledE G A B C D. This unusual scaleis very similar to the seventone E Aeolian mode,spelledE F* G A B C D. Another wayto analyze this E minor hexatonicscaleis to think of it in relation to the relative major scale,c major,which is spelledGAB C D E F*.withcas the root, it becomesG major hexatonic (G A B C D E). (DickeyBetts usesthis scale,in a variety ofkeys, to createsweet-soundingsolos and harmonizedmelodiesin such Allman BrothersBand classicsas ".Iessica," "Blue sky,""Melissa"and "Ramblin'Man.") In bars 19-23ofFtcuRE5, Thomassonplayscool licks with doublestopsand lots ofhammer-ons,pulloffs and slides.Listen closelyto the recordingto hearhow thesetricky licks shouldbe articulated.In the last four barsofthis section,the gui tarist playsa beautifullymelodiclick that incorporatesa handful of twoand three-notechords.Thomasson usesthis lick as a supporting rhlthm part behind Billy Jones'subsequent guitar solo(3:23-4:22).Jones,while alsobasingmuch ofhis soloingon E minor pentatonic,playsthe fiist six barsofhis solousingnotesftom the E Dorian mode(E Ff c A B C$ D). Noticethatthis scaleis almost identicalto EAeolian (E F# c A B C D), with the exceptionof the sixth scaledegree, In the four bars preceding the song'sthird verse (4:26-4:36), illustrated in FIGURE 7, Thomasson and Jones provide a briefburst of guitar harmony,played across the last two beats ofbar 2. These notes are fourths apart, with Jones fretting an E and Thomasson fretting an A note a fourth above.The two guitarists create an interesting harmon, as Jones bends the E note up a minor third (one and a half steps)to c while Thomassonbends the A note up one whole step to B. The resultant pitches of the two bent notes,G and B, are a major third apart; so, while the harmony begins and ends in fourths, the inteNal be' tween the two pitches contracts briefly from a perfect fourth (E-A) to a major third (c-B), then expands back to a perfect fourth as both bendsare released. Thomassonfollows this harmonized bend with a fast,ascending E minor pentatonicrun playedin
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* * * * FIGUBE I Thomasson's 2nd solo (5.25-600) Fast .l= 200
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l6th-note triplets. The sectionends with the syncopatedfigure shown in bar 4 offlcuRE7.At this point of the song(4:36),the guitarsreturn to the parts illustrated in F|GURES4 and s for the third verseand chorus. At the end of the last chorus,the tempokicksback into doubletime (200 bpm), and the rh,'thm guitar part shown in H6URE3 is reprised. At 5:25,Thomassonlaunchesinto his secondguitar solo,and it's a longone. At one minute and 27 seconds in length,it doesn'tend until 6:52.FlcUREg illustratesthe first 32 bars ofthis guitar solo extravagalza (ftom 5:25-6:00).Theselicks are basedprimarily on E minor pentatonic, with briefinclusions of the ninth (r{) and the minor (or "flat") sixth (c). Thomassonbeginswith a bold one-and-a-half-step bend, from E to G, in the firstbar; he repeatsthis wide bend later in the solo,asdoesJonesin his second solo, During this outro guitar solo, Thomassonrecalls many ofthe catchy,improvisedmelodies ftom his first solo.Comparethe two soloscloselyto seehow he elaborateson thesesignaturelicks. when recreatingthesesolo lines, strive for the sarneperfection in articulation Thomassonachieves, It will take a devotedeffort to make theselicks "speak" as clearly and powerfully as he does. In the last part ofThomasson's solo section,he and the band add somearrangedensemblefigures to keep things interesting.At 6:52, Thomassonplays a syncopated, octave-drivenmelodic phrasethat is mimicked rhythmically by the rhythm guitars.At 7:00,he plays a dramaticallyrepeatingtriplet figure that builds in a crescendo, from very quiet to very loud. This dynamic swell is also mimicked by the rest of the band. The sectionculminateswith a forceful ascendingfigure played by all three guitars.This eight-bar figure servesas the link between the guitar solos,asThornassoneffectively passesthe solo torch to Jones,who startshis solo at 7:lZ Jonessolosforjust aboutthe exact length of time asThomasson, one minute and 26 seconds,from 7:U-8:43.FlcUREg depictsthe first 40 bars ofhis solo (until 8:00). Jonesbeginswith a seriesofreversebends,in which the E note is pre-bentone whole-stepup, to tr*, piched,and then releasedback to E. consistent with much ofthe soloingheard in this tune,Jonesturns this lick into a repeatingmotifand builds the frrst eight bars ofhis solo around it. LiLe his first solo,Jones' lines here are basedprimarily on E
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FIGURE I Jones'secondsolo (717-8:00)
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minor pentatonic,with the inclusion of the ninth, tr*. At bar 25 ofFrcURE 9 (at 7:43), Jonesinitiatesa fastpull- off lick l7:43) playedon the B string.This lick is ,-"I tm L; G harmonizeda third abovebyHenry Em Paul(ctr. 3),who playsa similar lick on the high E string. Notice how, as athh.", G D A5 the lick is repeated,Jonesapplies and removesa right-handpalm mute (P.M.),effectivelychangingthe characterofthe lick. At 8:43,Thomassonjoins Jones for some spirited dual-guitar soloing, which was definitely the southern rock order ofthe day back in 1975.The two guitarists begin by doubling the fast E minor pentatoniclick depicted in FIcURE ro. This lick is harder to execute cleanly than one might imagine; approachit slowly at first and do your best to make eachnote as FIGIRE10 tandem lick (s:a3-8:b1) clear as possible.In the last bar ofthis example,you'll notice that EmC Jonesaddsa briefhigh harmony line to Thomasson'spart, At 9:15,the boyslock into ablazing,repeatingtriplet lick playedin harmony,with eachtriplet beginning a fourth apartand endinga third apart.This licL, shownin flcUREfl.,is playedeighttim€s and is followedby the licks illustratedin (9:25-9:33).At this point, FIGUREflb Jonesmoveshis lick up to ahigh B (which is pulled offthe G), followed by E, while Thomassoncontinues the samelick from FlcUREfla. After playingthis newharmonylick six times,Thomassonand Jonesplay a different harmonizedlick in the samesyncopatedrhlthm, setting up the final cadenza(9:34 9:43). This cadenza,depictedin FlcuRE|r, featuresThomassontearingthrough J second-positionlicks basedmostly on 911 E minor pentatonic(he beginswith a bit ofE Aeolian).Notice in particular the beautiful"pinch,"or "pick," harmonics(PH) Thomassonsounds ashe repeatedlybendsthe A note (c st ng secondfret) up a whole stepto FIGURE 12 enaing1s::l-srla1 B andback.His final touch is to toss in the G note,articulated asan F#, pre-bent up one half-step,which he quickly unbendsand then pulls offto an openlow E. while Thomassonrips through this passage, Jonesaddsa unison high E bend,which he repeatedly picks and shalres. As this masterpiecedemonstrates,the Outlawsprovidedsome ofsouthern rock'smostvital and exciting guitar wizadry Sadly,Jones and bassisttrrankO'Keefepassed awayin 1995,and Thomassondied in September2002 Checkout the albumBestoffhe outldwsrGreen Grdss& Jtigh lides to hear more guitar masteryfrom aband that was definitelyone ofthe prime practitioners ofsouthern rock, lk
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FIGURE 11 a) trarmonizedtripl€t licks (915-9:24) (plq, 8 lihel
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(dockwirefrom left) trazetta's Flittin' with Ditattet.ove\Hat het't debut:thebandin its orime
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The iconic-cnd HE TERM"SOUTHERN ROCK,conjuresup a wealth of all-too-obviousvisuals:cowboys,the Alamo,smokin'six-gunshoot-outs,the Confederate flag,and a dust-blowndesertpopulatedby cacti and tumbleweeds. But here'sone imageyou probablydidn'texpectwould seepthroughthe charcoalfilter: that ofa mad,rampaging,ax-wieldingbarbarian,lessBillythe Kid, more Conanthe Barbarian. Ior Molly Hatchet'sfirst, self-titledreleasein 1978, the Jacksonville,Florida,boogiebandusedfamousfantasyartist Frank Frazettaasits album-coverillustrator It provedto be an unusualbut astutemove Irazetta wasexpertat depictingbroadsword-waving beast-menand scantilycladsorceresses, and his images somehowprovidedthe perfectlit for Molly Hatchet's music.After all, MollyHatchet are namedafter a lTth centuryprostitutedubbed"HatchetMolly" who would decapitateher customers.(Apparently,itwas a bad idea to askfor head)
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wilL*:?J GEI{IIS
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ol l'l0l.t} HATCHET'S albumsleeves. Molly Hatchet's first two albums-their debut andFlirtin,withDisaster (tg7g) were verysuccessful. The forrnersoldamillion copies;the latterwasaTop-20smashin America.Amazingly,frazetta-or atleasthiswife-clairned credit for the band,ssuccess. As Molly Hatchet guitarist DaveHlubek recalled, "It was good working with Frank, but by the time we cameto the cover of [thegroup'sthird dlbum] Beatin' the Odds,the pricehad tlebled.Frank'sbusinessmanagerwasalsohis wife; I askedher why somuch andshesaid:'My husbandtpaintingsmadeyourband!' "well, we'veneverhada hit albumcoverplayedacrossthe radiowavessowe stoppeddoingbusinesswith her" Havingseveredrelationswith Frazetta,Molly Hatchetcontactedperuvianartist BorisVallejoto takeover the reinsfor fourth album?dfteNo Pnsoners and few fans noticedthe join. Hatchet's1983album,NoGutsNo clory, featureda straightforwardbandphoto,but it wasa shortlived departurefrom the barbarousnorm.'Yeah,Fmnk I razettadid the 6rst two,"saidguitaristBobbyIngram."BorisVallejodid a coupleofthem, then Ezra Tirckerdid a couple.But PaulRaymondcregory out ofStudio 54 in London,hasbeen our artist for the lastl0 yearsand is absolutelyfantastic." In addition to Molly Hatche! cregory hasworhed for Saxon,Dio, Uriah Heep and Blind Guardian."Paulgetsinvolved in the music,he getsinvolved with the conceptofthe album,"addsIngram. "The music,the songs,the feeling,the cover are all tied together." i-lk
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1993,cnd a yerf later they plal cd theil hlst fomalshow Thetlio performcd about 80 gisi irbctweenAllman Brothers tou|s before r-elcasingitsself-titled t995 debut on Relativity Rcconls.ln 1992 Halnes rnd Wood_vlelt the Allmans to concentrateon the luule. Unfortu nately thc lincup u-ould not last longrWoody died unexpcctcdly in Au$Ft 2OOO. In the,\,earsbet$eell their clL'butand Dos.,,cov't Mule's sound deepencd,c'xpaldnrgin alnost e\€l'v direction-becomingboth blucsicr ard heavier;more expansiveand tighter: Doservas a bold and adrenturous powerhouse of a g'uitarlccord foom the proto,netal minor ke,vriffof"Canc Face" and the Miles Davistdbute "Bifth ofthc Mule" to the psychedclic freakout coda ta!€iedonto thc Bcatles"'she said, She Said" andtheacoustic, Zeppclininspifcd "Raven Black Night." " fhere's a lot ofrange in their nrusicl' Het{ield observed."But it ahvaysseemsappropri nte,and it ahvavssouDdsfuckin'cool."
HrrFrErD LIduStulHe thought, Metelli-who? w4RRtiin/,r rs l kno\r. whcrc M€tallica is comingfrom, and I don t rhinl lx nr lilir; rr. t r".rr:urg. r. ir nry.e"m to some people.First ofall, our stuffis a little hcavier than mostpeople probablythink.I don'tciassil,f it ashald rock, but everlthing wc do d€liniteiy h:Lsa hard edge, and I think there are a lot ofMetallica fans who urculd be clov't Mule fans iftheychecked us out. though they don't know rt. Wc'rc definit€ly notjust forAllman Brothers fans. cw Janes, do vou tlirk rrost N{etallicafanswould like lhe Mule? ********* fiEraElDI think so.Without wevingthe guitar iiag too GUFARwoRTD Jnnes, hou, did vou lilst hcar thc Mule? high, there ae alot ofguitar fans who like Metallicabe JA$,E5 HElilELo Wc hrLl an accountantnaned Kenn! Silvaonthe road \rith us,n'ho had cruse there's a iot ofcrunchinggoingon and a lot ofgritars been rvo|kingivith thcellmm Bfothel.s.I{e grve me a tepe aid saicl,"t think"vou'll like this. in ]'our face.And I think the peoplcwho are ath-actedto It's seriousFluitarmusic *.ith ahearl'southern lock vibe." T threv, it in the maclinc, and I N,Ietallic:rfor that reasor will deiinitely dig Ciov't Mule I just fcll in l(^.c {.ith it. Kilk got u,ind ofit arou[d thc slrnretirne and rlso fell in lo!,e.Itjust rrear, talk aboutguit invour fllce.This is it, nlan. hit us right r\\.a}: cw Janes, yLru'vesaid ir thc past that I'ou really dig cw \ rh:rt attrected -!ou so sn ongl_l'1 Lynyrd Skynyrd, but never really got into thcAllnans. HETFTEID I'nr Dot genemlly abig solo g'u1., bccauseI m not into showingoffthat \r'a\r But Hllfr[LoYeah, thri s true. Actuall,v,I \aent back alld listhis stufffit exxcdyu,ith the music, and it.just sourdcd like stuff I d want to hear and play.lf tenedto a lot of the Allmans catalogtoget ready forthis, I \\'as playirglcnd, thnt's hou,I'd like to play-but I can't. That thought struck me right away u n dl t h u u d l l l( 1 , r r r . r . i i r u J . l c n { i f l l r i \ ! e r } j r n ' n ' n g so in arvan I feellike $arlen's plal.ing is the expressionofmysolo\.oice. on the surface,but there are many thin$j wlich car'i rcally Ard then voLfve got a kjck rssbass pla]'cr flalring chords-which is incredibly cool but rs let go becauseI'ou've got two guitarists and t\r'o drunlnlers notallowcd inoulband. larghsl \Ve're like,'lason, kccponc linger right here and plal'." and a keybGrdist.lt will sort ofgo offon ajam for awh'le, cw So you and Kirk cdoy Gov't Mule together,butconspirc to rnile sllre.Iasonne\€r but it doesn'tjust go crazy like sorneofthe stuffinthe Mule, Lerr. rhen,? which I lo\€. Plus, ofcourse, lhe l,Iule dellnitely has a H r r H t t t l / d u 8 fci r F Y l c r l \ l rockie| edge; everl'one's coverirg a Ior nrore ground ratl, er A.tI wooDY That's xgood idea,James.I can give a g'uya lot ofbad habits ;f you're not thanjustplal il1gtheir pdrts. and it is a ]ot nlore loose.Being careful.Itendto think l\n Lesliewest with a bass. a three-piece,it has to be. cw \ iarren, \ahat did you guys rhink urhenyou heard that the guys in N,Ietallic.L . . HettlsRight. BecauseI'm the only chord, itt easyio . . ..':;t
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just tale off I think the lesspeopleyou havein aband,the easierit is to tak€ offfor unchartedterritory Becauseifyou havethree chordal insbxments,the othershavero ertner lay out or listen really,really closelyto what oneguy'sdoing. wooDYObviously,it's a lot more dangerousto tum seven guls loosethan it is thrce.With the Allman Brothers,you could get into trouble real fastifyou go outsideof the parameters,becauseofthe two drummersand sevenguys bubbling under everything But with three guys,who's to sayit's a mistale? Ifyou can react,go for it. There aresome really goodmomentson our recordswhich were, in facg mlsEKes, NEIFETD Just play 'em tlvice, andthey won't be mistales. That's cool.there is definitely somecruzy stuffgoing on in the new album.For instance,on "Thorazine Shuf8e,"your drummer just goesfucking nuts at the end.Who's holding the beat? wo@Ywe are. HltrrEtDWow.That must havebeenpretty damnhard to playalongwith. trAYtltSYeah.Woody and I arelayingthe beatand Matt's soloilg acrossit. I think ifs very cool for the drummer to be setfiee fiom havingto worry aboutholding down the beat everyoncein a while, though it's a little const cting to us. wooDYWhen we recorded"Thorazine Shufne,"we were all within five feetof eachother,wiih our ampsoff in some other roorn.Thatt som€thingwe'vealwaysdone-you really haveto ifyou want it to be looseand flow.Your last few albumssoundlike you guysareheadingin that direction,so I waswondering ifyou've ever recordedthat way? HFrrrELt We'retryingto do that soft oftling, but five feet is a little closefor us.[au8fir] we don't want to be within chokingdisrance.We do the drum tracks first andwe're all there for that, which is new for us.But when it comestime to do overdubs.it's like. "Getthe fuck out ofhere. I'm letting loosel' It works better that way becausqfor instance,if I'm there when Kirk is doinghis rhlthm stufi he'salready nervousdoing stuff he hasn'tdonebefore,sothe lastthing he needsis me glaring over his shouldexIt's really better if I'm not there.Then, when I hearit, it's like, 'crrrr..I guessI canlive with that." But it's cool,it's purg it's him. Youguys, on the other hand,do almosteverl'thinglive-and point out whateverisn t in dre liner notes,which is pretty awesome. HAYI' Yeah,we like to point out where the overdubs are.SinceI'm the only glitarist, the rhlthm guitar dropsout during solos.We usuallydon't changethat, but when you do heara secondguitar,we overdubbed*re r$tlrm pa6 because allthe solosarelive. .wow! HErrE!.D That's awesome.Soyou don't overdubthe solos which is backwardfrom the way most peopleappmachiL Your overdubsarcjust for filling in, so it's really not chealingliom the liveapproach. ltA\4t[' Right.On the new album,the only solowe overdubbedwas"Larger Than Life," becausethat's a new song and we d neverplayedit live. SoI put the rh''thm down andwent backto the solo But our main goal is to get the jamming feel on tape,which is why I play the soioslive and overdubthe rh''thm asnecessa{'.It's a very old-schoolway of doingthings,and somethingwe haveto do in order to get the three-piecevibe we want. If I didn't play a sololive, Allen and Matt would be gu€ssingwhat to play becausewe really do play offeach other cw Do you carry that live approachall the way to effects? MYiIE Yeah.I'm steppingon the pedalsasI solo The only time I rememberrunning a lrecordedlsignalback through an effectwasthe wah wah oD"Blind Man in the Dark."I didn'tplayit livebecause I'm just not agoodwah wah player I've neverbeenreally into it. I heardit for that ' o n g . b u ( i f l b - i e dr o p l a l i r l i v e ,i t p r o b a b l l u o u l d h a v e taken us 20 tal€s to get it right-and we fiever do 20
GwThoughyoudid seemto utilizethe studio time. HAyxEsYeah, we really wanted to tale
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For instance,on "Blind Man" we pannedthe bassoffto the dgh! with the difty vocalup the middie and the guitars offto the left; the dnrms aft stereo.In pre production,we talkedaboutwantingtofrndonesongwherewe couldpan all the guitar to one sideand all the bassto the other side likerhel usedrodo.lr'"r redlt old-school mi-:,. w@DYlfyou listento someCreamor Beatlesrecords, you havethe bassand vocalson one side,and the guitars and drums on the other HErF,Ero That's sort ofwhat we tried to do on our last coupleof records-just havethe guitarscompletelysplit. Kirk's in the right speakerand I'm in the left. Just makeit real simple if anyonewants to know who's pla)rng what. HAytEsThat's a really cool thing to do in a two-guitar format.We did that in the Allman Brothers a bit. I wish we had doneit morebecausethe old Allman Brotherswere al waysDickeyon one sideand Duaneon the other when you havetwo guitar playeNplayingall the time it's very cool,but when you haveoneguitar comingin and out, aswe do now, you haveto pick your spot. GwListeningto ,ose, it really is clear that there'sonly oneguitar.James,I believeyou tend to like dual-guitar bands.Is it new for you to be so into a one-guitarsetup? HETFEI-D Not totally; I've alwaysliked Rush,for instance. But it is true that in the early days,metal generallymeant two guitars.In bandslike the Scorpions,UFo and Judas Pries! you had the rhlthm guy and then the guy who did the solos.Thosewere their duties and it was clear cut, sothat'show we alwaysdid it, too. But astime went on, I startedthinking why doesit haveto be sostrict? I love playingmelodies,soI startedsaying,"Okay,Kirk, you play somerhlthm and I'll just fuck aroundhere."And it's beena lotoffun. tlaY ESMore slow,melodicguitar parts arepoppingup in your stuff Is that you? HsrFrrtD Yeah.I love playingthe melodicstuff I love adding texturesand colors,and we'vemixed it all up now,with Kirk doing more rh1'thmsand me doingmore Jeads. cw Warren,the thing that alwayships me out at your showsis seeinghippie kids,whoseknowledgeof music startswith the crateful Deadand endswith Phish,dancing awayto a Black Sabbathgoove. It amazesme that they respondto music much heavierthan what they're usedto. HAyNEi I thinl that kids todayare much more open
huppened to me. ,JAMESHETFIEID
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m indecl.lt's ok.\' to mir g€nres,whereas in the old tlay's1ou coulcln'rclothat.l did, and wood!' did-musici.rN did bur the general public tendcd to likcone style ofnusic. tr wirs likc, "I'm a rocker,Tdon't lister to country musici'or "I'm.r blues gt,v lllrd rocl{ sucks,"of "lln intojazz and Eddie Van Halen sucks-" woooY lt \rvaslikc a classwar r{lri,tr:: Exactl}. You wcr'c cith€r in or out, and it was ll.rrd to go halflva} Like,I l;ked nctal and plnrk, so I wasn't acccptcdby eithergoup. rilir'rrti But it's norlike thatrnymore. Kidspick and chooservhat they like, dnd paft of whrt makescov't Mule work is wc frn the wholeganut fftnn really hervl to r.eallysolt.ln a trio,I'ou hllve to havethe dynamics.Ther c are lerlly solt urd delicate tromcnts rntl reallv loud and obtlusive monrents,and every.thingir bctween. Becausedvranics is our fourrh !,''fr:r:; Ooor)fi.Dccp. Lldryfisl wooDY He's got lots oflittlc sal'irgs like that $,ritten dou,:r ol1 scraps ofpnper.in his irr;'iii:t Yeah,crib notcs. Lldu8nslThe good thfig about havnrga bigger band is allthe tliffcrenr soundsand texturcs and laycN it rllo$,syou to do. h atdo,yoLLdon'rhrve rhatop tior. I'hat's why I use more el1lcts thar I would in a largerb.rnd,rrd it's alsorvh1,u,e reallv ( \ J g g e r r t ( t h , . . r )I i r r i ' \ . r: ir:i[:r Yeah.h1a lot ofyoul songs,,vou'llgolrom.rlr iltcnscly loutt rnd hervv chorus or bridgc to arery mellow vcrse,and it's like, "waiti minute, hLrwdid thc!'gerherc? I didn't noticc how thc_v rived herel" ltsecms so natural, and that's the thilgthrt irnprcsscsme so rnuch irbout volrr song strudures.It alwirys seenNfcallyhrrrl fof us to pulldlat off;thc switches tend toseen tooobtlusivc and obvious. !ix!:|lii Thanks. The chenistrv betwccn the rhree ofus hlls been gr cat liom th€ ger-€io, *4rich is rcalll'crrrcial to pullingrhatoflbut it's alsosomethinli lveived iscussedatdcpth: \mys to vary things and rcact to each othe| and adapf to nlakc a tull, rich sound withjust thcthrccofus- IfWoody end Mattplaycd the u'ay they do in I largcr.band,wc u,oulclsound empty'l hc bcauty is thcyjust beat and bang to clcath,but it'-sallperfectly tastctul :rnd fitting. wooDY I heve a sncaking suspici(m,however,lhat Nlatt and I would ph,vex.lctly likethb in a largcr band. :-::::r.-rrilaugfisl Vc"h, man, but nc,wit'-\ oka): No\r')ou're lerloose!You're h-ecofthc rh].thm section cage.Thatnnrstbe xwesome. woottY Yerh, irs a real tre.rt,cspcciallyconing from where I was.I played in thc AlLr.r,, lrothers for eight i,cam and lo!'ed it.Itut thcr thc firsttime I pl.ryedwith Matt,I thought, "This is it. This is thc gry I'm supposedto play withl'tt's amre opportunity rllthe u,ay arourd:to be able topl,ry in r thrcc picce, r0 be able to plal'bus1.,ardto bc able to pLa!'wirh peopiewho really knou,wha! thc).'re doingand digu'hat )'ou're doirg: Alrd it's alsobeen vern excitirgto scc so much pro$ess.lfyou listen to the 6rst rccord rnd r.,sc bick to bac^,
" I 4 6 i G u r r a BL E G E x D S
I think tho groi\ah is o€mendous. 'rirr:!,ii "G ro Face" hrs a killer, extr'a lrcavl',Drino| dff. Its heaviressrcallystood ourto me.Ir's even somethiDgthat we would do. Actr-ra1l1'. it rcninds Inc of earl,vUFo. nN,{ii Hnmrm- The,vwere egoodbrnd, Lrutl dul'tthink t'vebecrr ilflucnccdby them atall.I nas, howevcl, a big Ileep Purple rnd Ritchic Blackmorc fan, rnd r lor ol nv attrrction lo the hrrmonic rnino| carlics ovcr iiom those days.I don't rcmcmber exactly whefe thdr riffcamc tunn, but it's dcfinitely prctty dark. I lor€ minof ke,-s,rnd it's.r lot easierto be heavierin thelnihan in n majol ,; r! 1:.I Oh, )'es.\'Veknow all about fiat. Mnjof is too happy for us. i1;r{rjatAlthough I ha\€ rxn'ced th:rt you g!,vs har.estarted trying sone songs*'ith maju thirLls,u,hich is cool. tt's goorl togosomewhere clifferentoncc in a whilc. :.i t,.rriirYcah.but ior us, thrt meaDsthe l]'rics havc k) bc extr,r heevytobalancc itout. Ud.rg/rslWarren, voul solos always seemso well fbrned. Are thcy \r!rittcn out? r'tr'?r.it, No- All rhe solos:rreprettv nuch improvised. I usrrellyurrulclplay it completely diflirrertly each tirrc, thcn we'd decide which olc rve likecl-Once we pick one rnd re cord it,I gener:rllyLerrn itltnd tn,tobas€ mypefformences ar-oundit, or eisethe somgwilljust scclr *rong to people. : rrii,.r i: Latcly, Kirli h:Lsbeen tryingto come up with solos more like thirt. He'll noocllcalongwhile we recold basic tracks,tn ingour dillercllt iclcas,and by thc time he's re.rdyto rccofd, hc has r pretty good idca ofwhat will work. Jasondoes r sinil tlinlj, tn'ing out dilTeren! besscs.so heends up with rllthese arvcsomcsounds that alivrys Jlt right into the song.It's sort ofa n$r, thingfor us, becnusein thc pnstitwas alwa-\'sjustLa|s rnd T slu!+tingit outdurirg basic h acksr"That sucks! Do it ovcr" Brck and forth, back ard forth.I \rns the onl), onethcrc $,ith Lars, snLckin hell firrevcr.Now L'vcrt'onegoeswith me, so jt's lcss ofa hcll.lt liiDd oiintinlidates LaIs irto doing his homework more and playingalittle bener Thatpftrccss has made the studio:r l(n cwHow lnarytakos doyi)Lrglys do ro getthese livc
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fiAY rg It deperds.Sometimeswe do quite a few,but we usuallyuseearly ones,the 6rst two or three takesHEITIELI,II/ow!
But we will not piay anlthing 15times m a rowWOODY we'll just moveon and comeback.Our producer,Michael Barbierolsonndgdrden,Blues?}dvelerl,is pretty goodat not letting us bangour headsagainstthe wall. IAYNES He s€esthe magicdripping out after three or four tales and comesup with someexcusefor us to break. HEITTEID Warren, do you feel the needto perfectyour partsor do you just seewhat comesaboutthroughjamming? HAYEslt's more aboutimprov I don't malcemyselfsit down with a tape recorderar'rdwrite riffs asmuch asI should.Instead,I wait for cool momentsto happenwhen we'rc jarrrmingor to get \rically inspiredand suddenly think, I needa riff for this song.Partof it is lazinessand part is just my love for impmv I'm more intercstedin where the jammingwillleadusthanin seeingwhatI canfigureout in ny living room. HE|IErDDo singingand playingever clashfor you?Does one suffer becauseofdle other live? tlaYr|lsYeah.I haveto play a litde lessrhythm guitar thar I would like. The guitar dropsout more than I d like it to, and that alwaysbugsme when I listen to live tapes.At least I havethe option of droppingout I don't seehow bassplayerslike JackBruce,Stingor GeddyLee manageto pull it off. SEtfttLDDo you alsokeepscratchvocals? HAYilElI end up keepingthe live vocalsfor three or four songson an album,and usuallyit's the morebluesysongs. The onesthat are harder to play,I just play the guitar and then go back and do the vocals.I'm gettingbetter at singing and playingat dre sametime, but it's tough. cW James,do you guyslisten backto your tapesto see what's working the way the Mule does? HgIttELD Never,I do not listen to them ever Lafi keeps tapes.He'sgot the collection from hell, a room filled with setlists from 1981.He keepseverything,but he doesn'tlisten to it and I definitely do not. What happenedhappened, and to get in fights over "the tempo of that songreally sucked"seemspointless.We'd rather keepmovingforward. HAYEsYou'drather fight by memory "The tempoon that songsuckedbut I'm not goingto proveit." [dqfu] Matt will sometimesplay a songfasterthan nornal or€ night and slower than normal the next night, but he'sdoing it on purpose,to seeif he likes it bettex WOOOY He doesr't really carewhether or not we like it bettex HETFELD [dq8t!s] That's fine, though.The problem with us is Larsjust doesn'tknow where he is on a song and we're going,"Dude,we can't play that riff that fast!" ItaY ts Although it seemslike on -LoddandReloddyou guyspulled the temposback. Yeah,we did. Lars likes to hit the snareway back. HEIflETD cWWaren, you are usingthat simulatedLesliesound more and more what is that? !IAYw!5It's a Korg G4 It helpsbreakup the monotony ofoneLesPaulguitarplayingall nighLI evenusedit in the studio rather than a real Lesliebecauseit doesn'talter the soundofyour guitar; itt like your tone with a Lesliesound. Whereasif you play through a renl Leslie,you haveto start over andbuild your soundfrom its sound.I nrn it stereoin the studio and monolive. I'm alsousing an octavedivider and a tremolo unig aswell asa few other things.While we lovethe three-pieceformat, we haveto havewaysto alter the sound.SoWoody useda Rickenbackerand a Thunderbird on the album,and I'm alwayslookirlg for new effects. HmrElDDo voustill useSoldanoheads? H,AYESYes. tror the Leslie I use two Soldano heads run
stereo,but on the new record I mostly usedmy '68 Pleri and my Diaz CD-100headwhich Cesarbuilt ten, we ran three or four headstogether,then and sawwhat we liked.
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woooYWorking with Michael Barbiero,you neverreally know what you're playing through.He'd constantlybegoingbackinto the isoboothsand playingaround.I had an SVT and a 120-wattOrangestackwidr two 4xl2s and a 200-watt Marshall head. Hr|artlDWarren,you play severalLesPauls.Do you havea favorite? HAYiI!5Yes,a CustomShopbuilt in'89. It's not the best sounding,but it's the most comfonable and I canreally makeit work for me.I alsohavea semihollowbody that hasno f-holes,which I like a lot. And I havea fat-neckLesPaulwhich soundsgeat but you just can't play asdexterouslyon. I pull it out for somerhlthm parts,or for songswhere I don't haveto play real fast. I alsoplayedwoody'sFirebirdon threesongs,including"Larger ThanLife" and"I Shall Return,"andgothookedon i! soI askedGibsonto male meone.I like iq but I'm just getting usedto how top healT it is. NEIF|ELD Warren,areyou schooled? HAYtalS Not really.I look three or four lessonsfrom a guy back in North Caiolina.He was unschooiedhimsel( but he was my favoriteplayerin my homearea.After a few lessonshe said,''!Vhy dont youjust teachyounele That's what I did, and what a1lof my favoriteplay- f, ersdid:' * HEIf,EtgI guesshe didn t maketoo much moneyasa teacher, * wooDYNope.The thing is,by the time you get the urgeto want a lesson,you probably donl needthem. * HETBELD Yeah,you'vealreadyleamedbad habits.I learnedlfom slowing down UtrO * albumsand figuring the solosout. Justby listeningto musicand figudng out what notes shouldbeplayed.Man,I evenlearnedby lookingat livepostersandseeingwheretheir * fingerswere ard thinking, Weli, that'ssomething.I nevertook any lessonsat al!. I picked up a lot ofthe fastright handteclnique ftom punk, which mademe soft ofal outsider,and * which wasprobablythe bestthing that ever happenedto me.I developedmy own bag,but it * was anatu al thing for me.It wasn't like, "I'm goingto find the next hot thing." * HAyt{[sIt's goodto listen to lots of different stuff,just whatever).ou like. The first two recordsI everboughtwere Alice Cooper'sl(iller and Jethro 'full'sAg dlury,.That's two weird * recordsto beginwith, but I think they hold up well. * HsrErDDefinitely.,{qudlungis onethat my brother turned me on to It wasn't that hard rocking but Martin Barrehad a really goodsound.He knew what he wa,sdoing. I HAYt{ttThere wassomuch goodand different musicbackthen-you d just keepmoving i thrcugh it and discoveringmore new stufl I went through my Black Sabbathphasebefore I evenstartedplayingguitar.OnceI got into playing it was Cream,nd Hendrix. Then it * wasJohnnywinter and the Allman Brothers,then santanaand Billy cibbons and David * Gilmour and SteveHowe ofYes.It was all different.but I loved it all. The conlnon thread wasall thoseguyscould really play.That wasa unique perryooDY * for popularmusic... ' rimtro ...wherepeoplecould actuallyplay their irutruments. flaughs] * *ftbooy yeah, seriously.where the peoplewho roseto the top could play.where, by * band had superior musical ability you were going to gp somewhere. otju'L havinga. ool haln ur. Lile us. ldughsl .
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Thehurd-lucksloryol BIACKF00T, southern rock'sgreutunsungheroes. T,s TIID SUMMER oFr97o.ln a tiny, sueltering, fou.th Iloor aparlment in Manhattan,just around r h e c o r n e r f l o m t h e F i l l m o f e E J . r ,a r e e n a g e rock band from Ilorida, armed to the teeth with guns, g t and guitars, sleeps seven to a room and dreams big dreams. Bassplayer creg T. Watker is there. In fact, the whole tiringwas his idea. "The third day we were.ra) illg r\c'p. someone broke into our van and took about haifofour
equipment,"he recallstoday-"we still managed I to get afew dates,though.We'dget paid $150or $200, and wed buy a sack ofpotatoes or some cereal. we'd €at one baloney sandwich aday I rememberone time putting water on Cheerios. This lasted through the followingyear. There were some very lean times, Butwe were young, we
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had achoice.We decidedto stickitout." Nearly40 _vears later aftereightalbums,couDtlessworldroursand manypersonal tragedies, Blackfootarestill stickingit out,and proudly. The bandbeganin late 1969asIresh carbageand soon after changedits name to Hammer.The n1usicwas loud, ganglygaragerock inspiredb]' the Zombiesand by Spirit, whosesong"trresh-carbage"inspiredthe $oup's first name.Most ofthe band memberswere childhood friends\(.hogrew up togetherin Jacksonville,flori da.They wer€ voungand brashand playedn'ith unparalleledferociry which earned them ar early,life-chrngingbreak. "we wereplayingNe{- Years'Eveherein cainesville,"saysguitaristandfounding rnemberCharlieHargrett,"andthis girl h€r€that u'e knew had gottenthisjob in Manhattanworkingat a productioncompan\.in the Brill Building.f?fieBrlll Buildingwc.sd centerfor musicwritin:gandpublishingfrom the Thirties throughthe Sixries.lSo she lTad ajob up thereandcemehomefor the holidaysand san us.A coupleweekslater we get aletter from New York.It says,'He].,rnybosswantsa tape;sowe put a demotogether,
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and movedto New Jersey,our old stomping grounds.By then there was a club sceneand there were placesto play,and we could suwive the year.Rickey had someconnectionsat MuscleShoalsstudio in AlabamabecauseofSkl'nyrd,sowe went down there and recorded an album on spec.Theysoldit to IslandRecords:' In 1975,Blackfoot's6rst album,the cleverly titled No Res€r'vdhbns, was released,Its cover was a conical, pop-art nightmare more suited for Kraftwerk than a no-nonsensesouthern heaiy metal band. Not surprisingly, it sark like a stone. "It had the ugliest cover you've ever seen,"Walkersays."I believeit actually won an award for the guy who designed it. Then, in 1976,we switched to Epic Recordsand releasedFlfing H{gh.lt did a little bettet but not enough to make a difference nationally'' Both recordswere buried by more and shesaid, commerciallysuccessfu l albumsissuedby their respectivelabels,includingBoston's 'C'monup.Youcan smash-selling Epic debut.Despitetheir flaggingrecordingcareer,the band continued stay rn my apartto provetheir mettleonstage."The first two recordsdidn't sell,"Hargrett explainsment.' Sowe did." "But they got us goingenoughto be playingwith other bandsacrossthe counffy:' And sobegsn The bandtook the opportunity to hone its chops,particularly its relentlesstwinguitar attack.By the late Seventies,Blackfootbecamethe most terrifying underathe lean months of potatoesand wachieversin rock and roll. tered-down Chee"Eaily on, we were opening for a lot of bands like Mountain, Rick Derringer, Edgar rios. 'w'e didn't Winter,peoplelike that;'Walker says."Sowe got a lot ofexposureand a tasteo{playthinl we were ingon big stages,full-on concertswith eight to l0 thousald peopleeverynight." 'we alwaysplayedlike we were the headliners.HargreRadds. palng dues,but we were," Harglett Blackfoot'sbigbreak frnallycamein 1978.The bandwas playing a string ofsouthsayswith a laugh. westerndateswith BrownsvilleStationwhen Brownsville'sfrontman and Derennial 'nve were broke." rock-booster,Club Coda,introducedthem to his managementcompany.They soor, Severalthingshappenedin quicksuccession then.For signedon with Atco Recordsand releasedStriftesin 1979.It was their first Gold one,mostofthe bandgot arrestedlor firearmspossession. record,and the hustlewas on. 'nvhen we firct showedup in New York, we had guns on "Stflr
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roamed the middle ofthe band's sourd, and th€ rhlthmic onslaught ofdouble drumme$ Jai JohannyJohanson (a.k.a.Jaimoe) and Eutch Trucks, the $oupseemed r.eadyro blast offiD any direcrion at any time. Dickey Betts and Duanc Allman spurred each other onto new heights offi€tboard lerocity and creativity with their pioreeringguitar harmonies, whi]e Gregg Allman's authentic blues singing and surging org.n vanps kept even the most ambitious jams 6rmly rooted to terra {irma. "Ther€'s nothingtoo complicated rbout what males Filtnorc a Efeat alburr,,,saysformer Allman Brothers guitarist Betts."The thingis, we were a hell ofa band, and wejust got a good recordiDgthat captured tvLat we sounded like." Adds Jaimoe,'fillmore was both a particulart], great performence and a Bpicalnight,' To understand the album's importance to the Allmars, it helps to recognizcjust how hungr,vand despente the band was at the time ofits release.Both cregg Allmal and thenmanagerPhil Walden admit no$' that they considered cashinginthcir chips and cutting theirlosses. "It seemedljke I hadjust beer wrorg and that they wcr€ never going to catch on,,' Walden says."?eoplejust didn't $asp what the Allmans were all about-musically or ary other wry. Butthey kcpt touring, state by state,citv by city, going acrossthe country estab lisling themselvesas the best li\'e band around and building a base.,, Allman saysthat the band played 306 nights in 1970,with mosr of the remaining days of thatyear spent traveling from one gig to th€ next. As the band continued tocrisscrossthe counfry, jammed togL'therin 6rsr a Ford Econoline van and then a Winnebago, ils sound evolved anddeepened. That developmentis well known to the heJdcoretape traders wh, exchangc copies ofthese shows likc so manv piecesofthe Holy crail. But there was a price to pay: "Thatkind ofschedule puts a lotofwear and tear on your ass,"Allman says.With thcir fan basegrowing stcadily by word ofmouth, the Allmans decided ttrat they neededto caDitalizeon their concert success. 'n!'e simply realized that we were a better live band than studio oudit becausewe werc always ready to experiment-offstagc a,swell as on, I might add,"Allman says..,Ardthe audiencewas a big pafi of ivhat we did up there, which is somethingthat couldn,t be duplicated in a studio." Oncethcdecision !o record live wa.smade,the choicc of renue was easv.PromoterBill craham wes an early and important supporl€r ofthe Allmam, havingrepeatedly booked the band in hisbicoastal rock emporiums,the Fillmores East (New york) rnd west (San Francisco). (To this day,New York remains the Ats8's most supportive audience.)In those dark agesof rock promotion, the trillmores were the only venues run in a consistentlypro"New York crowds have always been great," says Betts. "But what made the Fillmore a specialplace was BillGraharn. He \('asthe best promoter rock has ever had, and you could
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feel his influence in even' single little thingat the l-illmore." "He called a spade a spade,and not necessaril]'in a lov ing rvay,"Allnan adds."Mr. craha was a stern man, the most rell-jt like it is person I have ever n1eqand atfirstit was off-putting. Buthe was thc most fa;rperson, too, and aftcrknowinghim fo|r',,hile, you realiz€d that this guy, unlike most ofthc other fuckers out there, was on thcshaight To cuthe album, thc bandwasbooked into thefillmorc for thrc€ nights-March u,12 and 13,1971,as the middle act behirld opcner Elvin Rishop and headliner Johnny Winler. A mobile l6-h-ack recordingstudio \r'asparkcd on the stre€toutside the theate\ with Dowd and a small crew set up illside. Things went smoothly until theband unexpect edly brought out sax player ".Iuicy" Carter ard harmonica playerThom Dolrcette seveml songs inlo the {irst set. "One ofthe guvs askedme how to mic the horn, and I thought he u,asjoking" Dowd recalls."They started play ing and thehornwls leaking allover c'veq'thing rendering the songsunusablc.I mn down at the b.eal{ and gabbed Duane and said,'The lTornhas togo!'and he went,'tsut ile's right on, mrn.'And I said,'Dlrarre,trust me, this isn't the time to trl' this out.'He asked ifthe harp could stick around, and I said sure,bccaus€I knew itcould becontaincd and wiped out iinecessary." Though it u,as actually wiped fiom a few tracks (no one cim remcmber which), Doucefte's iin€ playing adds dimension to'You Don't Love Me" and "Donc Somebody wrong." Each night a{ter playing the band and Dowd would head uptown to the Atlantic Rccords studio and listen to playbacksofthe night's perfonnance- "we would just glab some beeru and sandwiches and go tln ough thc show:'Dowd says."That wali the nextlight, they knew exactly what they had and which sorgs they didn't have to playagain." By using naterial from the second and third niglrts, the gtoup had enough leftover material to hll more than half of its follow-up album, tar a Peaclr,including the epic,33-
minute "Mounrain Jam," which was actually performed directl)' aft€r Fillmore's 23-minute 'whipping Post." "Wc just felt like rve could play all night, and sometimes we did," Betts reca1ls."We could really hit the note. There's not a single fix on Fillrnore. Everything you hear there is how we pla,v€d it-" A few months aftcr cutting the album, the band members were in Capricorn Records'Macon, Georgia,studio laying tracks when they were informed that thc live album was done and coverarthad tobe selectedimmediately. "we want€d to come up with a cover because,leftto their own devices,the people at Atlartic did horrible thin€is;'Allman recalls."l mean, these were the peoplc rvho superimposed a picture ofSam and Dave onto a turtle lfor the cover ofthe soulduo'sdlbullr Hold On I'm Comingll We wanted to ale sure that the cov€r was as meat-andpotatoes as the band, so someonesaid, 'Lct's just tale a damn picture and make irlook like we're standing in the allcy waiting to go onstage.' " Photographer Jim Marshall alrived and snappedthe group sittingon its road casesoutside the Macon stucho. ontheback side ofthe albunr,the crew stood in the musi ciars'placc, probably the first and la.sttime roadies have ever been so proninentlv featured.
"Thatwas m,vbrother'-sidea,"Allman explains."Thc crerl, always plaved a specialrole in ourband.Itgoes back to the ver_vbeginning when we lived offthe disability checks ofRed Dog and TwigF lryndoa touDrdn4sPr].It was like, 'Want a job? cot any oDey?'Putting them in a dann picturc was the least we could do." Just 90 days a{ter recordingthe album andjust before its relea,se, theAllman Brothers tsandplaycd th€ Fillmore East's last show, havingbeen personally selectedby Graham to be the hallowed venue'.s6nal band.I! must have seemeda bold, even wacky, moi€ to m y. But just \reeks aft€r the club shut its doors for good,At Fillmor€ Edst carne out, foreier linkingthe band end the club il the pop
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culture pantheon. Yet, thc recording wa-salmost never releasedin its extended, double album form. 'Atlantic/Atco rejected the idea of releasing a double live alburn," Walden recalls."lAtldntlc ejrec&trvelJerry wexler thought it was ridiculous to prcserve all these jams. But we explained to them that the Allman Br'others werc the people'sband, that playing was what they were all about, notrecording thata phonograph record was confrning for a $oup like this." Walden won out and was proven right whcn the record "people priced" at three dollars below standard list price for a doubl€ album slowly became a hit, and the Allman Brothers became the most heralded band in the nation. RollingSfone proclained the Allmans "thcbest damnrockand rollband" in the country and by fall, Fil/ morewas the Allman Brothers Band's firstcold album. 'All ofa sudden, hele comes fame and fortune," recalls Allman. "In a three or four week per-roo,we went from rags to riches-from livingon a three-dollar a day per diem to 'Gct an]-thing you want, boys.'Butwe didn't enjoy it for long. A lot of the initial impact ofthe joy was absent because ofthe heavy tragedy that happcned to mybroth€r we worked so hard so longto get there, then, barn, hc was gone."
Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle crash on October 2q 1971,in MacoD,wfrite on a break fiom recordingEdt d Pedch.One month shy ofhis 25th birthday, he lived to see the bandl brealthrough comingbut was not able to fully experience it. 'At the time, I thought, Shit, my brothel reatl], got shortchrnged, b€cause he never quite got to see what he had accomplished," ellman says. "I fclt that way lor years, but I've slowly come to realize that he left a hell ofa legacy for dying at the age of 24 years old. And a lot ofit has to do with the Fillnlor€ album. I stilt listen to it and I marvel at how fresh his licks are and how great his tone is. That boy was one ofa kind, man, jusr )ike Oakley was. lBdssist SerrJ Oakley died in a motorclcle accident d lear dfter Dudne Allnrnn.l The chance that all six of us would meet up and form a b a n J i " . l i k e .u n b c l i r r r b l e . Allman pausesfor a secondto exhale a longbreath and let out a little chuckle. "Ifyou want to hear what I'm telki[g about, go get you that a]bum." +.:
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ZAKKWYtllEpcyshomcge to LynyrdSkynyrd's R0SSIlffiI(|tfandEIf KING. GARY yNyRD sKyNyhD MADEMEWANTTo pLAy cuITAR," Zakkwylde says. "They were a sheer gr.ritarhurdcane." while these sentiments may sound abit strange comilg from a man who is far more associatedwirh "war Pigs" than "Free Bird," Zakk has always been a Skynyrd fanatic. He cven dubbed the band with ivhich he plays during Ozzy Osbourne's infrequeDt touringbreaks "Lynyrd Skynhead." And ifthe Skynyrd influence isn't readily appalcnt i[ Zakk's playing with Ozzy, it practically leaps frorn the speakers when he proudly pulls a Skynhead demo tape from the pocket oflis sucdc jacket and pops it in my car's trpe deck. we're on our wav to PhiladelDhia's trour Seasonshotel to meet with
skynyrd'sEd Kingard cary Rossington, and zakk canbarcly containhis excitemcnt. At the hotel the still-manicZakk launchesinto a seriesofhilarious initations ofevery one from Ozzyto RossingtonHe flips throughLynyrd Skynyd,ztfuee-CD boxedser, brielly examinesthe list ofquestioN l've preparcdand conically affectsthe personaof a jadedrock journalist/interviewer.He'sa three-ringcircusall by himself until King and Rossingtonwalk throughrhe door. Zakk shakeshands,then sits quietly asKing hoistshis PaulReedSmith Custom
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a n d d c m o n s h a t e sr h e " r c a l w a i r " t o p h y " S w c e t H o n r e , \ l a b a m a . "H e s h r k e s h i s h c a d we seltle dowD to begin the irtcNiew, the cocky fock i n a m a z c m c n t w h € n K i n g s h o \ r , sh i D r t h e s e as h c l l sh e u s e sf o r g u i t a r p i c k s .I I e g r . i n s strr beconles the h rnble 25-year old guitarist nreeting shf'l,vas fhe inlF)si ng Rossington tcases hin1 about his,vouth. Zakk is siaf-struck-and his heloes. w i t h l i o o d r c a s o n .L y n y r d S l y n y r d a l c , q u i r e s i m p l l l o n c o f t h e g r e a t e s t ,n n ) s t i n f i u e n tial roc 1{bnnds ever. fhcy v,,eredre l1losi criticall,v acclai mecl,conrnrer.cially succcssdrrilriii rrr)nriJOne of Lynyrd SkyDyrd's trademarks is f u i a n d h a l d c s t l o c k i n g o f i h c A l l m a n B r o t h c r s i n d u e n c e dS e \ . c n t i e s o u r h e r r r o c k rhat, even with rhree guit,rrists, yolr colrld alwavs tell b a n d s .W i t h l i c r c e r e g i o n a l p r i L l c i,b c . I a c k s o n v i l l e F . l ( n . i d r ,n a r i v e sa l w a y se v i n c e d wlm was playirg\,!'hat prfts.In large part that was i'e trcmendous crcaiivity:rncl or.iginulitX llixingAllm rs csquc guitar har.llol1ics rvith causc you cach played diffcrcrt g!itrrc. Gar),,yo playcd cruncbv, Stones-influcncerl r)rythns arrclCrcam-style distortcd L.uitars.Ar the hc.rrt of a Les -Paul,Allcr tlaved a !irebird, and Ed a Strat. Did t h e b , r n d ' ss o u l l d u ' e r e t h e m r a z i l g g u i t a r . r r . n y o f R o s s i n g r o n ,X i r g a n d A l l e r r C o l l i n s yoLreverget togtthcl and work that out? and the forceful plcsemce ol vocalist Ilonnie Van Zdnr, \rln) conlbined a courtr,v voice ED{lf,C No. I s,as the only one who switchcd for that with a hear,r met.rlsrvagger. reason. IfI had playetl a Liibsoll, I u.ould have soundecl And rl4rile some oftheir soutbern t.ock peers took the boogic cthic ro excess, too nuch like ihem. I rlways hated Stlats I'ecausc Skynyrd ncver did, in large pal.tbccause they kre$, ho\l' ro wr.ite gr.catson[js. Almosf t h e y l e h . r r d e rt o p l i y , , 1 n c lI h a c l a l w a y sb e e n a G i b s o n cvery Skynyrd album fe:rtured rD iDstant classic: "!ree Bird,",Sweet Honc Alabanra,', man, but I made thc switch and adjusted pretty quickly. " Y o u C o r T h : r t R i g h t , " " W h a r ' s Y o u r N a n c " a n d o t h e r s .A l 1 | e m a i n r a d i o s t a p l e s . O f c o u r s c , n o n ' I p l . r ya P a u l R e e d S m i t h , w h i c h I t h i n k S k y n y l d s u f f e l e d a t l r l s p c l l , b e g i n n i n g i n t 9 7 5 , a r o u n d r h e t i n c K i n g l e f t r h e b a n d . hasthe best ofboth worlds. lt hsted until thcy added guitrrist Stcvc caines !lld r-ccor-decl the laidmar.k live alburrr 6arY ROtSr clo I've pllyed a Les Paul since the drv I One Morefon tlt Raad.caines, a giftcd and \{,ide ranging guitarisr arrd son!,writer, bought this bab], llolds rr? his'.59S&nbursrl. infuscd thc band with nleu'cncrgl and inspircd somc of Rossirlg'tonnnd Collirrs, lincst zAKx wYlDt Did AIlell e]{.ays play a Fircbird? fretwork. Next cainc 1977'sStr€ct .surviyors, easih, their.best, nrost consistent Nlbunt. Rotslt{cro Prettv much. Hc piaycd a Melody Makcr But befofe l-ynvrd Skyn,vld could r.capthe fr.uits oftheir sccond coming, thcir charer a n d r n S G i n t h c b c g i n n i n g ,b u t h e l i k c d t h e F i r e b i r . d p l a n c c r r s h e d j n t o a X , I i s s i s s i p psi$ , a p , k i l l h g \ , ' a nZ a n t a n d c a i n e s a n d s e r n r u s l y bccause it looked diffcrcnt ftom our guitars ard rhe SG s injuring thc othel band mcnbcrs. l e . l , s r . r , , , . l . i r r r r . h c n r , l r l r r ' . cl , i g .o r l o r r gr i l g l r . . A decade latcf, L]nyrd Sk)nl,rd rcformed fof a tfibut€ tour, with Johnnic Van Zanr Thefe .lre a lot ofgreat ne\4 guitars olrr there not!, but RorlDic's brorher, taking over as vocalist. But cven as they dcficd the odds in coming thc,v're too easy t{r pla}r I need to prill the strings to get back, tlagccli' again struck thc band when Collins died. Still, thcy pr.essedon, { ith r h e r i f h r f , \ ' l ^ , r ,o i i r . P r o p l , J , , . r ' p r r rl . r r i n g . u r r r , , r ' , King retnrDiDg and longrin1e associareRandall Hall joiniDg as third guiiarisr. t yn,l,rd lhe]' use lhe bar, irsteacl. Sl_vnJrd/991 u,as a solicl, ii unspectacutar.,album, p,rving thc wr,\, for 1l:rc Ldst Rebel. KIIIGWe cenlc up ir a completeiJ, differcrt $ritar age. A nuch more urbitjous and confident projcct than its predeccssor ?hc,Ldst,Rcbcl is Ifa pickup went out, thcrc were no replacenents, which r e . t d n r , . | rl .o L \ r ) v | i lS L , r r ,r J . . , , . r r pe r er c j u r . l I ' r i n r . is somcthiuliyou probrbly can't relrte to, Zakk. tn 1968 A s a S k y r y r d j u n k i e , Z a k k k l o w s a l l t h i s . I n f a c t ,m n y b e h e k n o $ s i t a ] l t o o w e l l . A s I bought a 1955 Les Paul-a great!' itm and,,r,he[ the .
( 58 I cutraBLEGEIDs
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pickups finally went I sold the guitar for scrap. RossltlcTot And ifsomething fucked up on my'59 Les Paul, I had to find the original parts out ofanother glitar to replace it. WYIDENowadays they can take a pricture ofthe inside of a guitar and make an exact replica right down to exactly where the wires connect, where the cavities are and everlthing. to'Slf,cto when we were in Japan,I was offered 30 grand for my'59 so they could do that. I laughed at them. The thing's not an investment-it's part ofmy arm. cw Ed, youjoined Lynyrd skynyrd as a bassist. Had you played a lot ofbass p or to joini ng the band? |(l c Bass is my primary instrument, but back then, I wasn't the greatest bass player because I was tryirg to adapt to their music. The day before I switched to guitar, Ronnie came over, put his arm around me, and said, "Ed, you really are the worstbass player I've €ver played with." And I couldn't disagree with him. flauglrs] GettingLeon back and moving me over to guitar, so that Gary and Allen didn't llave to overdub to get allthe guitar parts we wanted, gave us a real boost- We wrote "Sweet Home Alabama" the first day Leon returned and I moved to guitar. lLY!9E Leon's an amazingbass player, and he does a greatjob of staying out ofthe way ofthe three guitars. Kl c Actually, Leon plays bass like a guitar. While we were recording the new album,I had to double one of
his basspartson a six-stringbass-andI suddenly ized how great his partwas. He's a genius, and he Dlavs makes a statement. Just listen to the bass o n ' T h a t S m e l l " - i t s a m a z i n g .s o t h e 6 r s l
Leonplay bass,I wasn'treally interestedin playingbassanymore. wYror He playsbassmorelike an upright player. no'St|{cTotThat'sbecauseof the planecrash.His arm is setin a certainposition, and that'show he hasto play.After the crashhe had to go to therapyand lift 6vepoundhalrdweightsall day for a long time to strengthenit. Today,ifhe shakesyour hand,he crushesit. ftaughs] cw Gary,I understandyou had a steelbar put in your left arm asa resultofthe * crash.Did you haveto changeyour playingstyleat all afterward? * nos9rrcror Not really-Ijust had to get usedto constant,day-in,day-outpain. playing Actually, we've been a lot ofoutdoor ampitheaters, and with the bar * flaughs] in my arm,I canalwaystell when it's goingto rain. * GwAfter the successof"SweetHome Alabama,"Skynyrdreally startedbeingla* beledasa "southernrock" band.How did vou feel aboutthat? no'llt{cTot{ We had alwaysconsideredourselvesjusta bandfrom the South,not * really a southernrockband.But everyoneneedsto putlabels on everything,sowe * just went with it. -t WYLD!Betterthan beingcalleddisco,man.fiaughs] lOSSla{cTO Yeah,andback then,you were either southernrock or disco. * xlic But it reallydoesn'tdo us anygoodnow.I don't think the term frtsus. * Rostlxctox It's alwaysbeensort ofa vagueterm anyhow.When the southernrocl scete started,CharlieDanielswasreal big and that wasmore ofa countryband,the * Allmanswere moreofajam bandand MarshallTuckerwas country... * xlxc ...AndRonniewasreally a country singerin a rock and roll band. Rosilf,ctox we were influencedby Cream,theYardbirds,theAnimals,the Stones * andthe Beatles.We took that and mixed itwith our own styles,which I guesswere * largelyshapedby beingsorthern.Butwe neverreally thought aboutit. x cw Ed,did yourbeingfiom Los Angelescreateany problemswhen youjoined the band,sinceeveryoneelsewasfrom the South,and had beentogethersinceearly * childhood? * rllc Musically,therewasno problem but it was a different culture,and that tool sometime gettingusedto. * WYLDE Where did you guysmeet? I xlxc I wasplayingin aband,and Lynyrd Skynyrdopenedfor us on tour * cw Wasyourband StrawberryAlarmClock? Kic I'm afraidso. i rO5glXGTOi Don't saythe "s" word aroundhim! [laughs] xllc I prcbablyshouldnt be so bitter aboutit, but "Incenseand Peppermints"was t the frrst so[gI everwrote.It went to No.l, and I got ripped ofl * IOs9IXCTOX He got threecentsfor writing a songthat you still heartoday.We were * all kids backthen-we signedall our publishingawayto * managersand accountants. We don't seemoley today for "SweetHome,""FreeBird" or anyofthose songs. * KINGEverybodygot screwedbackthen. * wYl,DE Ozzytold me that aslong asthe guysin Sabbath got all the booze,blow and weedthat theywanted, * they were happy. * K|NGNo kidding That'show we all were.That re* minds me ofa cool story When we first startedout, we openedfor BlackSabbath,and the alldiencethrew cans, * tomatoes anlthing they could find-at us.We played * four songsand leftthe stageto saveour nsses,and then Sabbathhad all kinds oftechnical problems.It was an * hour and a halfbeforethey went on, and the crowd went nuts.Sabbathfinally hit the stage,blew out all their * ampsafter two songsalrdwalkedofl Itwas insane.I * don'tthink they understoodthat we had a different elec- * tdcal systemthan they had in Europe,andjust plugged * in their British gear I could tell you storiesthatwould blow your mind from everydaywhen we were on tour * bnckthen. wYrDEMy old lady and Ijust had a little girl, and Ozzy * saidthatifwe wanted,the threeofus could stayon his * tour bus,where it's quiet.But then he said,"I sweaf if * you bring that southernrock shit on the bus,you're out * ofherel" fiaughs]Man,I drive him crazywith all my southernrock. * cw what kind ofmusic do the membersof Lynyrd * Skynyrdlisten to? tosslt{clox Lots of stuff that would probablyshock * people.Don't tell anyone,but we listen to a lot ofclassi* cal music. * wYlDl Ozzy'sa hugeJohn Lennonfan. ROSIIXGION Ohyeah,ustoo we listen to a lot ofBeades. *
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.|; Kr c lhcodrcrdrr,onthebackofthcbus,Ilisrenedtosomcihinggr.eat,asongb,v Mounuin crlled "Nc!cr in N,IvT-ife." RosslNcroil You know, one time T broke my lingcr in Nen \i;r'k,.rnd rve still had to pla! r sho\r'. N{ourt,rin had brokcn LU, rnd T,eslie\{est camc into town to llll in for Itle. Wc all llc\r in together, .rnd Lcslic had to hrve tuo fucking scatbclts. Udo.qnrlWe t h o u g h t h e u r s r e a l l l c o o l , b u r $ e h a . l t o l a u g h a t t h a r . A f t e r E . l l e f i , L c s l i c w : r sg o i n g i o b c c o r r e o u r t h i . d g u i t a r i s t .b u t h e r v c n t e dt o c a l l t h c b a n d L y n v r d 5 L v n 1 r . da n d L e s l i c W c s t , "r n d u e j L r s ts a i d ." F u c k y o u . ' , . i ' h c n S t c l c c a i | e s j o i n c d , a l l d h c j u s t s e c n e d t o c n e r g i z ct h c b r n d . tOSSlltlCIOxHc \r'rs a phenonlenrl plavcr. His sister, C:rssjc,\\.as onc ofour brlckup s i n g e r s ,u d s h e a s k e di f h c c o u l d j r n . i t h u s . I s a i d ," r l r c k , n o . N o b o d ; ,j a i n s r v i t h u s l " B u t s h c c o n v i D c e du s t o g i r c h i m a s h o t . S o h e j o i n c d u s o l s t a g e o n e n i g h t , ! ' i t h n o r e b e a l s a lo l a n l t h i m g ,a n d r s s o o n a s h c s t x r t c d p l n f i n g A l l e n a n d I l ( r c k e da t e a c h other and our jurvs rlxr|pcd. \ re ollered hin1 thc job. aDd he quit his barld that nighr a n d j o i n c d t h e n e x t d a r ' .H e c o u l t t p l a i a n l ' t h i n g c h i c k c n p i c k i n ' , c o r . r n t r lbl l u e s ,h a r o r o c k .A l l c n a n d I b o t h j u s t j u n 1 p s t a r - t c d o u r p h ! i n g w i r l r h i n o n s t a g c . H i s d e n t h w l s l tfemendoos loss to thc grit:rr rvorltl. wYl.D! l\rlan,the ncxt 81r_\'\|'hojoins Sk!ryr(l \\.ill prob:rblv fear.for.his life. you guys h a v e b c c n f L r c k i n b' f u t r l i z e d l R o 5 5 t t { c r o rI n t h e t l : r n e c r ' . r s ht, b l o k c j u s r n b o u t e r e r l b o D c i D m y b o d f ' ,| r n d E d j u s t smashed his fingel a fc\r months ago. WYLDEI heard stories fhat r,ou guls rrsed to br.arl all the time. Kla{GAoooo. not rs. [/du.gfirl w Y t D r O z z I o n c c t o l d m e : r b o u tI s h o \ . y o u g r y s d i d $ i t h S e b b a t h .' A l l I f e m e m , b c r ' . "h e s a i d , ' l c s t h a t i h c g l L i t r r ' f l a y e f c a n l e o u n r . i t h a b u d a g e o r r h i s h a n r l ,a n d t h e s i r g e r c a m c o u r r l i t h a b a n d a g co n h i s h e a d ,a n d t h e v w c r c h u g g i n g e n c h o t h e f g o i n , 'l'm sor-r-1, brodrcr- I love vou, lnar.' " rotslt{clo llduA'hslYeah, !te used to do thal stufl but \a,e'retoo old to no\r1\ rhen u'c strrted ourt,we'd plal clubs *4rere people rvoLrldness u irh us just becaLrscrrc had long hair: Al1d u,e'd.just sar "l'uck )'olr," rnd fight. xtt{c Things $'crc fough back then. r'hcrc r-eIe places in Flor.ida \.hcrc u,e had to lidc crouched dou.n in thc back serr to hide lrom ihc cops. becalrsethe:,d ihfow "!oul a s si n j a i l j u s t b e c : r u s et h e ] d i c l n ' t I i k e t h e u , a l y o u l o o k c d . r',, Llo \'ou think rhe general tensions ofthe South came out ir your music? RgSSlilCTO|\| Ye.rh,I g.LLess so.The *,ay that $.c li\€d came out in LruriDstl'lrmcnts,our. sirgingand ouf song\'ritintj.I rememberon one ofour-lirst records,ourengineer saidthat $e alrvays looked really mad uhcll rve pla1ecl.We u'eren't dlndt s mad, bur we learned to
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plav hald and mern. t 1 ' S k y n ) . f di s p r i n r i r i l ! k n o w n f o r i t s r o c k c l s , b u t r h e b a n dh a s a l u a y s t l l n c s L r c h s u b t l e s o n g s . r s ' l u e s d a r ' ' s ( b n c " , r n d ' S i n r p l eX l r n . ' |(lNG\ rben we $erejust aboutdonc curtinlithe hrst album, u,c pla,vecl Sinlple N{sn" for hrrodrrcefl Al Iiooper, and he laicl, "YoLrgr)s are nor gonna fecord that s o n g . "S o R o n n i e t d J k K o o p c r - o l r rt o t h e p r r k i n g l o t , o p c n e d t h e d o o f t o K o r ) p c r ' st s c r t l c y .a n d s r i d , " c e t i n . " I ( o o p c r ' ' ss i t t i n ' t h e l e b e h i n d t h e u h e e l , a n c lR o n n i c s h u t t h e d o o r a n d s a i d , ' \ ' V h c nu e r e d o n e c u t t i n i t , \ \ , c ' l l c a l l yolr-" \ re cu! the \\.holc tunc n'ithout him. n'hen ! bard kno*s rvhat it rvents to do. it has to go r.ith its heart rnd n o t l i s l e n t o p c o p l c ' o nt h e o u t s i c l e . RolslNcrox And lvc'vc al$ ays liked doiog the prett) songs. I mean, \ve gre$, Lrpon the Bcatics. WYLDEY{)u can't rlu:rvs sounrl pissed ofl nolslxclo Ycah- Sometimes you just hive to light I . j o i n t ,s i t b a c k a n d \ ar i t c s o r r e t h i n g p r e r t | - . ,! r.i AdLrall],, solne of J-Lrurnnrsr intense, snd son€is" A L lI C a n D o l s \ l i r e A b o u t I t , " ' A l 1 1I L o s i D ' ? " a r e l o t s l c T o a lT h a t ' s t r u e . l m f c a l p r o u d o f " A l l I C a n Uo," rr.1rich\r.as r songabout ecologl cvcn bcfole ther.e \r',rs recvcling. lt tolll people to be careful, quit lruilding thin€is rnd leive son1etrccs. i,r! Did drat song feflect fcclings vou p}rys had about t h e S o u t h b e c o m i n g l e s sr u r e l ? ROStlt{cIO Nah. \rc \r'eren't that heavv, man. Somc, tirnes u'e didn't even knor. \r'hai \l.e u.ere ivriting. In fact, thc only reason u'e fifst stated writirllj songs was because lve ran out ofsongs to copll xlNG\{re never reallv thought about rhings like that. Ronnic r-oLrld alrvays sar that therc \ras no merhod to his madness. wYrol Your boxcd set incluLles the ofigiral lersion of"frce Bird," which doesn't have the extended ending.
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How did you comeupwith the song'sconcludingjam? tottrrcto| Itwas a slow song,and itended too early. We were doing four setsa night,and Ronniesaidwe neededto makethe songlonger,becausewe didn't have enoughmaterialand were tryingnotto do any covers. Eachnight the songgota little longer,but Ronniealways saidto makeit longer.Finallyit waslO minuteslong. XINGMCA saidwe couldn'tput a lo-minute songon an album,becausenobodywould play it. Ofcourse,that wasthe songeveryonegravitatedtoward! f,YrDEDid you ever imagine that 20 years down the line "FreeBird" would still be playedconstantlyon the radio? toslrractoi Believeme,that wasbeyondourwildest dreams. (|IG But I knew "SweetHome" was a classicthe minute we wrote it. The samegoesfor "SaturdayNight Special."I playedRonniethis riffone day in rehearsal,and
Mcn,thenext guywhoioins Skynyrd will probubly leur lorhislile.
Youguys haveheen brulalized."
hejust nodded.Ronnieneverwrote down or recordedanything Sothe next day I was bummedbecausethe groovewas lost,but Ronniecalledme over and sangasongin my ear basedon that lost riff-and it was"SaturdayNightSpecial." tg9tlxcTox Ronniefelt that if you had to write somethingdown, it wasn'tworth remembering.Hell,I wishwe had recordedallthoseearly songs,becausewe'dhavea lot more material now. [dughs] wYl,DE Ifit's a goodidea,it'll alwayscomebackto you. Klxc Well'.Gary beforeI everplayeda gig with you guys,we rehearsedfor four weeks,and wrote a songeachday most ofwhich arenow lost.And that'sa damn shame, IYYIDE What wascool aboutthosedays,wasthat everybandsoundeddifferent. Youhad Skynyrd,JethroTtrll, DeepPurple,Led Zeppelin,BlackSabbath-andno one . soundedlike the others. Klxc Yeah,but 100-wattampshadjustbeen invented,so it waseasyto be different. flaughs] None of us knew what we were doin6 rYYpEOzzysaysthatnowadays,all you haveto do to get a recorddealis grow your hair long but backthen,only the goodbandsmadeit. ROSIIXGTOi Youcanwatch MTV and closeyoureyes,andyou probablywon't be ableto tell one bandfrom the other.All theserock bandssoundthe same,and all theseguita stsarejust jerkin' off. I love EddieVanHalen-he's so goodhe,sa freakof nature but onceyou'veheardhim play one songyou'veheardjust abouteveryfuckin, note there is to play.what's left? nYIDEI didn't get hookedon the whole VanHalen thing,becauseeveryoneI hung aroundwith wasolder and listenedto Skynyrd,the Allmans,MarshallTircker,Charlie Daniels.And I'm only 25. rostncrox Shit,I got scarsthat areolder than you! [dr€hs] xtr|c Who elsedid you get wean€don? wY[Dr Frank Madno, Jimi Hendrix and Tony Iommi. Then I got into country, to me, that's the hardest thing to play.
|(l c Flatpicking?Absolutely.Youknoq I went to a guitar show in Dallas andjammedwith Tom Keifer ofCinderellaI don'tknow wherehis roots is one hell ofa bluesplayer.cary actuallywrote a few songswith him that
1,3@
eutrrrlzetrrs
Last Rebel. WYIDIOnetime I wasat the HammersmithOdeonin LondonI,ith Cinderella,and Tom askedif I wantedto play "SweetHomeAlabama."I washalf-crocked,and walkedup to the front ofthe stageand fell right into the orchestrapit! [du8fis]I wasusingEric Brittingham's fCinderello bassist]goldtop, and it fell right on top of me.I tore up the cartilagein my knee,but th€ guitar was fine and still in tune. Ktxc Cinderellaoften closetheir showswith "Sweet Home,"and onetime I saidto Tom, "l'll bet you a dollardamn-fiftythat you can't playthe choms the ght way." He said,"SureI can,"and startedplayingit and it was wrong.There is onelittle thingin the chorusthat absolutely makesit-and nobodyplaysit correctly.I think it's thosekinds ofthings that havekept Skynyrdalive the little thingsyou only noticeafter you light up ajoint. wyr,DE Whe[ do you think the whole southernthing
started dying? Klxc When Molly Hatchetcameout. [aughs] I meanlt. lryytDrwhat's your impressionofthe Allman Brothers? xtlc TheAllmanswere the foundingfathersofthe southernrock thing,and if it waslr'tfor DuaneAllman, noneofus would be heretoday.Duanepavedthe way. He was the greatest ever, cw And he died when he was24.It's mindbogglingto think of how much he had accomplished,andwhat he could havedone. r|r{c Hewas the best,and I don't think he could have g)tten anybetter;I think he died at the apexofhis ca reer He had alreadyabsolutelymasteredslide-playing.I sawhim play on October9th and l2th, 1971,and he was deadon the 29th.I went to seeJeffBeck that night, and when I was drivinghome,all I heardon the radiowas, "...Allmanwasconsideredthe top contemporaryguitarist of his day."I just pulled over and cried for an hour it was all I neededto hearto knowthat he was dead. totslicTol{ Duanewasalmostlike agod.I remember oDetime they were playin' a free show on a Jacksonville balllield. Duanepulledup in his old \{hite Cadillacabout a half-hour late; the whole band was already playing He ran up and grabbedhis guitar. It was tuned to standard,so atfull volumehe tuneddownto openD pulledout slideandjust tool over It wasmesmerizing. Allen and to be the first onesthere, hours before the showdescribethe impactit had on us asyounggurthere and seethat guy play. 6d Skynyrd'sapproachto recording
charged since the early days? lotsltlcTox We didn't chang€ the way we $rite. phy of recordon our ne$ album. Ue stilljust plug in and do it, with no effects or gimmicks, and we still recold everlthing analog then mix it digitally. This is a live band, and we still record rhatway. wYrDEThe sound you guys got on your early albums was a lot thicker than mostbrnds get today using digital equipment. Ozzytells me the same thing about the early Black Sabbath xlt{c Digital is too brittlc. TYYTDE So lhe whole band stillplays at the nosslrclof, Ycah. I played hrlfmy solos while recordirgthc basic track. Itgives you a better feel when yolr're playing alongwith thc band and feedingoffeach other, irstead of using headphoncs. rvYrDEI can't handlc thc sotrnd of h-^adphones.Ijust go into the control room and listen to the speakers, and it sounds huge. ROSSlrcIOx I hatc recording.It makes you think aboutwhat you're playing, and I hat€ to think-it kills some ofthe magic. TYYTDE I dig it. You can do anything in therc it's like paiDting a picture. totsl GIOI But we need to play together Everyone has to paint the same picture atthe same time, which is what we do onstage. nrY[D! So whathappenswhen you guys fuck up your guitar tracks while recordilrg do you use the scratch track?
tOSSlIGrOx What doyou mean? We never fuck upl [laughs] I'lo, we'll just go back and fix thrt par!, and ifthere's any leakage,we'll just 8o aroun.l rt. wY|'Dr Randall Hall's agert player-and h e d h a v et o b e r o p l a l g ! i r a r w r r h ) , , u g u \ , . How's he fifting in with the band? Irxc Creat. His lbrte is solos. ROSSTIGIoIHe's so good, it pisses me off He's got the sane frcts, sanre strings and same notes, and he comes up with shit that nevcr occurred to me. He'll do somethingthat's wrong, but it sounds right. xlt{c Randall comes up with notes that aren't th€re. He's the only one ofus who can play 32nd notes in ablues context. If I tried to do that,l'd soundlike an idiot. cw It's amazingthat you glys have been able to r€generate yourselves and contiDue m a k i n g a l b u m s a n d b e i n g a m u s i c a lf o r c e . IOStIICIOI You know, it is amazing. After the plane crash,I honestly thought that we'd rever play together agajn as Lynyrd Skyryrd. Then,lO ycars after the crash, we did a tour which wasjust slrpposcd to bc a one-time only tribute to the band and our nusic. Evcrywhere we wcnt, the reception was tremendousj we saw pcople with their kids-and they both knew the songs. Thcywcre singingalong, crJin'to some songs, and just gcnerally having a damll good time. That was really touching, so we decided to try to keep it goiDg. Ir's a real honor to see that peoplc still carc about Skynyrd. *
currrr [EEExDs {gL}
Lote night oi the-lhrine Auditorium
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*TNEE BND" 'l6hin6rd
pronounced
'skin- h6rd (1973)
.,ALLENrrAD THE cHonDs for the beginning part for two full years.We were just beginningto write that was actuallyone ofthe first songswe evercompleted and Ronniekept sayingthattherewere too manychords sohe couldn't find a melodyfor it. He thoughtthathe had to changewith everychordchange.We kept asking him to write somethingtothesechords,and he kepttelling us to forgetaboutitl "Then one daywe were at rehearsalandAllen started playingthosechords,and Ronniesaid,'Thoseare pretty. Playthem again.'Allenplayedit again,and Ronniesaid, 'Okay,Igot it.'And he wrote the lyrics in threeorfour minutes the whole damnedthing! He cameup with a lot of stuffthat way, and he never wrote an)'thing down. His motto was,Ifyou can't rememberit, it's notworth remembering. "Sowe startedplayingit in clubs,but it wasjust the slow part. Then Ronniesaid, 'Why don't you do somethine at the end of that so I can tale a breal for a few minutes.'SoI cameup with thosethree chordsat the end,andAllen playedover them,thenl soloedandthen he soloed. It allevolvedout ofajam one night.So we started playing it that way,but Ronnie kept saying,'It'snot longenough.Make it longer,'becausewe were playing three or four setsa night, and he was looking to fill it up.Then oneofour roadiestold us we shouldcheckoutthis pianopartthat another roadie,Billy Powell, had comeup with asan intro for the song.we did and he went from beinga roadieto a member right then. "Everybodytold us that we were crazyto put the songonour frrst album, becauseit wastoo long.Our recordcompanybeggedus not to includeit. And when it6rst cameout, they did all kind of awful editsuntil it got bigenoughwhere it didn'tmatter anymore.It humblesus to think that it's beenplayedso muchand ith still played.Butit's not magic;it's still just a songto us."
.GIIIIIETHNEE STEPS" 'l€hJDerd 'stin-
prcnonnced
g'1,,....
h6rd
qHIS IS ANOTHER TRUE STORY.Ronnie went into a bar to look for someone, and me and Allenwere too young to get in, so were waiting for him outside. And we were waitingand waiting. Then he came running out running out with with a big big ol'guy ol'guy chasing chasing
him, yelling He had starteddancingwith this chick,and this guy camein andwasgoingtobeat him up. Ronnie said,'Justgiveme three stepsand I'm gone.'Theguy had a gun and he wasa redneckand he wasdrunk a nasty
1.3@
eulrrnlterros
combinationofthings and Ronr e said,'Ifyou're going to shootme,it's goingto be in the assor in the elboq' And he took offlike a bat outofhell. "We got in the car and split, and he told us what happened,andwe were laughing,andwe kind ofwrote the song ght there, drove over to Allen's house,got his guitar and finishedit. "The more wild experiencesyou have,the better songsyou canwrite.I'm not necessarilyproud ofeverything we ever did, but that's just the truth. We always justconsideredourselvesa working-man'sbandand thought everysongshouldtell a story that peoplecould relateto. When we frnish a song,youknow what it's about,whereassomegroupshavesongsyou may digbut not understand.I think that'swhy our songshavelasted aslong as they have:'
"SWEET TTOTiIE TI;ABIIt,if, ('ril) :e"T',_11e1e:':s "I CAME TJPIdTTH TIIE banjo/steel guitar part
it'sjusta
fing€rpickedq C, c progression and the ; little openingriff, which I kept plalng I over and over again.Ronniestaned writing onedayandsaying Play I lyricsatrehearsal I rhatagain.Playtiar again.And afreraboul I an hour he hadallthe words.ThenEd I fKir€liook ithome andput in allthe licde andlicksard arrargedit. | fi11s 'Ir wasbasically a joke We | "ong. used to travel through Alabama a Jotand get I I ontobackroadsandjustmarvelar ho* I pretty it wasand how nice the people I were.And NeilYoungwas,andstill is, I one our favoriteartists,so when he came I our with SouthernMan and Alabama.' 'Well, I criticizing the South.we said, I whatdoeshe know?Hes fromCdnada, I Sowe chrewthat lineabourhim in there. I We were told by somepeopleto takeout I the parrsaboutNeilYoungand [former I Alabamagovernorlceorge Wallace,but I we said,'Heyit s just a song.andwe're I goingto recordit the way we wrote it.' Mosrofour songscomethrough us. I realquickor ir doesnt I It eitherhappens I happenat all. Actually.Ronniewrote I mostofhis llrics eitherdrivingaround I Jacksonvillecheckingout different I neighborhoods especiallypoor ones, I blackandwhite-or in theshowerYou I knowhow peoplesinginthe shower? I WelL.Ronniedid that, but he madeup I songs-melody.verse.chorus,bridgeand I all. Many timeswhen we were on the road,he'd end up running into my room with a towelaroundhisu aist.dripping 'Checkthis out. write somemusicto that : So I'd try to write a few chords to get a rcugh the songwasgoing,then either Allen or backand6nishrhesong."
*GAttIIETHEBNEEZE" Seeord Helping
(1974)
|TVE ALWAYSLIKED lJ Cale, and we heard 'Breeze' one night sitting around the house and Roffie said. 'Let's do that!' But it didnt work the vray he did it a real staight shuffle-so I wlote the arrangemeng which was completely diferent. Ifwe had changed the \rics, it would have been a
hotel room, he had his black Les Paulon. Hdd order roomserviceandeatwith hisguiraron.Hed sit around and talk and not play it for an hour, but it would be strappedon. He'd watch TV with it on, play it during commercials,then stop It was like his third arm."
.IT|lilKYT|IIIK IIIGHT TII{EIiTAN"
Stteet Survivors (1977)
*cnossn0[lls" One*More tor f.he Rood 0976) gwE DrD TrrAT As A tribute to cream. one of our all-time favorite bands.we sawthem on their farewell toul and they cornpletelyblew our minds,sowe madethis a regular part of our set,In fact, it wasour encorefor years,until 'FreeBird' becamesobig that we basicallyhad to do that last By the time we recordedthe live album,it had been such a part of our set for solong that we felt we had to include it. Also,our producer,Tom Dowd, engineeredthe Creamversion and he told us the story abouthow lt came togethet and that really inspired us to want to re-record it."
"THIS IS A MERIE IIAGGARD song which we did to show our love for him ald for country musicingeneral.Steveplayedan incredibte solohere also,and it was a live first take.We onlyknewthat itwas a G progressionand he went out and playeda mind-bogglingsolo.He didn't evenhardly know the song,but he played the shit out ofit. we were standingin the control roojE-with our jaws dropped, and after he finish'edplaying he strolledin and said,'How'd I do?'Wetold him to go homeand cali it a day, becausewe knew itcouldn'tget anybetter."
'wtlT's nun mlitE"
St-reel Sureivors (1977)
'ME AND RONNIE WERE JUST sitting in a hotel room one night, and I had thosechords,which I had just written that day.And he right offthe bat started singing.The original lyrics werc, 'It's eight o'clock,and, boy,is ittime to go.'Ronniehadjust gotten an itinerary ftom his brother Donnie,who was in.38 Special,and their frrststop was Boise,Idaho.So Ronniechanged the fust line to'It's eight o'clock in Boise,Idaho,'which immediatelymadeit a real on-the-roadsong. 'rButit's all basicallyatlue stoly.Oneofow roadcrew got in a fight at a bar witi oneof the hotel guestsand they kickedus out, andwe saidwe'd leaveif theyd sendabotde of champagneto our room.It's just aboutbeingyoungand free 21andunmarried.We'dgo to a town andmeeta chick, then forgether name And when you'dcomebackto to,a'n,
*I KlilIf,A
md *nlu GOITHITNIGHT"
Street Surviyors (1977)
sum up what SteveGaines "I THINK THESETWOSONGS meantto the band.He wroteboth ofthem andsangYou Got That Right' asa duet with Ronnie.He was a great songwriter and singer and an incredible guitarist. I've never heard anybody,including any of us,play the pick, ing he did on 'I Know a Liftle' quite ght. Stevehad a lot to do with the writing and arangements throughout this album, and his playing was sogood it really inspired us. When he joined, we were kind of in a lull. We were still doingwell-selling a lot ofticketsandrecords-butthe musicwasgettinga little boringto us.We neededa little spark of inspiration, and Steveprovided it. We staited getting together andjamming at night. It put us back in frame of mind we had at the beginning. "steve wassogoo4 he was a freak ofnature He pissusoffbecausehecoulddo somanydrings Allen couldn'! Every time I everwent to his
*THEIAST
The Lcst Rebel (1993)
********* We had to really get in the "THISISA VERYMOODYSONG. moodto recordiq then we just cut it live. I wlote the music andnamedit at my housein Wyoming.Then Johruie and Michael LuIm andRobertJohnsonwrote the llTics.The fiIst velseis abouta Civil War soldier,andthe secondverseis aboutmg they say.And the third verseis sort of aboutusthe lastrcbels,out on the road,still doingour thing. "It's one ofmy favoritesongsto do live,which is a goodsign.It reallyholdsup with our old material.when I seeit on our set list, I go, All right.' But we never get sichofplaying anyofour songs,becauseofthe adrcnaline we get from the audience'sresponse," * --J
GuIrf,nLxGExDs 3@*
* * * * * I
* * * * * t
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *,
*fIINTIII,
MOLIY HATCIIET WITHIIISASTER',
,4sheardon FLIRTIN'WITH DISASTER(EpIc) words and Musicby l !!'belgThomas, Brown (Molly Hatchet) * TrdnscriredbJAndy Aledort and JefrPerrir
E Intro (o:oo) trastr=176 -rrriplet Feel(fl = J .l ) N.C.(E) Gtr. I (el@. w/light dist.)
.
(play 3 tines)
kfA
ctrs. 2 and 3 (€lec. w/dist.)
Gtr. I plays Rif A four tines (Gtis. 2 ed 3)
Gtrs. I & 5 enter second tine Gtr. 5 (
[email protected]/light dist.)
Gt. 4 (elec. Vlighi
Gtr. I plars Rif Afow tines
dist.)
G t r s . 2a n dl
G!r. I plays RtfAl
3@
culrrr lrttlls
c 0 P Y R r c H{rc ) r e T eM r s r E ns
(see nex! page)
*FIINTIil'WITHIIISISTER" vers€(o:2i,1:a3)
E
(End half-time feel) 1. Im havelin' 2 . S p e e d l n ' down the
lasl
13rGrs 2andl
0own lhe road an' I'm llinin' lane an' honey we'replayin'
lrom
wlth lorn
G5
got lho pedal I Theboysan' I Deen
l'm oulta money I gol tho pedal
lo tho floor burnin'it up
0utla lo
n0pe lhe floor
an' my llle can't seem G5
it our
looks lives
disaslsr to town A5
ts lo
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runnin' slow il
solf-destruclion runnin' laster
G5
23
lasler down A5
A5
'T
I
Bast pla',s Bass Fis. 1 (seebar 15)
Rilf At 10:23) Ghr
E5
GUrrrrLEIEIDsg@
*FIINTIN'WITHIIISASTEN" Well horar nuch W6 gol our slghl
mole scl
can we take str.lght ahead
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ol sure
this wial
A4
pr'r.
27
2:04, 4:08) @ r."-Cr'oro" (o:4e, 1. We're llidin' wilh disaster yourself I don'l know aboul 2. We'rellidin' wilh y'all disaster I youlsell don'l know aboot 3. WE'relllrtin' wilh disaster babo I youlself don'l know about Bsus4 B Gtts
l|in
tun run
Bsus4
know you
whal I *anna Sure krow uhat I you plan lo know what I you plan to A85
our lives our lives our lives B
ma[0s ma(es maxos Asus4
n0 n0 n0
rnean be mean be mean bo
$ersa t0 me sensg t0 me senso t0 me B5
35
Bast plays B6s Fia. 2 tiice
(see bar 31)
12. with
our tlme B
cho0seour
Rhy.Fill I (2:03J A5
FiI6
14:08)
B5
85
G1r.4
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\Jft\. 2 ak.t 3 .Lb:titurc Rht. f saond rine (see below)
tI
(take both en.li"ss on each pre'chotus)
y'all urhal damn 0t whal y'all 0t wiAl Asus4
4 an.l5 play F l 6 ok 3rd Pre-Chorus
Andthe way Youknow the way Youknow lhe way
3@
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yean yean
*FIINTIIT' VIITHIIISISTEN" 2:25, 429) Llrl Chorus 11.10, r. I'm taavelin' 2. Ysahl'm tlavelln' 3. YeahI'm liaYelifl'
down that lolesone i0a0 0own that lonesome 1040 down lhls lonesome load A5 85 Gtr.4 playsFill t frst tine (seebelow)
D5
Gtr. 4 ptoys Fill 3 secon.l time (see below) Gtr. 4 plays Fill 7 thitd tine (see belotu)
F€cl Fool Fcel
Fill 3 \2:26)
Fi
llke liko llke
I'm I'm I'm
load load load
Fill 4 (2137)
7 (4:3t)
g@) GUrrf,B [EGEfDS
*FLIRTIII'WITHIIISASTEN" Yet Though I Though I
3r.l time,skipaheadtuA away I've tried lo lun my head lurn my head away try lo lry lo lurn (see prcrioa pase) Gtr.4playsFill 2Jitsttiue Gt.
4 plays Fill 1 second tine (see pretious
page)
B5
2n.l tine, skip ahead to@
Feel about I'm llinin' with
lhe same disaster A5
ev€ry 6V0ryoay
oay E5
@ tr,rst Half-tim€ F€el
57
*ctrs.2 and 3
fspalr.,, Andyouktow whall'm lalkin'aboulman? D5
eo brck b @ I,erse
3@
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*FIIRTIN'WITHIIISASTEN @rz,ro Half-time
Feel
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E5 Glr.5
Ha G
ha ha ha
You aim for ev€rybody Gtrs. 2 an.] 3 rcpeat Rh!. Fis. I (see bar 67) Ctr.5
e u r u rl r r r r l s . @
*FIINTII|'WITHIIISASTER" E Gtr.5
Ba" r?pca^ Ba:s FtB. 3 (tc? bdr 83)
{@
eurrrrlrerrrs
lst Guitar Solo (3:05)
*F[INTII{'WITHIIISASTER
E
2nd cuitsr Solo (3:26) Gtrs.2 an.l3 rcpeatRh!.Fie.2 6eebar 83)
tl:t'+iltE
3:l Bass plays B6s Fig. 3 twice (see bar 83)
Ctrt. 2 and 3 play Rhf. FB. 3 fee bar 9l)
eurur lrerrrs $@
*FIINTII|'WITHIIISASTEN" E Hsrnonized Lead Break (3:a7)
E5 Gtrs. 2 ah.l3 plat
Rh!. Fia- 3 (see bat 91
Gtr. 1 substitutes Fill 5 secoh.l tine
11.
so bdtk to @Pre-Chorus
B5
Gtrs. 2 and 3 substitute Rh!. Fill 2
Rhy.Fill2
' yrap.
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131
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Intro (o:oo) Moderafely , = 84
Dsus2/C
D Gtr. I (acous.)
trnsersryle, Iet anq thtouqhout
'qute enters)
rTap on guitar botlr with picki"E hand.
Dsus2/C
Rhr.Fis.la
BassFiE. I
@
rulrrnlttrxls
C O P Y R I C HTTC JI 9 7 5[ I A R S H A L
*G[N'TYIIUSEE" Dsus4
DsusZC Gtr. I plays Rhy. Fig. I tvice sinile (see bar 9) (see bar 9) Gtr- 2 plals Rhy. Fia. Ia obe abd one haftmes Gtr. I (el*. Vlight dist.0d echo)
Bass pt.tis
Btts
Fig. I twice sinile
(see bar 9)
Dsus2/C
lst verse (o:se) connatak€a lreighllraifl
E G Gtr I subsuturcsRhy. Ftll t $ee betow) C1r.3
D Go. I plays Rhy. Fig. I twice sinile
Rhy. FiA. 2
Bass ptays Bass Fig. I twice (see bar 9)
riohtdown at lho station
I don'l rarc
Loid
D7sus4D7
Rhy.Fi
whciell Ooes D
Dsus4
l \o:53)
GUrTrrLEGEXDS 3@l
*GAN'T YIIUSEE" firounlain Gonna climba mounlainlhehi0h0st DD7
25
E
I iumpolt nobodygonnaknow GD
Gtr. 2 repeats Rhr. Fig. 2 (see bar 2t) Grr. l
Can'lyousee
Dsus4
rst chorus (1:23) whoa
can'tyou see DsusZC
D
whallhatwomanLord sh€b6endoin'lo m€ GD
Can'lyousce
Gtr. I plays Rhy. Fis- I trvice sinile (see bar 9) CD ) pla$ Rhy FtB. ta rdi." shtlc 6cc bar 9)
B6s pldys B6s Fis. I twice (see bar 9)
ca['lyousee Dsus2/C
sh€becndol[' lo me
Yrhaltftat vrroman G
Gtt. I substitutes Rhy. Fill 2 (see below)
E 2ndVersel'm(l:46) gonnafindmo
a holei[ lhe wall
D Gtt. t plays Rhy. Fis. I twice sihile Glr ? platt Rhy Fts. 2 twt.p wlp
l'm gonnacrawlinsldeanddle 0
(see bar 9) (rc. bar 2,)
B6s plays Bass Fig- I t,ice (see bar 9)
Comelalernost
E
2nd Chorus (2ro) D
a meanold womanLord
can'lyousee Dsus2/C
whalthalwomanLord G
nov8rlold mo goodbye
Can'tyou8oe
shebeendoin'to me
Can'lyousoo
Gtr. 1 plays Rhy. Fia. I hrice simile (see bar 9) Gt. 2 plays Rhy. Fis. ]a twice situile (see bar 9)
B6s plays Bass Fis. I 6ee bar 9) Rhy. Fill2 (1:40)
{@
tulrrn lrerrls
(D)
Dsus4D
*G[I|'TYIIUSEE" can'lyousee
whallhat
womanLord
sh€beondoin't0 m€
Dsus2/C Gr- l
Dsus4
E r$ cuitar solo (2:33i D
Dsus2/C
Gtr. I plays Rhy. Fig. I twice sinile (see bar 9) Gtr. 2 plays Rhy. Fig. ]a twice sinile (seebal 9)
G Gtr. I substitutes Rhy.Fill 3 (seebelow)
Rhy. Fi 3 \2:51) Gt.I G
g@l currf,r!EGEfDs
*G[I|'TYIIUSEE" IGl rrd verse (256, I'rngonnabuya tiDkotnow
Bass plals
D7sus4 D7
Bass Fig. I tuice simile (see bar 9)
Gftb me a soulhbound all theyJayl0 Georgiano$r D7
E
Ain'ta n6vo1comin'back D
aslal asI can D7
'til thetrain il runoul ol track D
Can'lyousee
3rd chorus (3:20) whoa can'lyousee Dsus4 D Dsus2/C
D
Gtr. 2 plays Rh!. Fig. la twice sinile Gh. 3
Bass plals
aass FB.
I Iwice sinile
whatlhat womanLord G
$hcbeendoin'to me D
(see bar 9)
(see ba,9)
can'lyousee Dsus4 D Dsus2/C
whalthalwoman G
shcbeendoin'tome
(oh
B6s substitutes
E znd cuitrr solo (3:aa) Dsus4 D Ctr 2 play, Rht. Fte. Ia ttut."
Dsus4 n
D
Dsus2/C
e !\ec bar' .
Bassplays Basr Fig. 2 G
S@
tulrrn lrtrros
Can'lyousee Dsus4 D
Dsus4D
Lord) Dsu64D
B6s Fill
I simile
*G[If'TYIIUSEE" Ca['tyou
Dsus2/o/C Dsus4/C Dsus2/C G
Dsus4 D
. Tap oh etitar
E 4th chorus (4107) see whoa D Dsus4 D
bobt vith pickjng
hand.
can'tyousoowhallhat womanLod sh6beendoin'lo me D5/C G D
Ctr. 3
. Note is onited
urhalthal womansfteteen doin'lo G
Can'tyousec Dsus2
++ Nor. in Darehthes is Dtsed nn.ontf t6 66: ftz t)
in bd 94.
whoa can'lyou soe D5/C
Dsus4D
me D
se@n l
Can'lyou$ee
Dsus4
BassrcpeatsB6s Fis. 3 (seebar 85) whoash6'ssucha clazy lady (Can'lyousee) D Dsus4D Dsus2yc G0. I ptars Rhf. Fig. 3four tina simile (seebar 69) Gt. 2 ptdysRhy.Fia- lafuur timessinile (seehd 9)
ohthalwomanshebocndoin'lo me (whatlftat wofianshcbesndoin'lomB) GD
Dsus4
(Can'lyousec) D
Gtr. I substitutes Rh!. FiI a 6ee belo'')
Ctr. 3
R^s pt.tys BAs F!s. I lour
thes
tsee bar 9)
Rhy. Fi 4 l4:4oJ cE.l /nI
GUrrrB !EIrr!s g@).
*G[N'TYTIU SEE" shebeendoin'lome (shebeendoin'loms}
0n (whatlhatwoman) G
Lold I
no mol€ can't stand il (Can'lyousee) Dsus4 D Dsus2yc
Gtr. 1 substitutes Rhy. Fill 5 (see below)
l'ng0nna
take a
(Can'tyou see) Dsus4D
Bass subsutute\ Rlts Fll2
Ain't tdoman) GD
lrelohl Dsus4
E
right dowl (can'tyousee) D osus2/C
novsr comin' backwhoa (shebeendoin'toms)
(Can'l yousoo) D Dsus4
'liltho trainit runouttalracl (sheheer doin'to ms) D
Gtt. 1 substituta Rhy. Fill 6 (see belou)
3rdcuitar solo (5:17) 0sus4 D Dsus4 D
Dsus2/C sihile
(see bar 9)
Bats plays Bass Fig. 2 sinile (see bar 53)
Rhy. Fi||5 (4:49) Gtr. I
Rb). Fi Gh..l 210
BassFiI 2 (4:52,5:o3J
(D)
euttn" ""tt*os
lhe slalion
Lod (whatthal
Gonnadde mea
soulhbound (can'tyousoo) Dsus4 D
B6s Fill 2 (see below)
all the wayto GGorgiaLoid (whatthatwomar) G
Gtr. 2 pla),s Rhy. Fia. la one an.l a haAtine't
S@
al
tsee belo||)
Bass substitutes
Dsus2/C
tr.in
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Lofll
Dsus4D
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g@: GUrrrnLEGExDS
*WHAT,S SKYI{YRD YllURI{AME"tYl{YBD (McA) As fieardon STR.EET SURVMRS wo s andMusicbycary Rossington and Rorurieva zanrt+ Trdnscribedh ChrisAmeler bnd Michad Duclos
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A5
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Ah yes 0h no Gtr. I substitutes Rhy. Fi 2
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