I started playing guitar when I was, like, 5, and I picked up playing drums when I was 6 years old.
Rickey Medlocke
That's what I'd rather be doing more than anything. I love to play and perform and write, record, do whatever - just stay in music.
We just try to write about things that are close to our hearts. We don't sit around trying to write another 'Free Bird' or 'Sweet Home Alabama.'
I'm Native American, so the racial thing kind of hits home with me.
I was one of the original drummers. What everyone likes to do is think of Lynyrd Skynyrd as the band that picked up again in '73. But I was one of the original members, and I was a big part of that.
We were working 'Good Teacher' up, and it became apparent to me that, as we were playing it, the song had a Hendrix, 'Crosstown Traffic' vibe and feel to it.
We're about music. We're not about politics.
Lynyrd Skynyrd is not a political band, but you know what? We believe in this country. We have a soft spot for our military. We love the red, white and blue, and every night we dedicate a portion of our show to our fighting men.
Next time you go get bin Laden, don't call it Operation Geronimo, and if anyone wants to stand toe-to-toe with me and talk about it, I'm open, brother.
As a young man growing up in that era, I was very influenced by Hendrix and took to a wah wah, and I learned how to really use one effectively as Hendrix did.
I don't want to use my platform to speak out against anybody. I'm a rock and roller. I play music for a living.
It's funny: here I am, a guy who plays in one of the world's biggest classic-rock bands, and to tell you the truth, I listen to classic rock the least.
Recording should be fun.
If you really stop to think about it, the last really big guitar hero was Eddie Van Halen, and that was back in the '80s - early '80s, you know what I mean? That's a long time ago.
Politics are the same old thing. We elect people, we put them in office, and guess what they do? They sell us out. They sell us down the river, and we pay for it.
I find that America is moving toward a certain type of government that everybody else is moving away from, and I find that very upsetting to me.
I gotta tell you, Rickey Medlocke lived in some of the most magical years in this world's history. I lived in the '60s. I lived in the '70s, right into the '80s, and man, it was bad to the bone.
Here's the deal: You can't go in with the intent that, 'All right, we're gonna write another 'Free Bird' or 'What's Your Name.'' You can't think about it in those terms, because you'll never outdo your history.
You've just gotta go in and write from the heart and write the best material that you can and put it out. If one hits, hey, great. It keeps the legacy going. But you've gotta keep doing new material. It's the future of any band.
My old man Shorty was a huge figure in my musical life.
I often use dropped D or C - I even go all the way down to A. What can be really cool is drop a guitar down there and have the rest of the band continue in standard tuning. It gives it a lot of power and texture.
I've got a few great old Marshalls that I use live: '71 and '72 heads and an old combo with 2x12s.
Every band wants to be have a song that is that big, that will pretty much live on forever. I don't know too many new bands that will have a 'Free Bird' that will be around 30 years later. It's become a national anthem of sorts.
I think what the public knows as 'Southern rock' will never be repeated.
It's exciting and refreshing to listen to new rock. And I like a lot of it - Filter, Vertical Horizon, Stabbing Westward... I even enjoy some Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock.
All I can say is we love what we do, and the audience is still there for us. I think what's given us such longevity is that our music may not be fancy, but it touches a nerve with the average Joe.
Music is a healing tool.
The fans mean an awful lot to us. They keep us going.
We're a blue-collar band. That's how we like to think of ourselves. We come from humble beginnings and still have this attitude of really loving to meet people, shake their hands, and talk with them.
There are only seven chords, and I believe every song has already been written.
You have to be as original as possible. It's a tough thing to come up with something totally original.
When I was 3 years old, I was playing banjo on a country music TV show.
As long as the fans keep comin' out, we're gonna keep making records and keep being there.
I got nothing against Barack Obama; I just might not like some of his policies and the people he surrounds himself with.
We've always been hardcore rebels.
I really believe that with all of what Lynyrd Skynyrd has been through, we can survive just about anything. We've had a load of ups and downs, but we're still here.
We're a working-people's band, and we love America and what she stands for. Also, we love doing shows, whether it's a huge amphitheater or a corn dog fest. We don't care.
You look around our audiences, and you see the spectrum - old fans and young people.
Michael Jordan was like basketball Jesus.
You can be hip-hop to the max, but you still know 'Sweet Home Alabama.'
Country has just crossed so many lines now, that Skynyrd falls right into that category.
My dad was a musician, played on the road and played all of his life. And I grew up in a musical family. I heard it all. I mean, I got accustomed to listening to Roy Acuff and all the old guys. It was really cool for me growing up in a family like that.
Blackfoot was one of the ultimate live bands... there was no pretense, no gimmickry; it was sound, lights, and rock and roll. Our whole goal was to be terrifying... to strike fear and cause havoc in a closing band's minds.
We looked at the Allman Brothers as the fathers of what was to be called Southern rock. In our book, if you didn't like the Allman Brothers, you were sacrilegious.
