“Playing in Lynyrd Skynyrd and Blackfoot, I can’t help but think I’ve had a wonderful life,” says guitarist and singer Rickey Medlocke.
And a circular one, at least as far as his career is concerned. After graduating high school in his native Jacksonville, Florida, Medlocke formed his first band, a tough outfit of Southern rock warriors called Blackfoot, their name drawn from his Native American heritage.
When Blackfoot didn’t quite catch fire in the music biz, he called up his hometown pal Ronnie Van Zandt in 1970 and asked if he could play drums in Ronnie’s new group, Lynyrd Skynyrd. But Medlocke preferred the view from the front of the stage. After a year behind the kit he reformed Blackfoot and went on to sell millions of albums.
Blackfoot’s hits “Highway Song” and “Train Train”―the latter written by Medlocke’s granddad and musical mentor Shorty Medlocke―are Southern rock classics that established the guitarist as the possessor of one of the biggest, most rumbling tones in the genre thanks to his passion for Les Pauls plugged straight into Marshall amplifiers overdriven to perfection.
After Blackfoot disbanded in the early 1990s, Medlocke’s former Lynyrd Skynyrd bandmate Gary Rossington invited him back into Skynyrd’s fold.
“Lynyrd Skynyrd’s my family now,” says Medlocke, after more than a decade helping to propel the group back to the apex of Southern rock. “I love the friends who I make music with with all my heart; I love the music we play; and I love the people who come see us. I feel truly blessed.
“And I’ll tell you what,” he adds. “I defy anybody to get on stage and stand toe-to-toe with us, because we can pretty much whip anybody’s ass. ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ and ‘Freebird’ at the end of the night … if you can outdo that, fine. But at the end of every show, when we’ve finished those two songs, I always look out at the audience who are blown away and I say, ‘That’s kickin’ your ass.’ That’s all there is to it.”
What was it like being part of the fertile music scene around Jacksonville, Florida, in the late ’60s and early ’70s?It was magical. With Lynyrd Skynyrd, Blackfoot, the Allman Brothers, Molly Hatchet … it was a hotbed of very talented musicians. Maybe that’s because Jacksonville was a very transient town. It was a stopover for vacationers going down to Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. There were three Naval bases. It was an industrial city with shipyards. So it was a big community with a small town feel. And all of those people passing through or coming from other places to live there brought their interests and influences.
Musicians there went back to my grandfather Shorty’s era. There was Hoyt Axton’s mom Mae Axton, who wrote “Heartbreak Hotel” for Elvis Presley with Tommy Durden, who also lived in Jacksonville.
So we grew up playing music, formulating our chops, and then decades later, there you have it: Lynyrd Skynyrd in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. And I’m being inducted into the Native American Hall of Fame this year.
You learned to play drums thanks to your grandfather Shorty, but beyond him who set you on the path to playing guitar the way you do?Well, really things started with my granddaddy before the drums. He was on a TV show out of Jacksonville,
The Toby Dowdy Show, a weekly country music show. He had the idea to teach me banjo when I was three years old and then we appeared on the show together: a grandfather and grandson banjo duo. It was a novelty thing people looked forward to every week. I appeared on the show with him until I was eight. In the midst of all that, I picked up playing guitar when I was five.
Last year I got my old man’s J-45 out. When you’re a kid everything seems so big. When I pulled that guitar out of the case I thought, “God, this guitar looks so small from the days when I held it in my lap and he was teaching me chords.” He showed me G, C, and D and said, “Okay, you’re on your own. Learn the rest yourself.”
I pretty much grew up only around musicians. My granddaddy always had his bands at the house, and I always watched the guitar players. And my daddy played, so it was a great education.
When did you get your first electric guitar?My daddy came home one day with two electric guitars, which I still have to this day. They were Kays―from ’55 or ’56. They had one pickup and the cord that plugs into the amp is stationary. There’s one volume knob with a tone knob under that, surrounding it.
One thing my daddy told me is, “You can never go wrong with a Gibson.” The first one he passed on to me was his old J-45. My first electric guitar was a reverse Firebird my parents bought me for my 16th birthday, and I’ve still got it. I had it out at the Gibson Custom Shop here several years ago and found out its worth, so I’ve got it put away now. It’s one of the early, early ones. I’ve got all my old Gibsons. Someday I want to put all my vintage Gibsons out in a pyramid and have a picture taken.
I love instruments, and especially the guitar. It has taken me to places I thought I would never see in my life, and it has helped me through bad times and shown me the good times ―all because of my old man.
What vintage Gibsons do you have in your collection?I’ve got an original Korina Flying V, old Les Pauls―one I bought from Buddy Holly’s family in Lubbock, Texas, who sold it to me when all our guitars got stolen on tour in Lubbock … and more. But what it boils down to is I really love Gibsons. They have a solidity and strength I can’t find in any other guitar.
I first saw you in 1979 at the New Haven Coliseum with Blackfoot, and I remember you playing a gorgeous black Les Paul and wailing through a gigantic wall of Marshalls. It was an amazing sound. How did you develop such a thick, burly tone?I had really gotten into Marshalls and am still a Marshall guy. There were mainly three players who got me interested in Marshalls and were big influences on me: Hendrix, Beck, and Clapton. And later on, Billy Gibbons. Those four guys are still my biggest influences. Whenever I feel like I’m looking for something new, I listen to those guys and they pull me right to it. I’m honored to be very good friends with Billy Gibbons. He’s the salt of the Earth. I’ve never met Eric Clapton, although I’d love to shake his hand and tell him I’m grateful. I developed my vibrato thanks to Eric Clapton. I met Jeff Beck years ago. He’s such an extraordinary musician. Hendrix is just the greatest guitar player I’ve ever heard in my life.
And by the way, I still have that black Les Paul with me. And guess what? That thing is a major chunk of wood. You put it on and you go, “Oh geez.” I think it’s 13 to 15 pounds. It’s a ’67. You gotta be a WWF wrestler to hold one all night.
How comfortable was your transition back into Lynyrd Skynyrd, this time as a guitarist?My role is to play off of Gary just like Allen Collins did. And as it turns out, my style and Allen’s are very similar. We even play the same kind of guitars―a reverse body Firebird and an Explorer. At the very first rehearsal I stepped up next to Gary to play “Simple Man” and almost got goose bumps. My vibrato and Allen’s are so similar―very deliberate and very slow―that the sound was exactly right.
And Gary just has an extra special thing when he hits the guitar. You know it’s Gary Rossington the second you hear him. Same with Hughie Thomasson [who founded the Outlaws and played with Skynyrd from 1996 until his death in 2005], who was another great original. I loved playing with Hughie.
What are you playing on-stage these days?It’s not like back in the day with Blackfoot when I had three Marshalls going with six 4x12 cabinets. I used to use them all, but really for tone rather than volume. I’d just plug in, jack that sucker up, buddy, and it would just be singing.
In my amp rack today I still have two of my old Marshall Lead heads. I have a ’71 and ’72 that have been hot-rodded to run at about 180-watts apiece. But I use one head and a 4x12 Marshall straight cabinet with the Vintage 30s live. I put that together with an old Fender Blues DeVille with two 12s for cleanness, and when you mix them together you’ve got beef.
In the band, my thing is to have a “chunk” there that gives the “umph” to this group. And then Gary’s got his sound and Mark [Matejka, former Charlie Daniels Band guitarslinger and Thomasson’s replacement] has his. And when you blend the three of us together, it’s just beautiful.
Besides your vintage guitars, what six-strings do you use on-stage?I went to Gibson and they gave me the first Les Paul Axcess off the line, with the Floyd Rose whammy bar. It is an absolutely wonderful guitar. I’m using it on-stage and just did some tracking on it.
If you look at pictures you’ll see me with my Firebird and my Explorer with vibrato bars. I’ve always used vibrato bars and always had great success keeping them in tune. So when the guys from Gibson came to me with the new Axcess with the Floyd on it, I felt like this Les Paul was made just for me. I think it’s brilliant.
I’ve got some good stares out of people up front who are guitar freaks―like, “what the hell is that?”―but I believe in this guitar. What’s so magical about it is they’ve scalloped behind the neck and body at the neck so you can slide up to the last fret with no trouble. Trust me! I always played “Freebird” on the Explorer ’cause I can get all the way up to that last note. You got to get all the way up to the B-flat. I tried it with the Axcess. So easy. Phenomenal.
Now Gary’s got one, too, with a stop tailpiece. He used to have to lift his hand off the neck to get to some of the notes in “Simple Man” and “That Smell.” He goes right to them now. My hat’s off to the designer and craftsmen involved. It’s just a phenomenal guitar.
The tone on it is perfect. I love smooth mids and beefy bottoms, but really want those warm mids and highs for my leads. And it’s got ’em. I think I’m actually gonna take a few of my vintage guitars off the road and I’m gonna get a black Axcess and probably have two of those and my Explorers with me. That’ll be great!