"The blues can mean pretty much anything in real life - you know, normally it's about somebody's lost loved one or somebody's lost love, or tragedies within themselves, or no work, no money. Then they turn to drinking and drugs and they write the blues, that's the blues within themselves. They say that the blues had a baby and they called it rock 'n roll, which is very true: rock 'n roll was born out of the blues from the Mississippi all the way to Chicago. I gotta tell you, when we play with Lynyrd Skynyrd today we rely on that, we rely on our roots from the past. Even when we make new records, we think about that. So, to me, the blues is born out of a natural feeling, a natural life experience and what you go through."

Rickey Medlocke: American Rock n' Roll 

Rickey Medlocke wrote and recorded shortly with the 70's era Lynyrd Skynyrd band occasionally playing drums or singing lead on a few songs for them in 1970: "One More Time", "Preacher's Daughter", "Lend a Helpin' Hand", "Wino", "White Dove", "Comin' Home", "The Seasons", "Ain't Too Proud to Pray" and "You Run Around." On occasion, Medlocke played alongside the band's original drummer Bob Burns but came to desire the energy of a guitarist at the front of the stage. This resulted in his 1971 decision to reform Blackfoot. The band began touring and producing hit songs that included "Train Train", which was written by his grandfather, and "Highway Song", written by Rickey Medlocke and Blackfoot drummer Jakson Spires, amongst songs written by others. He disbanded the group in the early 1990s. For a while in the 1990s, Medlocke thought about pursuing other careers until he received a phone call in 1996 from Gary Rossington inviting him to rejoin Lynyrd Skynyrd as a lead guitarist and primary songwriter. Rossington asked Medlocke if he remembered how to play "Free Bird", "Tuesday's Gone", and "Workin' For MCA", among others. Medlocke rejoined Skynyrd and has been a member since. Medlocke is of Native American Heritage and is very proud of that Heritage.                                                  (Rickey Medlocke / Photo © by Arnie Goodman)

In 2008, Medlocke was inducted into the Native American Music Hall of Fame. Occasionally, Medlocke will step away from Skynyrd briefly to join musicians like Blackberry Smoke and Shooter Jennings onstage. In 2005, he joined American Idol finalist Bo Bice on stage for a rendition of "Sweet Home Alabama" when the top three finalists from season four returned home. In October of 2015 Medlocke received the Lifetime Achievement Award and in November 2015, performed with Blackfoot at three special event shows in New York, Massachusetts and Virginia.

Interview by Michael Limnios / Transcription by Alex Papalexiou.

Special thanks: Rickey Medlocke, Eric Liebl, and Al Nalli Management

First, what do you miss most nowadays from the feeling and music of the past?

Well, if you're talking modern music, you have to realise that, over here in the U.S., rock music is not as popular as it was years ago. Pop music, pop country, R&B are much more popular. I guess what has happened is that the record labels have created this monster when it comes to modern music over here. What I actually miss is the bands that can actually go out on stage and play their instruments. I think the reason why classic rock artists like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Aerosmith, AC/DC, the Rolling Stones and people like that are still around is they come in town and they do shows and they actually go out and actually play their instruments, instead of standing on stage and playing to a recorded sound track and dancing and doing all that stuff. It's even in records now - I mean, people in records use a lot of auto-correct, auto-everything and it's just become very mechanical and less feel than the day I was around making records.

So, what do you learn about yourself from the rock 'n roll culture of the late 1960s?

My roots go all the way back. As a kid, I was raised in a very Delta-blues environment by my grandfather, Shorty Medlocke, so I grew up in an era of the 1950s and the 1960s and through the 1970s, an era of real magical times as far as music goes. I mean, we had from Elvis Presley right through to Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Jimmy Hendrix, Eric Clapton and the Cream, all these great bands I grew up listening to and cut my teeth on - that's where I got my roots. So the blues was my roots, the blues weighed heavy on me when I was coming up playing rock 'n roll, playing the guitar. It still does today, that's where I got my feel from. My grandfather taught me real well the heart and soul of what it takes to be a great musician and go forward in the business of music.

What does the blues mean to you?

The blues can mean pretty much anything in real life - you know, normally it's about somebody's lost loved one or somebody's lost love, or tragedies within themselves, or no work, no money. Then they turn to drinking and drugs and they write the blues, that's the blues within themselves. They say that the blues had a baby and they called it rock 'n roll, which is very true: rock 'n roll was born out of the blues from the Mississippi all the way to Chicago. I gotta tell you, when we play with Lynyrd Skynyrd today we rely on that, we rely on our roots from the past. Even when we make new records, we think about that. So, to me, the blues is born out of a natural feeling, a natural life experience and what you go through.

"I reached a point in my life where it doesn’t take much to make me happy. I’m playing with one of the world’s greatest rock bands, I’m producing records now (which I’ve always wanted to do), I’ve got a great lady in my life (she’s a musician and sings with Kid Rock) and I’ve worked my butt off for everything that I have. At the end of the day, if I can get my boat and go fishing, I’m a very happy guy." (Photo: Rickey Medlock with Lynyrd Skynyrd, early days c.1971)

What are your hopes and what are your fears for the future of music?

I would hope that somewhere along the way we have a rock 'n roll evolution of another great artist and/or band that comes along and upends the music business and turns it back to some kind of familiarity. I understand that the younger generation is enthralled with all these artists that they think they're just great artists, and these artists are making mega-gazillions off of young kids, young teenagers and young adults who think that's the real deal. But I gotta tell you, with Lynyrd Skynyrd we've seen it over the past 20 years, where our audiences are getting younger and younger. We got three generations of fans right now, and for me it's because they get bored with what they're listening to and they start going back to the classics and they have a bigger appreciation for that. They come out to the shows and they love to see the bands perform, they've heard the bands and their music time and time again either on radio or TV or movies or wherever and they love that music. So, what it really comes down to is that it's all really about the music, isn't it? If the music's great, then it will last forever. My hope is that we get back to real rock music at some point - maybe there's gonna be another artist, like a Hendrix, or another band like Van Halen that all of a sudden redefines rock music again. So far, nobody's come forth and done that yet.

What were the reasons that made your generation in the 1960s and specifically in Jacksonville, FL, to start all this American folk blues rock roots research and experiments?

Once again, I think it was born out of a blues kind of country environment that made southern rock come to life. We got bands together, we played our instruments, what came naturally to us, and that's what was born: something very natural. In the South, they suddenly named it Southern Rock and that was the label they placed upon it. Every record label in the country was beaten away down to the South, in Georgia and in Florida, to find the next great thing. When the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Outlaws and Blackfoot and Molly Hatchet and all these people were there, they signed the bands, and it was very popular at the time. All of a sudden, the next thing you know all of that became unpopular, and the hair bands of the West coast of California became popular, and the radio changed forever - over here, it did such a radical change - and then all of a sudden, the hair bands was out and the grunge bands of the 1990s was in - it just went through all these radical changes, born right after another. That's what I always found very interesting about other countries such as Europe and South America and Australia and New Zealand, even up in Canada: once they loved certain bands, once they loved the music, they reveared that, they became fans for life, they didn't change as the wind changed. To be honest, rock music is ever more important in Europe than it ever was over here - I mean, we look forward to coming over Europe to play. Of course, we look forward to playing here in the U.S. cause we got legions of fans here, but when we go to Europe it's even more enlightening. People over there go nuts over rock music, and that's what we love. I often tell people that this country could take a lesson from Europe when it comes to rock music - that Europeans could show them a thing or two.          (Rickey Medlocke with Blackfoot, Oakland Arena, 1979 / Photo © by Jimi Crowley)

"My native American roots came from both sides of my biological parents, and when we got Blackfoot together, it was the drummer Jakson Spires (a native from both sides of his family) that suggested the name for the band. We thought it was a great name and fit the band's image and music that we were going after. Soon, you had some native musicians like Jesse Ed Davies, who was a great guitar player back in the day - he was deeply embedded in the roots of blues. There's a coupe of other artists who have come out over the years that their music tends to lean towards that blues roots. Believe me, when you're born and raised in a reservation, you get the blues because this is not the best of environments. Even if you made it, you'd understand those roots music."

What is the impact of rock and blues music and culture on the racial and socio-cultural implications?

There was always an element of rebellion in blues rock and rock music - we rebel led against society and the norm, and if I'm reading it right, this is what we still are today. We' re still the last of the rebellion groups, the rebel bands. I think the (Rolling) Stones, AC/DC and Iron Maiden are like that. All of us bands impacted society as a whole musically and upended a lot of stuff. We brought a lot of things to the forefront politically, socially, because we showed that we weren't gonna go with the grain, with the norm, that we were gonna rebel against it and march to our own beat. I think we still do that today.

What are the bloodlines that connect the legacy of Blackfoot and Lynyrd Skynyrd?

First of all, you had me in the early versions of Skynyrd, and my connection is Skynyrd to Blackfoot - that's basically it. I have been a member of both bands and the whole deal is that both of them are Southern bands and have had a long tradition at being what they are and remaining steadfast: rock music, southern rock, whatever you wanna call it. We believe in it, we hold to the tradition, and you only are what you are - you can't become something else, you can't wake up one day and go "OK, I think today I'm gonna become country". You can't do that, because you've always been known as a classic rock band - I think people will turn against you if you do that.

Let's take a trip with a time machine - where would you wanna go and why?

(laughs) Oh my God, I would wanna go a lot of places. You know, I lived in a time machine back in the 1950s and 1960s, cause as a kid I was able to see Elvis Presley in his hay day - my parents took me to see one of his shows when I was seven. I lived through the Beatles, I saw the Beatles in 1964 at the Gator Bowl at Jacksonville. I saw Hendrix open up for The Monkeys on that short tour in the 1960s, and I saw him come back in Jacksonville and then I saw him in Woodstock - I was at the Woodstock music festival in 1969. I saw Led Zeppelin, the Cream. I'd probably go back even further to my native American roots and see exactly how the battle of the Little Big Horn went down and Caster was defeated by my ancestors. So it's hard to say where I would go, but maybe I would revisit all of it.

"I would hope that somewhere along the way we have a rock 'n roll evolution of another great artist and/or band that comes along and upends the music business and turns it back to some kind of familiarity. I understand that the younger generation is enthralled with all these artists that they think they're just great artists, and these artists are making mega-gazillions off of young kids, young teenagers and young adults who think that's the real deal." (Photo: Rickey Medlocke & Lynyrd Skynyrd backstage)

What was the atmosphere like in the famous Muscle Shoals Studios? Which memory makes you smile?

That was an incredible music time in Alabama, because the Muscle Shoals rhythm section created something unique that everybody wanted to get next to. They were from the South and they had that rhythm & blues element to themselves. Everybody from the Rolling Stones right down to us wanted to get next to that. I mean, they recorded every great soul singer, from Aretha Franklin to Wilson Pickett - Rod Steward, the Rolling Stones, Bob Sieger, us - everybody wanted to go to Muscle Shoals and record there. Then what happened was that Muscle Shoals sound got too big and moved away from the old studio and built this great big complex overall the river in the Shoals and then lost its feeling. It lost its vibe, and nobody wanted to go back and record there again - it's too bad, cause there were a lot of magical times created there in that little old city. That's really a part of music history that I don't think will ever be repeated.

What is the best advice ever given to you and what advice would you like to give to the new generations?

I get asked by young guys and bands trying to start out to be great in music and have success. The only thing that I can tell them is that the key is writing great songs that will last over generations and generations of time. Sweet Home Alabama, Free Bird, Train Train, Highway Song. Look at all the great songs that generations of people still love to listen to. It's funny, but I can't name you one brand new song out today by any Hip-hop artist or pop artist that's gonna be remembered in the next 40 or 50 years. I'll bet you though that Free Bird and Sweet Home Alabama will be remembered for years more to come. That is my advice - if you can write great songs, be a part of great songs, that's the first step to success.

How close are your native American roots in your music and how close is a native American to a bluesman?

My native American roots came from both sides of my biological parents, and when we got Blackfoot together, it was the drummer Jakson Spires (a native from both sides of his family) that suggested the name for the band. We thought it was a great name and fit the band's image and music that we were going after. Soon, you had some native musicians like Jesse Ed Davies, who was a great guitar player back in the day - he was deeply embedded in the roots of blues. There's a coupe of other artists who have come out over the years that their music tends to lean towards that blues roots. Believe me, when you're born and raised in a reservation, you get the blues because this is not the best of environments. Even if you made it, you'd understand those roots music. The blues is where rock 'n roll came from, where R&B was born out of, where everything was born out of as music goes.

"Whatever is in your life – I like talking about real things, honest subject matter: what you’re feeling in your heart, what’s going on around you, what’s happening in the word, anything that’s real. I don’t think you can just sit down and write a song about something phony." (Photo: Blackfoot musician Rickey Medlock / In 2008, Medlocke was inducted into the Native American Music Hall of Fame.)

Albert King came to my mind - because Albert King started as a drummer and played the guitar later, like you. Why do you prefer amps to the drums?

My heart was more into playing the guitar. I figured, when I started playing the drums with Lynyrd Skynyrd, I knew in my heart that I was a good drummer, but I didn’t consider myself a great drummer and I knew that they needed somebody of greater statute to really be with them, to carry them further. That’s why I opted out of playing the drums – I liked it, but I didn’t love it. I love playing the guitar and I love singing.

What is happiness for you?

I reached a point in my life where it doesn’t take much to make me happy. I’m playing with one of the world’s greatest rock bands, I’m producing records now (which I’ve always wanted to do), I’ve got a great lady in my life (she’s a musician and sings with Kid Rock) and I’ve worked my butt off for everything that I have. At the end of the day, if I can get my boat and go fishing, I’m a very happy guy.

Which acquaintances with other musicians have been the most important experience for you?

I’ve met a lot of people, musicians, people that I considered my heroes. I’ve become very good friends with one of them, Paul Rogers, and I’m honoured because he was one of my favourite rock singers I ended up getting able to meet and spent a little bit of time. Then in a record label in the southern UK, I met Robert Plant – a very fine gentleman. In this business, when you’re able to sit down and talk about what you like and don’t like and so on, it’s great to have that kind of company. I guess being able to meet people like that has influenced me in my life – I’ve met some great people and then again some others who weren’t all that friendly, so after meeting them I told myself I don’t care to ever cross paths with them again.

"My roots go all the way back. As a kid, I was raised in a very Delta-blues environment by my grandfather, Shorty Medlocke, so I grew up in an era of the 1950s and the 1960s and through the 1970s, an era of real magical times as far as music goes. I mean, we had from Elvis Presley right through to Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Jimmy Hendrix, Eric Clapton and the Cream, all these great bands I grew up listening to and cut my teeth on - that's where I got my roots. So the blues was my roots, the blues weighed heavy on me when I was coming up playing rock 'n roll, playing the guitar. It still does today, that's where I got my feel from. My grandfather taught me real well the heart and soul of what it takes to be a great musician and go forward in the business of music."

(Photo: Blackfoot & Shorty Medlocke, 1981)

Why do you think that Blackfoot and Skynyrd have stayed together for so long?

Back then, when bands got together, they were loyal to each other – that’s the first thing. Your loyalty would last towards the guys you shared the road with, shared ups and downs with, live and breathe music with. I think that is the key to success with Blackfoot and Lynyrd Skynyrd. If you look at it now, here I am – I’ve been back with Lynyrd Skynyrd for damn near almost 20 years and I’m still with them, my loyalty lies right there. I might do other side projects, in music and film and all that stuff, but my loyalty lies with them. I love playing in the band, I love the guys I’m playing with – Gary, Johnny and myself were at the front, at the helm of it, we tried to keep it going, and it’s a fact: we’re going to make a new record. We’re starting in November, a new Skynyrd record for worldwide release. Right now, I’ve produced a new Blackfoot record that is gonna be out of here soon and it’s a great record I’m proud of. I co-wrote half of the songs, I played on it, I sang a little bit on it and I’m happy I could take four young guys and do this with them, keeping the brand name and the legacy alive. Not only the music but doing new music. I think the guys are gonna be well, they played great and I think I’ll go out there and do 3-4 shows with them (we’re looking forward to that). The future looks good right now my friend.

Do you remember anything from Lynyrd Skynyrd's show in Athens, Greece (June 2012)?

I’ll tell you what – when we were there, 3 or 4 years ago, it was one of the best experiences the band had had in a long time. We just loved coming there, cause we had a day off there, and we just loved hanging there. It was so funny – we were met at the airport by 50 or 60 bikers that gave us an escort into town to the hotel and it was awesome. And then we played the show the next night and it was just over the tops. You tell the fans in Greece that we hope we can get back there soon, cause they showed us such gratitude and such friendliness – we really appreciate that, we love them.

What are your favourite subjects for the songs you write? What kind of things do you like to write about?

Whatever is in your life – I like talking about real things, honest subject matter: what you’re feeling in your heart, what’s going on around you, what’s happening in the word, anything that’s real. I don’t think you can just sit down and write a song about something phony.

(Rickey Medlocke & Gary Rossington / Photo © by Maq Brown)