By Steve Newton 1973 sure was a stellar year for guitar-based rock. Maybe the best one ever. Mind you, that opinion has a lot to do with how old I was back in ’73 (which just happened to be the same year that Bob Seger released Back in ’72, the one with “Rosalie” and “Turn … Continue reading 50 years on, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s debut LP still brings the dynamite in both hands
photo by the newt By Steve Newton Sad news from the world of southern rock. Gary Rossington, the last surviving member of the original Lynyrd Skynyrd lineup, is a survivor no more. The band has announced on its Facebook page that Rossington passed away today at the age of 71. Although the cause of death … Continue reading Gary Rossington’s trusty Les Paul goes silent as Lynyrd Skynyrd’s last survivor passes on
By Steve Newton I interviewed rock legend Paul Rodgers (Free, Bad Company, the Firm) for the first time back in August of 1997, when he was heading to Vancouver for a show with Kenny Wayne Shepherd and headliners Lynyrd Skynyrd. I’m pretty sure that’s where I got him to sign my vinyl copy of the first … Continue reading Hanging out with Paul Rodgers and Storman Norm Casler at the Skynyrd show was all right then
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, By Steve Newton In the very first Payback column the Straight ever published I was called a “Skynyrd-loving moron” by a ticked-off Lou Reed fan, and—thanks to incessant reminders from caring colleagues Mike Usinger and John Lucas—have never been allowed to forget it. In a way I was proud of the label, though, … Continue reading Album review: Lynyrd Skynyrd, God & Guns (2009)
By Steve Newton Back in June of 2000 the Vancouver newspaper I’m still working at (god willing), the Georgia Straight, introduced a new column called Payback Time, where ticked-off readers could write in and vociferously complain about the music critics’ opinions, before the scribe under attack was allowed to defend himself with a potentially witty … Continue reading That time some chick called me “a Skynyrd-loving moron” so I hummed a few bars of “Free Bird”
By Steve Newton I interviewed Rickey Medlocke in 1997, the year after he’d joined Gary Rossington and Hughie Thomasson in Lynyrd Skynyrd’s three-guitar lineup. While Rossington was a founding Skynyrd guitarist, and Medlocke had played drums for them in their early days, Medlocke and Thomasson had made their names in two of my other fave … Continue reading That time I asked Rickey Medlocke if he and Hughie Thomasson might get to sneak a Blackfoot or Outlaws tune into Skynyrd’s set
DJ & Eddie VH By Steve Newton Brother Cane singer-guitarist Damon Johnson called me up from Chicago back on April 26, 1995, five days after his band had opened for Van Halen at the Nutter Center in Dayton, Ohio. The group would play another 20 or so gigs with Eddie and the boys that year, … Continue reading That time I asked 30-year-old Brother Cane frontman Damon Johnson if, being from Alabama, he was a Skynyrd fan
By Steve Newton Back in August of 1997 I interviewed Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Rickey Medlocke in advance of a Skynyrd show in Vancouver with openers Paul Rodgers and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. At one point in the conversation I asked Medlocke, who’d also been a band member in the early days, if he’d been following Lynyrd … Continue reading That time Ricky Medlocke told me that he was almost on the plane with Skynyrd when it went down
By Steve Newton Back in 1997 I interviewed Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Rickey Medlocke in advance of a Vancouver show by Skynyrd that also had Paul Rodgers on the bill. I’d been a big fan of Medlocke’s previous band, Blackfoot, back in the seventies, and always loved their version of Free’s “Wishing Well” on the 1979 … Continue reading That time Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Rickey Medlocke told me that Paul Rodgers was one of his big vocal influences
By Steve Newton Lynyrd Skynyrd doesn’t fly the rebel flag in concert anymore, from what I’ve heard. But back in 1997 they sure did. So when I interviewed guitarist Rickey Medlocke before a ’97 show in Vancouver I asked him if, from his Native American perspective, he found there to an intolerance among southern-rock fans … Continue reading That time Rickey Medlocke told me that the rebel flag was just a symbol of where Skynyrd came from
By Steve Newton Back in 1986 I did my one and only interview with Gary Rossington, the legendary Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist who passed away yesterday at the age of 71. At the time Rossington was promoting the release of Returned to the Scene of the Crime, the debut album by his band Rossington, which also … Continue reading That time I asked Gary Rossington what happened to Allen Collins
By Steve Newton Back in March of 1991 me and a couple members of my posse headed out to Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum to see a concert by Damn Yankees and a revamped version of Bad Company that didn’t include Paul Rodgers, unfortunately. Or Mick Ralphs, for that matter. I think we went there mostly to … Continue reading Gettin’ goofy with Tommy Shaw and the posse backstage at a Damn Yankees gig
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, AUG. 19, 1994 By Steve Newton Rock-guitar maniacs are gonna love this one. Fretboard wizardry abounds in the score to director Bruce Brown’s latest surfing documentary, as up-and-coming axe master Hoey tears up the beach on 14 surefooted instrumentals. With the exception of Dick Dale‘s “Shake & Stomp (Part … Continue reading Album review: Gary Hoey, Music from the Motion Picture The Endless Summer II (1994)
