Skynyrd: We're Not A Tribute Act

Lynyrd Skynyrd have hit out at critics that label them a "tribute act”.

The Nightwatcher’s House Of Rock blog has picked up an interview that guitarist Ricky Medlocke gave to the San Jose News in which he defends the band against critics that have pointed out that only one original member of the group is left.

"A lot of people say, ‘Don’t you ever feel like you’re really a tribute band?’ No, I don’t. I think that as long as Gary Rossington and myself and Johnny Van Zant are there, it’s always going to be Lynyrd Skynyrd," Medlocke said. "But I do like to think that we’re giving tribute to the guys that have gone before us."

Medlocke first joined Skynyrd back in 1970 when he was asked to play drums by frontman Ronnie Van Zant.

"I was needing to make a change at the time," he said. "I called up Ronnie and said, ‘Do you need a crew guy or somebody to set up equipment or whatever?’ And he said, Do you still play drums?’ I knew how to play drums, but I hadn’t messed with them in years. But in order to have a gig, I kind of BS’ed him and said, ‘Yeah, I still know how to play."

Ricky left the band after a year to form Blackfoot, but he remained close to his friends in Skynyrd and was very close to joining the band on the road for that fateful 1977 tour.

"I was invited to go travel with the guys for like a week," Medlocke said. "But I got bookings with my band and I couldn’t make it. So therefore, things worked out the way they did. It was too bad that the band was cut down at a time when it was. Who knows how much further that band could have gotten? They were going to headline Madison Square Garden for the first time, which they had always wanted to do. But it was something that just wasn’t meant to be."

Medlocke returned to the Skynyrd fold in 1996 as a guitarist and songwriter.