Quote:
Originally Posted by Commander Wallace
You had mentioned losing Gary Rossington of Lynyrd Skynyrd. To be sure, Gary's loss is huge. I always thought Pianist Billy Powell and Gary Rossington were the engines of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Slide Guitar seems to be an incredibly elusive skill and Duane Alman and Gary Rossington were masters at it along with Elmore James.
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yeah, Rossington was a massive influence on me, and it's sad he is gone. But he left a lot of great music behind.
I actually met Ed King and he showed me a few licks. Quick story....
One day when I was about 12 I went next door to where my grandmother lived at that time (southern New Jersey). There was a man there with her. Heavy set, long hair, and they were both sitting at her piano.
My grandmom says I;d like you to meet Mr King. He was in a rock band you might have heard of and then she mangled the name. I said, you mean Lynyrd Skynyrd? And he turns to me and says that's right young man. I recognized him from the cover of Nuthin' Fancy, this was Ed King man.
(Edit: Actually you can't see Ed well on that cover. The back side is the one with Billy Powell flipping the bird and Ed is obscured. I guess it was Pronounced... that I recognized him from.)
Turns out after he left the band he moved to Belleplain NJ, about 10 miles from me and joined my grandmom's church, of all things. She was the music director at the church and he was over to work out some sets as he wanted to play in the church band!
So I stammered something and he asked if I play. I said I sure do and he said where's your guitar? I ran home and got it. Was an old sixties Fender Malibu acoustic. He tuned it up and played a few things, like Needle and the Spoon and Sweet Home and man, talk about over the moon. He showed me how he played those songs and here we are 40 some years later and I've never forgotten. If Skynyrd wasn't my favorite band before then, it has been ever since. Ed also passed some years ago.