Rickey medlocke bio

Medlocke started performing onstage at age three, and his musical abilities increased over the years. He began teaching himself to play the guitar by age five and was playing drums in Shorty's band at age eight. Over the next several years Medlocke mastered the banjo, guitar, drums, mandolin , dobro and keyboards. He had a melodic singing voice and had taught himself to sing and play guitar at the same time.

After graduating high school, Medlocke formed his first band, Fresh Garbage inspired by the Spirit song , in which he was lead vocalist and drummer. That band soon changed its name to Hammer, then to Blackfoot. Former member of Blackfoot. Grandson of Shorty Medlocke. Contribute to this page Suggest an edit or add missing content. Learn more about contributing.

Edit page. More from this person. View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro. More to explore. Recently viewed. Learn more. Over the next several years Medlocke mastered the banjo, guitar, drums, mandolin , dobro and keyboards. He had a melodic singing voice and had taught himself to sing and play guitar at the same time.

After graduating high school, Medlocke formed his first band, Fresh Garbage inspired by the Spirit song , in which he was lead vocalist and drummer. That band soon changed its name to Hammer, then to Blackfoot. 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 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" , lyrics and title were written by Rickey and Blackfoot drummer Jackson Spires. The songs music, backing vocals and solos were arranged by "Blackfoot" and appeared along with songs written by others.

He disbanded the group in the early s. For a while in the s, Medlocke thought about pursuing other careers until he received a phone call in from Gary Rossington inviting him to rejoin Lynyrd Skynyrd as a lead guitarist and primary songwriter. Medlocke rejoined Skynyrd and has been a member since. Occasionally, Medlocke will step away from Skynyrd briefly to join musicians like Blackberry Smoke and Shooter Jennings onstage.

On the tapes we could hear this weird, rattling sound, which none of us could figure out. Turned out it was coming from all of the empty beer cans that in the photograph you can see littered the floor. Their no-nonsense appeal crossed the Atlantic too, their passage eased by a barnstorming appearance at the second Monsters Of Rock festival at Castle Donington in August Yet as the decade wore on, their fortunes waned.

We should have said fuck it and stuck to our guns. But business, money and personal feeling also got in the middle of us. As one flop album followed another, the bad blood that had begun to fester — occasioned by a sense among the others, and Hargrett in particular, that Medlocke had taken over — bubbled up to the surface. Hargrett walked out in Not long after, Blackfoot hit the rocks.

I mean, Jack and I especially were so tight at the time. He had married my sister, so was family. No one of my parents, relatives or friends could believe that the two of us went our separate ways. He was in a hospital bed and on life support. Next day he was gone. The ensuing years were long, hard and bleak for Medlocke. He tried to keep the Blackfoot name alive, surrounding himself with an ever-changing cast of musicians, but he never got close to capturing former glories.

Rickey medlocke bio

Judy wanted to know if Medlocke would attend. Not long after, I picked up a message from Gary Rossington on my answer machine. He said he was going to fly right on down to audition me to play guitar for Skynyrd, and if I passed he would give me a quarter dollar and a Snickers bar. Medlocke duly made his return to Skynyrd, and right on up to the present his guitar has rekindled both on record and stage the fire sparked by his late compadre, Allen Collins.

In more recent years the band have lost two more core members: bassist Leon Wilkeson in and pianist Billy Powell in