’98 Skynyrd Gear Details, Part 2

Hughie, Gary, Rickey.

Strings, Picks, Slides, RVZ

Part 1 was all about guitars, amps and effects (none!) used by the ’98 Skynyrd guitar trio of Gary Rossington, Rickey Medlocke and Hughie Thomasson. Here are some more details, plus some reflections about the great Ronnie Van Zant.

Slides

Gary: “It’s a Coricidin bottle” [like Duane Allman].

Rickey: I use a heavy Dunlop. I’ve always believed that the bigger the glass, the more sustain.”

Hughie: “I use a medium-thick glass slide. I used to use a brass slide – I used it [in The Outlaws] until I started playing with Skynyrd….”

Picks and Strings

Gary: “Mel Bay picks, little green ones, real thin on one side. My strings are real heavy gauge.”

Rickey: “I use hammered-out brass [picks]. A friend of mine who’s a motorhead in Michigan, cuts .020-inch-thick teardrop picks for me, and then we smooth them out. They give me a ‘squank’ to the strings, since it’s metal to metal. For strings, right now were endorsed by Dean Markley. I use a light gauge.”

Hughie: “I’ve got medium tortoiseshell picks, and Markley strings [no gauge given].”

Influences

Gary: “…British artists like the Rolling Stones, Clapton, Cream, the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck and others. Allen [Collins] and I thought those people were really cool. And, of course, I love the Beatles.”

Rickey: “My all-time favorites are probably Eric Clapton for the beauty of it all, Jimi Hendrix for the total originality, Jeff Beck for the left field, and Billy Gibbons for the sweetest hands I’ve heard in the world. I just love those guys. And David Lindley, who used to play for Jackson Browne, is one of the most unbelievable slide players that ever walked. I also love Ry Cooder, Lowell George and Bonnie Raitt.

Hughie: “My influences include everything from the Beatles to Hendrix to Duane Allman to Eric Johnson to Dobro player Jerry Douglas. I listen to everything, including classical and bluegrass players. You’d be surprised to discover that if you listen to things that have nothing to do with what you’re playing, at some point it all comes into play.”

More: Rickey

> You may know that Rickey was first in Skynyrd way back, as a drummer, and had this to say about it in ’98: “I was in Skynyrd back then for a little over three years. I cut early demos for a lot of the great songs, like for ‘Free Bird,’ ‘I Ain’t the One’ and ‘Simple Man,’ and I was on First and Last. Back then, man, that was the real thing, being able to be part of that great Jacksonville scene in the early ’70s.”

> Rickey on returning to Skynyrd: “I guess I’m the animal in the band, the more power rock player, more like Allen Collins was. Gary told me, ‘I’m getting you back in because that adds the rock side back,’ and I took that as a huge compliment.” He noted that he studied how Allen played the parts from looking at old movies of Skynyrd.

> Rickey on Blackfoot: “Blackfoot and Skynyrd were really two different kinds of bands. Blackfoot was as, Johnny Van Zant says, the original southern heavy metal band.”

More: Hughie on Ronnie

> “He was pretty much like an iron fist in a velvet glove. I learned a great deal from him – to really take music seriously. If you believe in it, you better believe it all the way and give it all you’ve got. Otherwise you’re going to get eaten up, spit out and forgotten. I miss him dearly.”

> “In the words of Ronnie Van Zant, I’m your best friend in the world until I take that stage, and then it’s my stage, and I’m keeping it and I’m taking that audience.”

‘What’s Your Name,’ Live, 1999

Vid link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYI8tw70SX4

End of part 2 of 2

Category: Lynyrd Skynyrd, Slide(s)