Interview Artimus Pyle - Second part 07-02-2024

RTJ - You founded your own group, which plays on the album, do its members play a role in choosing the songs played on stage or do you decide alone?

Artimus Pyle - Yes, of course. A lot of times, because the guitar players have to switch guitars for certain songs, I let the guitar players determine the order in which we do the songs. They are so many Lynyrd Skynyrd songs. They are great, we can’t do them all in one show. So you have to do « Sweet Home Alabama », you have to do « Freebird », you have to do « Simple Man » but we play certain songs just to make it interesting for us every night. Lately we’ve been starting off with « Saturday Night Special » which was my first song with Lynyrd Skynyrd for the album « Nuthin’ Fancy » and it went on that movie « The Longest Yard » with Burt Reynolds. So, we all, the five of us : Brad Durden, Scott Raines, Jerry Lyda, Dave Fowler and myself (rigolant) Artimus Thomas Pyle. So we all participate in choosing the set for each night .

RTJ - And you have many more songs that you need on stage, you have a lot of songs that you can play and it’s just a question of mood to play this one or this one ?

Artimus Pyle - Well you know I know them all, I mean, every Lynyrd Skynyrd song, I know it ! And so does my band. We’ve been together 15 years and our new album, Anthems, that we just released on February second, Groundhog Day (tradition observed regionally in the United States and Canada on February 2 of every year : it derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day and sees its shadow, it will retreat to its den and winter will go on for six more weeks; if it does not see its shadow, spring will arrive early, Editor’s Note). It wasn’t easy, Yves, to get these songs after our guest all add. We were able to get this album done, it wasn’t easy but we’re so glad to have it done and its after. Dolly Parton, as I told you, sang « Freebird », Sammy Hagar, you know, sings « Simple Man » so we are really happy to have this album finally, officialy released.

RTJ –How did you choose the partners for the covered titles? How was the distribution of collaborations done? Was there competition on certain titles, or was it easy to say « You sing this song, you play this song » ?

Artimus Pyle - It’s a band decision. But know Dolly Parton was the first one to agree to sing « Freebird » and she put it on her new album and of course it’s on our new album. But Dolly have her choice because she’s Dolly. Sammy Hagar had his choice because he’s Sammy and I remember him... We were friends back when he was with the band Montrose, Ronnie Montrose, yeah, so he choosed « Simple Man » and all of the vocalists staying on the new album they put their heart and souls into the performances.
But the name Anthem... Our working title on this album, I believed I heard your question, the working title was « honouring the music of Ronnie Van Zant ». We have permission to use that. But in the album it ended up « honouring the music of Lynyrd Skynyrd », which is OK but our record company had to give money to Vector Management out of Nashville, but has the so called « Lynyrd Skynyrd » with nobody from Lynyrd Skynyrd and nobody from the Rock’n’roll Hall of Fame in that, man, so our record company without our permission payed them thousands of dollars to use « honouring the music of Lynyrd Skynyrd ». I didn’t want that, I wanted to say Ronnie Van Zant, we all wanted the working title but however they did come up with a good title which I love and grew on me « Anthems » because Ronnie Van Zant did not write hit songs or hit albums, he wrote anthems that would be here a thousand years from now, two thousands whatever. Comme ci comme ça (in French in the text , Editor’s note). You know, it’s going to be around for a long time and so the title of the album which our record company and management PR People came up with Anthems and I really like it.

RTJ –That’s a good title. Is it possible that we will one day be able to listen to an Anthem 2?

Artimus Pyle - Like another album ? Yes sir ! We would love to do a follow-up sometime of more deep tracks, the deep cuts of Lynyrd Skynyrd with a whole new line-up, but as I said, Yves, it was not easy navigating the shenanigans of National Tennessee and the music business up in Nashville. I love the music, I do not love the music business.

RTJ – I think that I understand.

Artimus Pyle - So, right now I think after working on this album, I think our next project would be to put out a Southern Rock album from my band which we are from : Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, North and South Carolina. We are a true Southern Rock band. We would like to take the time next in between our touring’s casual to do an A.P.B. ...

RTJ – Artimus Pyle Band.

Artimus Pyle - Yes sir ! And do that. And then maybe down the road an Anthems 2.

RTJ – This band, it’s a pretty good band, I listened to on YouTube. Why not reproduce a group with three lead guitarists like the original Lynyrd, which would have seemed logical for playing this repertoire?

Artimus Pyle - I’m not ruling that out but right now into the past fifteen years we had two : Jerry and Scott. They really sound good, they cover the parts. On « Freebird », every night, we have a third guitar player but he’s one of our roadcrew. His name is Thomas Grape, like the fruit and he is our tech guy and he comes out and plays a third part on « Freebird » and I’m not ruling out that some day we would not bring in the correct third guitar player. But right now Thomas Grape, we call him Hudgie, he’s our tech advisor, he’s amazing, he plays guitar, drums, keyboards, every day bass, he’s really our tech guy. He has brought us to the new age of stage sound with our guitar players. They used this thing called Camper. We don’t need to have amplifiers on stage, only my set of drums and the guitar players use the Camper riggs. But in answer to your question, maybe some day, maybe, but we’re not planning on it in the near future. The five of us are a well old machine. And something is not broken, so don’t fix it.

RTJ – About your guitarist, was it his participation in the southern group Copperhead that introduced you to Brad Durden, and if not, how did you know him?

Artimus Pyle - We had mutual friends and Brad worked with one of the producers that we worked with : Tom Dowd. You know Tom Dowd and Tom was a good friend. Of course we lost Tom (died of emphysema on October 27, 2002 Editor’s Note) but he produced the Allman Brothers, he produced Aretha Franklin, he produced everybody and us. So we were honored to be friends with Tom, but he had some stories.

RTJ - And how did you choose the other members of your group? Is it also relationships with producers or were they friends with you before ?

Artimus Pyle - For me I like to do everything as a natural progression. I don’t hire or fire anybody, I’ve never been that. Like « You’re hired ! You’re fired ! », I don’t do that. Everything happens with a natural progression so Jerry and Scott and Dave and Brad and I just came together very naturally. I didn’t put an ad in a newspaper or anything like that. It’s so natural how it happened, I can’t even explain it but we were friends and we thought… Part of the answer is I was playing in bands all over America. There is a Lynyrd Skynyrd cover band in almost every city in America, it’s a phenomenon and I would play with all this people but what I wanted was my own band. So fifteen years ago …. we got together worked up the songs, got some gigs together, bought a bus and hit the road. And these guys played as I said better Lynyrd Skynyrd than any band in the planet right now and of course I drive it the way that it should be driven. Now I’m 74, they’re all in the sixties but they grew up with the music, they love it as much as I do, so it’s purely sincere, yes Sir ! 35’18’’

RTJ - Dave Fowler, the latest arrival, says he is very honored to have been invited to join the group, and he shows it on stage by showing all his happiness at playing. Overall, the members of the group show a lot of pleasure playing together, is this an essential fact for you?

Artimus Pyle - It is and I do. And I love playing with Dave. He’s an amazing bass player and as you know a drummer and a bass player have to… You know we are the rhythm section of the band and we’re only five, as we pointed out, we don’t have a third guitar player, so it’s very important for the bass player. But our last show was in New-York last week on Long Island at the Patchogue Performing Art theater, beautiful old theater built in the 20’s. Charlie Chaplin was on that stage, Frank Sinatra was on that stage, we were on that stage and we played with the Marshall Tucker Band, another Southern rock band and sold out, you know, big crowd. We opened up for Marshall Tucker and I gotta tell you, Yves, it was one of my favourite shows. At my age, I have to prepare : drink a lot of water, my drinking pickle juice for my accramping, so my muscles don’t cramp, eating properly, drinking the right stuff, but our last show was one of the best shows I ever had, I had so much pleasure playing and also it’s the most emotional for me. Sometimes I never know when it’s going to hit me, when I get emotional, I mean tears, in the middle of the song, thinking about Allen or Billy or Gary or Leon or Ronnie or Steve or Cassie or Leslie or Jojo, you know, Ed King… I think about my friends when I’m playing sometimes I get emotional, but most of the times, it’s tears of joy. 38’05

RTJ - In your opinion, is there a feather in southern rock today that can be said to be the following in Ronnie's footsteps?

Artimus Pyle - We just lost Toby Keith, 62 years old, too young, hit song after hit song, hit albums, he has done stuff for militarians and children, but Toby, I know, was influenced by Ronnie Van Zant. Any Southern rocker or country rocker, and Toby Keith rocked, so I know that they were all influenced by Ronnie Van Zant and his prolific songwriting style. But I’d say one of the bands up there, there is a Southern rock band that can follow then Ronnie’s footsteps and our footsteps would be Blackberry Smoke.

RTJ - Yes, I just interviewed Charlie Starr in December…

Artimus Pyle - (Visibly jubilating) Yes, Charlie’s great ! They remind me a lot of us in our younger days, wearing blue jeans with holes in the knees, plannar shirts, just regular stuff, nobody dresses for stage or uses make-up or put hair-sprayer in the in the hair... We just wear out like we were, we dressed the same way everyday that we did on stage. We didn’t have any clown outfit to wear on stage. Blackberry Smoke reminds me a lot of it. There’s a lot of Southern bands out there, they are very good, and really rock, and that I think were influenced by Ronnie and all of the members of Skynyrd, the energy in the power and the ferocity with witch we play every day. Good question ! 40’39

RTJ - The first part of Lynyrd's career was particularly fruitful, many good titles were written, which makes selection difficult. Do you think you will one day play songs that are just as remarkable as the ones you play, but a little less known, especially from the albums “First and Last” and “Legend”, because you only play songs from well-known albums like « Pronounced », « Second Helping » or « Street Survivors » ? Do you think you can play titles from “First and Last” and “Legend”, you know « Wino », « Lend a helping hand », « Coming home », aso ?

Artimus Pyle - I love those songs, man ! And there’s another one : « Was I right or wrong ».

RTJ – Yeah ! Great !

Artimus Pyle - Very good ! We would like to incorporate those songs, sort of the the deep tracks, and incorporate them in our set for the fans. It keeps interesting for us as well. That is very good, man. We would love to... Getting this project doing the movie that we did about the plane crash for the soundtracks we did. It gets a lot to get this project out and running. But what you’re talking about is us having time to step back, breathe, think about it and put in some of those deeper tracks. We’d love to do that. You know you’re stuff, man ! (air très réjoui)

(There follow some more personal remarks in which the title "All I can do is write about it" is mentioned, which has the effect of launching Artimus onto the subject.)

« All I can do is write about it », we do an acoustic version of that in our live shows. Sometimes, the songs are intense. We bring it down a little bit and do « All I can do is write about it » and one other song that we do acousticly, to just kind of bring it down for a minute for the crowd, so we just don’t bombard. They arrival to sit back and enjoy so, very good.

RTJ – Traditional Road To Jacksonville question: what 5 records would you take with you to a desert island, if you had only five records to bring with you ?

Artimus Pyle - The first one would be Derek and the Dominoes « Layla » which was produced by Tom Dowd, the next two are Jeff Beck « Wired » and « Blow by blow » and the last two by John Mc Laughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jean-Luc Ponty, Jerry Goodman for The Flock on violin but that would be « The Inner Mounting Flame » and « Birds of fire ». So Jeff Beck two albums, instrumental, « Birds of fire » and « The Inner Mounting Flame » by John Mc Laughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, instrumental. And then Derek and the Dominoes « Layla ». If I had those, on a desert island, I would be happy.
(A more personal exchange follows, from which "Bell Bottom Blues" emerges)
« Bell Bottom Blues », I love that song, one of my favourite. You have good taste !

RTJ – We talked a little about Bob Burns. Do you see any other drummers capable of passing on this legacy now that Bob has left us? You can play the Lynyrd Skynyrd style, perhaps Derek Hess, but except Bob and you, do you see other drummers able to play Lynyrd Skynyrd with the spirit ?
Artimus Pyle - No drummer plays Lynyrd Skynyrd music better than Bob and I and then as you well know « Tuesday’s Gone », the album track, was played by Robert Nix, the drummer of the Atlanta Rhythm Section, also Roy Orbison, the Candymen (between 1964 and 1970, editor’s note). So Robert Nix, I put him up with Bob and I because nobody, not even me, can touch the way Robert Nix played « Tuesday’s Gone », it’s so organic and it’s so solid, it’s beautiful. When I listen to, I get emotional because I spoke at Robert Nix’s funeral, and Bob and I played togetrher in a band called Deep South (a supergroup with Jimmy Hall (vocals, saxophone and harmonica, ex-Wet Willie), Dean Daughtry (keyboards) et Robert Nix (drums, percussions) (both ex-Atlanta Rhythm Section), Chris Hicks (guitar, ex-Marshall Tucker Band) et Hall McCormack (guitar, ex-Black Oak Arkansas), a live CD in 2006, editor’s note). I’m kind of a showboat, ferocity, and Robert, Robert Nix, not Robert Burns, played very « mild-potatoes », very solid, very correct and Robert Burns was very underated. I don’t know if I’ve mentionned that before but I always looked Robert Burns as the Ringo Starr of Southern rock drummers, very solid and very underated. Bob was amazing, and Ringo was amazing. But because they are not all flashy, I think that they are underated. I know Ringo was underated and after seeing that special in three parts about the Beatles on the last album when they played on the roof-top... They won’t made at each other they didn’t hate each other, they loved each other. The band didn’t hate John Lennon because Yoko, they were very together, they just ran the course. So Bob Burns was underrated like Ringo. There’s other drummers. They can play, those great drummers up/out there. Nobody plays that ass correct as I and Bob. I’m not bragging, I’m just saying it’s a fact.
(Another little personal aside, which leads to Penny Lane, and Artimus decides to give me a revelation about Penny Lane)

I’ve been there ! Allen Collins, and Gary Rossington and myself decided to go to the Cavern and then we walked down Penny Lane in Liverpool. We loved it also. I love the Beatles, I did get a meet and hang out for a little while with Paul and Linda Mc Cartney at the Knebworth Stock Show and we opened up to the Rolling Stones. That stuff never forget being able to meet Paul. And Dolly Parton, she worked with Ringo and Paul, and our new album she did thirty songs. I love the Beatles, I’ll always love the Beatles, it’s such a part of the world fabric, the fabric of the world. The Beatles were… Nothing like the Beatles, nothing like the Beatles before our steps, so I’m with you for that one.

RTJ – I’ve also been said that Leon was a great fan of the Beatles and Paul’s way of playing bass
(Artimus makes the gesture of playing the bass)

Artimus Pyle - Oh, absolutely ! Paul used the Rickenbaker and he had another bass…
Leon liked four strings, he didn’t like five strings, he liked the four strings and I’m trying to think of that, the bass guitar that Paul used...

RTJ – The first little bass like a Gibson was an Hofner

Artimus Pyle - Hofner, that’s it, Hofner bass, that’s it, Hofner !
The words are important and Ronnie, he had a prolific style and he basically sang to the common man. Absolutely, man ! Do you have my telephone number ?

RTJ – No, I haven’t.

Artimus Pyle - Let me give it. They are telling me that they have another interview stack again and I didn’t get on to late with you so I wanna give you my number so that if you have any question that you need an answer to, if I know the answer I’ll tell you and if I don’t know I’ll tell you. So let me give you my number : country code United States, area code 8... You didn't really think I was going to give you his personal number, did you?

But I do, and it's a great honor and a testament to the trust this great gentleman has placed in me. This very friendly interview ends here, but if you follow RTJ's news pages, you know that his band has been transformed by the addition of three new members, including the highly esteemed Barry Harwood, singer-guitarist-mandolinist who recorded for Lynyrd Skynyrd before joining the Rossington-Collins Band, of which he was a key figure. This makes me eager to see all these people perform Lynyrd Skynyrd's greatest hits on stage and—why not?—to be able to listen to a live album or Anthem 2, a worthy successor to the formidable first edition.

Y. Philippot-Degand