Lynyrd Skynyrd at Ball State
When: 8 p.m. Oct. 3
Where: John R. Emens Auditorium
Cost: $46-86
After more than 40 years as a band, more than a dozen different band members and 30 albums, Lynyrd Skynyrd is still on the road entertaining audiences with its trademark southern rock and classic hits like “Sweet Home Alabama.”
“We never even talk about [stopping],” said Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Rickey Medlocke. “It’s all about, to us, the legacy and the music. Keeping the legacy alive and the music going.”
The band will bring this legacy to Ball State Oct. 3 when it plays in John R. Emens Auditorium.
The band's journey hasn’t always been easy. Three members, including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, died in a 1977 airplane crash. The tragedy prompted a 10-year hiatus before Van Zant’s younger brother, Johnny, took over front-man duties and rebuilt the group, along with guitarist Gary Rossington, the only original band member still with the group.
Medlocke was part of Skynyrd’s early days before he formed the group Blackfoot, with which he played for 25 years. He returned to his Lynyrd Skynyrd roots in the early 1990s and has spent the past 20 years rocking anthems such as “Free Bird.”
At 65, Medlocke still anchors the band every night.
See photos from Lynyrd Skynyrd's performance at Emens Auditorium Homecoming weekend.
The band, which now includes nine members, will be singing to a possible three generations of fans on Oct. 3. Medlocke said the groups is “working on a fourth” generation — a measure of longevity seen in only a select few rock bands in American history.
Bands such as Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones, AC/DC and Lynyrd Skynyrd represent an era that kept rock at the top of the musical food chain, a hierarchy that Medlocke acknowledged is different than today.
“Around the world, rock music is very revered, very viable," Medlocke said. "Here, it seems rock music is the first step, at the bottom of the ladder, trying to work its way to the top.”
Replacing rock music is an assortment of genre-blending pop, country and hip-hop music that Medlocke said isn’t quite the same as it used to be.
“I don’t believe country is country anymore,” Medlocke said. “Country is a combination of pop music, rock music and a fiddle. … That isn’t how country started. They should just call it what it is: pop music with a fiddle in it.”
When it comes to hip-hop, Medlocke views the genre as more of a “lyrical thing; a dance thing.” But, he harbors no resentment to today’s top artists. In fact, Medlocke said he still listens to all kinds of music to “gain an appreciation” for the sounds other acts are producing and to see what’s popular.
Medlocke enjoys Blackberry Smoke, The Black Keys, Chris Cornell, Keith Richards and even Bruno Mars.
“I really like what that guy’s doing,” Medlocke said of Mars. He went on to call him a “real musician” and a “badass” — comparable to James Brown.
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s 2015 tour comes to a close in December, but one of America’s few remaining pillars of classic rock shows no signs of slowing down. Each performance features a tribute to the United States Armed Forces, and “Free Bird” closes out each show as it has for the last four decades.
Medlocke still practices his instrument every day.
“I was born a musician and a player,” Medlocke said, “and that’s what I’m always gonna be."
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