Quotes from Rickey Medlocke

I often use dropped D or C - I even go all the way down to A. What can be really cool is drop a guitar down there and have the rest of the band continue in standard tuning. It gives it a lot of power and texture.

When I was 3 years old, I was playing banjo on a country music TV show.

We looked at the Allman Brothers as the fathers of what was to be called Southern rock. In our book, if you didn't like the Allman Brothers, you were sacrilegious.

I think what the public knows as 'Southern rock' will never be repeated.

That's what I'd rather be doing more than anything. I love to play and perform and write, record, do whatever - just stay in music.

Blackfoot was one of the ultimate live bands... there was no pretense, no gimmickry; it was sound, lights, and rock and roll. Our whole goal was to be terrifying... to strike fear and cause havoc in a closing band's minds.

You look around our audiences, and you see the spectrum - old fans and young people.

I find that America is moving toward a certain type of government that everybody else is moving away from, and I find that very upsetting to me.

Every band wants to be have a song that is that big, that will pretty much live on forever. I don't know too many new bands that will have a 'Free Bird' that will be around 30 years later. It's become a national anthem of sorts.

I'm Native American, so the racial thing kind of hits home with me.

Lynyrd Skynyrd is not a political band, but you know what? We believe in this country. We have a soft spot for our military. We love the red, white and blue, and every night we dedicate a portion of our show to our fighting men.

We're a working-people's band, and we love America and what she stands for. Also, we love doing shows, whether it's a huge amphitheater or a corn dog fest. We don't care.

I really believe that with all of what Lynyrd Skynyrd has been through, we can survive just about anything. We've had a load of ups and downs, but we're still here.

My old man Shorty was a huge figure in my musical life.

Next time you go get bin Laden, don't call it Operation Geronimo, and if anyone wants to stand toe-to-toe with me and talk about it, I'm open, brother.

All I can say is we love what we do, and the audience is still there for us. I think what's given us such longevity is that our music may not be fancy, but it touches a nerve with the average Joe.

Here's the deal: You can't go in with the intent that, 'All right, we're gonna write another 'Free Bird' or 'What's Your Name.'' You can't think about it in those terms, because you'll never outdo your history.

If you really stop to think about it, the last really big guitar hero was Eddie Van Halen, and that was back in the '80s - early '80s, you know what I mean? That's a long time ago.