Post by ekforum on Nov 30, 2009 12:43:58 GMT -5
Q - Why did you close the door only three years later? (after joing Skynyrd)
Every tour got to be a ridiculous sideshow. The band had new management and I think that he really wanted me out too. It took the fun out of it.
There was never ANY question in my mind about Van Zant making a significant mark on rock music. But I always knew that I didn't "fit" into the band* - so I set my sights on the "live" album. That was the album I wanted to be a part of. I figured, by that time, I could back myself out. Unfortunately, I just got tired of the "grind" and most of the people in the music business before that time.
* Take a look at the photo (in the box set) of the band standing in front of "Hell House". Six on one side and me on the other. That says it.
Q - Do you feel that your were really singled out?
I think the manager talked to Ronnie and had Ronnie push me out.
Q - What was the straw that broke the camels back?
We had a show in Pittsburgh one night. (May 26, 1975) Ronnie and my guitar tech got thrown in jail the night before in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They were really late getting to the show. My guitar strings weren’t changed for the show. By the end of the night, I had broken two strings. All the way back to the hotel Ronnie was just raising hell about it. When we got back to the hotel, I just said that this is just really screwed up. This came at the very end of all kinds of stuff on that tour. I just didn’t need it anymore.
Q - Looking at what happened to the band, you made a good move.
Yeah. I kind of regret that I left in the middle of the tour; that is really wrong. I think we had another four weeks to go and I just knew I would not make it another four weeks.
Q - Did Van Zant become that much of a corporal punisher? Was it really that bad?
Oh yeah, it was beyond description actually. It was not only towards me; he was that way to everybody. He just got really out of hand. Our manager made the comment that the crazier we got the bigger we were going to be. He thought that geniuses were crazy anyway. I felt the same way. I just said as long as you don’t aim it my way then I don’t care how you act. There were just some really crazy things that went on the last month I was with the band.
Q - Did you ever talk with Ronnie again after leaving the band in 1975, Ed? I hope he didn't carry a grudge.
A year or so after I left Ronnie, in a magazine article, said "Ed King has one year to live". I'm not sure what he meant by that....but I'm still here. No, I never spoke to him after leaving the band.
If he HAD called me and asked me to come back, I'm sure I would have. After all...he was the reason to be there in the first place.
Allen and Gary called...Kooper called....but not Ronnie. Good thing.
Q - When you left the band, and there was obviously no one to teach them parts that you had played, especially solos...how do you think they coped with that?
They couldn't cope with ANYTHING on the 'Torture Tour', so my leaving just added to their misery.
Q - During you years with Skynyrd in the 70's, if you could change one thing under your control, what would you do?
Write more songs is the only thing I would've done different.
Q -Would you like to change the fact that you left the band?
I wouldn't change a thing.
Q - When the idea to form Rossington-Collins Band was being developed, were you asked to play? Were you even considered for that matter?
I wasn't asked to join the RCB. I was not into playing my guitar in 1979. Actually put it down for a few years. I've done that a few times and it always comes back fresher than before. Sometimes it's just good to GET AWAY FROM IT. So even if I HAD been asked, I was in no position to accept.
I went up to the Garden State Arts Center to see them play. Very impressive. I'll never forget how LOUD LEON WAS. When I left the band in '75, Leon was using an Ampeg SVT. By '79, he'd graduated to 2 or 3 - 500 watt Crown Amps. I mean...LOUD! (Leon said he needed that much power to 'keep it clean'. With that much gas, he didn't need to turn it up very much...it'd just shake your bones at a low volume.)
That night in '79 was the first time I'd seen them since I'd left the band...and I didn't see any of them again until July, 1987. I went backstage and plunked around with some of their guitars...notably, Allen's Explorer (which I'd never played) and this old black Strat with an old Tele neck (I think).
Q - Had Ed King joined that group....
...you wouldn't have heard those great Harwood licks. That part he does in DON'T MISUNDERSTAND ME kills me every time. Signature stuff.
Every tour got to be a ridiculous sideshow. The band had new management and I think that he really wanted me out too. It took the fun out of it.
There was never ANY question in my mind about Van Zant making a significant mark on rock music. But I always knew that I didn't "fit" into the band* - so I set my sights on the "live" album. That was the album I wanted to be a part of. I figured, by that time, I could back myself out. Unfortunately, I just got tired of the "grind" and most of the people in the music business before that time.
* Take a look at the photo (in the box set) of the band standing in front of "Hell House". Six on one side and me on the other. That says it.
Q - Do you feel that your were really singled out?
I think the manager talked to Ronnie and had Ronnie push me out.
Q - What was the straw that broke the camels back?
We had a show in Pittsburgh one night. (May 26, 1975) Ronnie and my guitar tech got thrown in jail the night before in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They were really late getting to the show. My guitar strings weren’t changed for the show. By the end of the night, I had broken two strings. All the way back to the hotel Ronnie was just raising hell about it. When we got back to the hotel, I just said that this is just really screwed up. This came at the very end of all kinds of stuff on that tour. I just didn’t need it anymore.
Q - Looking at what happened to the band, you made a good move.
Yeah. I kind of regret that I left in the middle of the tour; that is really wrong. I think we had another four weeks to go and I just knew I would not make it another four weeks.
Q - Did Van Zant become that much of a corporal punisher? Was it really that bad?
Oh yeah, it was beyond description actually. It was not only towards me; he was that way to everybody. He just got really out of hand. Our manager made the comment that the crazier we got the bigger we were going to be. He thought that geniuses were crazy anyway. I felt the same way. I just said as long as you don’t aim it my way then I don’t care how you act. There were just some really crazy things that went on the last month I was with the band.
Q - Did you ever talk with Ronnie again after leaving the band in 1975, Ed? I hope he didn't carry a grudge.
A year or so after I left Ronnie, in a magazine article, said "Ed King has one year to live". I'm not sure what he meant by that....but I'm still here. No, I never spoke to him after leaving the band.
If he HAD called me and asked me to come back, I'm sure I would have. After all...he was the reason to be there in the first place.
Allen and Gary called...Kooper called....but not Ronnie. Good thing.
Q - When you left the band, and there was obviously no one to teach them parts that you had played, especially solos...how do you think they coped with that?
They couldn't cope with ANYTHING on the 'Torture Tour', so my leaving just added to their misery.
Q - During you years with Skynyrd in the 70's, if you could change one thing under your control, what would you do?
Write more songs is the only thing I would've done different.
Q -Would you like to change the fact that you left the band?
I wouldn't change a thing.
Q - When the idea to form Rossington-Collins Band was being developed, were you asked to play? Were you even considered for that matter?
I wasn't asked to join the RCB. I was not into playing my guitar in 1979. Actually put it down for a few years. I've done that a few times and it always comes back fresher than before. Sometimes it's just good to GET AWAY FROM IT. So even if I HAD been asked, I was in no position to accept.
I went up to the Garden State Arts Center to see them play. Very impressive. I'll never forget how LOUD LEON WAS. When I left the band in '75, Leon was using an Ampeg SVT. By '79, he'd graduated to 2 or 3 - 500 watt Crown Amps. I mean...LOUD! (Leon said he needed that much power to 'keep it clean'. With that much gas, he didn't need to turn it up very much...it'd just shake your bones at a low volume.)
That night in '79 was the first time I'd seen them since I'd left the band...and I didn't see any of them again until July, 1987. I went backstage and plunked around with some of their guitars...notably, Allen's Explorer (which I'd never played) and this old black Strat with an old Tele neck (I think).
Q - Had Ed King joined that group....
...you wouldn't have heard those great Harwood licks. That part he does in DON'T MISUNDERSTAND ME kills me every time. Signature stuff.
" from Germany !!!