Derek Hess

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Derek was the drummer for the Rossington-Collins Band

Recent Derek Hess Interview

As with most of the interviews on this website (a French one where the interview came from) the questions are translated from french so they can sometimes be difficult to understand . Anyway here is a little bit of it:

Well Ronnie eventually popped the question, “Derek, what would you think about joining Skynyrd, we’re starting work on our second album, and we are going to be replacing Bob Burns”. I was certainly shocked to say the least and was stammering around for some sort of intelligent reply, and finally said something like,” wow, I need to think about that if that’s cool, and they said fine, we’ll be in touch.” They weren’t.

I've never heard this before but it could be true. I guess Derek shouldn't have thought about it? Or maybe he's better off the way things worked out. Derek's a great drummer and I would've loved to have played with him in the 70s. I'd never heard his name mentioned back then.

Another Derek Inteview

In the late ‘70’s, Randall Hall and I spent a little time playing and touring with "Melanie", the folk singer turned rocker. We traveled with her to Switzerland, to a folk/rock three-day festival on Lake Geneva. What a blast! Soon after this period, aware that the Skynyrd survivors were quietly putting a band back together with Barry Harwood, I got a call very early one morning from Billy Powell as to my interest in playing drums for their new band.

I was fairly well stunned by the proposition, and as I tried clearing my head, he explained to me that Artimus was losing interest and had severely injured one of his legs in a motorcycle accident, and then asked if I would be interest in coming out to Allen’s studio and work through some ideas to see if it would work, with possibly Artimus returning.

Needless to say, when I hung up the phone, I was up the rest of the night buzzing with anticipation. Up to that point, I had known the boys for many years, as I watched their success, only to have the door slammed shut on them. Of course, all the world was stunned by the tragedy of the plane crash. All I could think of was the time Ronnie VanZant and Gary Rossington walked into a music store I worked in the early 70’s. They approached me about joining Skynyrd. This was around the time between their first and second albums.

Well, naturally I said I would consider it, and had no way of knowing their first big hit "Sweet Home Alabama" would have likely been a track I would have played on. But I guess fate and the Lord had other plans, as I was not to end up on that plane four years later. Anyhow, I hauled my drums out to Allen’s rehearsal studio, where I was affectionately received and greeted by these "super rock stars" even in my own mind and I proceeded to put it on them. One hour into the affair, Allen says "We’re going into the studio in three weeks, you’re our man, no doubt" and I was thrilled.[/b][/size]