3/24/2023 0 Comments Lynyrd skynyrd guitar![]() ![]() GM: Do you consider yourself a guitar collector?ĮK: I’m very limited in what I collect, because I just only like certain guitars. But I watched every show on the Who tour. Who were your favorites?ĮK: The Who tour was great. GM: Lynyrd Skynyrd toured with some big acts. GM: Any pedals or effects, or were you more a ‘straight-into-the-amp’ guy?ĮK: I didn’t use any effects-just maybe a little reverb. Then Hartley Peavy built me an amp it was the Roadmaster. ![]() I played a solo on a song called “Am I Losin’” on my SG Standard and live, I always used my SG Standard on “Free Bird.” I still have that guitar.ĮK: No, I went to two Fender Quad Reverbs. I think I played a Gibson on a couple of songs. GM: Did you play a Strat during your entire career with Skynyrd?ĮK: Yeah. I can hear myself struggling with it, but the solo was a first-taker. It was just a bear to learn and a bear to play, and actually, I recorded that solo four days after I started playing that guitar. When they asked me to play guitar, I wasn’t going to play another Gibson like those guys. I was always a Gibson player before I joined the band. But it was a lousy-playing guitar, and every time I hear my solo, I can hear myself fighting it. It was really a good guitar for that song. The pickups on that guitar were really bad and even when you turned everything up full, it didn’t really have any kind of natural crunch. GM: What guitar and amp did you use to record “Sweet Home Alabama?”ĮK: I used a ‘72 Stratocaster and a 50-watt Marshall turned all the way up. I believed it, too-it was just a very cool song, from the moment we wrote it-it was like a feel-good song. I remember after we wrote it, Ronnie saying to me, “There’s our ‘Ramblin’ Man.” The Allmans had their big hit and he said that was ours. Guit ar-Muse: Did you think “Sweet Home Alabama” would be such a big record?Įd King: Oh yeah. ![]() Ed was nice enough to answer a few questions about the song, the recording and his ongoing love of guitars. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and creator of one of the genre’s most memorable songs (“Sweet Home Alabama” has well over a million airplays on radio, TV, in movies and commercials) now spends most of his time near his Nashville home, enjoying life with his wife Sharon and their English Golden Doodle, Ollie. Luck is where opportunity meets preparation.” “But you’ve got to put yourself there, too. “I was lucky both times I just happened to be at the right place at the right time,” King says, modestly. He had already been part of a chart-topping band-at the ripe old age of 18-when L.A.-based Strawberry Alarm Clock took the psychedelic hit “Incense and Peppermint” to No. King was a relatively young 24 year old when “Sweet Home Alabama” was recorded, but it wasn’t his first hit record. Still, the Southern rock classic that put the band on the map is frequently heard today, an indication of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s continuing legacy. But sadly, they achieved tragic, legendary status following a 1977 plane crash that killed three members of the band (King was not performing with the band at the time). The band from Jacksonville, FL, had other hits, as well. ![]() 40 years after its release, the song still receives regular airplay and the famous riff remains part of the lexicon of rock and roll. As part of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s famed three-guitar attack, King co-wrote “Sweet Home Alabama” and created the signature lick, as well as the sweet solo that is such an unforgettable part of the 1974 hit. Admit it, you’re hearing the riff right now, plus the chorus and the guitar solo-and you know the earworm will be with you the rest of the day. You can’t hear the words “Sweet Home Alabama” without your brain instantly calling up that famous Stratocaster intro. Read Time 4 Minutes 40 years later, the Southern classic endures as one of rock’s most famous guitar riffs. ![]()
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