FROMBLACKFOOT TO TWO WOLF
A Conversation with GREG T. WALKER
By Michael Buffalo Smith Greg T. Walker co-founded Blackfoot back
in 1969, playing bass and singing backup dur- ing the band’s entire run. Butduring an early break in the action, he became a member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, before reuniting Blackfoot a bit later. In our exclusive KUDZOO interview, Greg fills in all the gaps on the history of one of Southern Rock’s heaviest bands, Blackfoot, and tells us all about his days with Ronnie Van Zant’s band, as well as his brand new project, Two Wolf.
Greg T., there was so much happening in Jacksonville at the time of the for- mation of Lynyrd Skynyrd and also of Blackfoot. Would you give us an accu- rate timeline as to when you formed Blackfoot and when you joined Skynyrd? And if you don’t mind, detail it with who was in the band at the time, and what Skynyrd recordings you played on? I formed Blackfoot the last week of August, 1969 and we played our first show a week later in a Battle of The Bands. A few months earlier, Rickey Medlocke (RM), Charlie Har- grett and me had a band with a keyboardist playing seven nights a week at the Comic Book Club in Jacksonville. RM was on drums at the time. The One Percent played there sometimes if we had a night off. Our key-
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board player was having some issues and sometimes we played as a three piece. I had an idea to let our keyboardist go and recruit two other guys I had known since kinder- garten and had been in various bands with growing up. I called them where they were playing in Gainesville and, as luck would have it they were having issues with their guitar player. I suggested we each eliminate a group member and merge the two bands. RM moves out front as the singer, Jakson took over drums, DeWitt Gibbs became the new key- board player and the rest is history. But there were a few hiccups in the early years. Six months after forming we moved to New York City for three months, then out to the country area of New Jersey where after three months there, DeWitt left the band and returned to Florida. By then RM had already began play- ing more and more guitar and often doing dual, harmony leads with Charlie so we had a good thing going. It was now summer of '70. We moved a couple of times and by the sum- mer of '71 we were sharing a big band house with another band near Princeton, NJ. RM left to join Skynyrd and we all parted ways. Six months later I joined Skynyrd and was in the band from Oct 1971-through May 1972. We recorded a lot of music during that time in Muscle Shoals, and I think we were the most, well rehearsed band in the country. That's all we did, like a job, six days a week. Eventually we lost the first "Hell House", a
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