were happening at Capricorn, right? When I moved to Macon I had a six night a week job at Grants Lounge for two weeks in a row. The very first night I played, Elvin Bishop came in. Of course, I didn’t know who he was. When we took a break, he came up and introduced himself, and said he was from Oklahoma. I told him I was from Oklahoma too. He said he was cutting a record down here at Capricorn, and said “Do you mind if I get up and play some on your last set?” I said “I’d love for you to.” So he did. At the end of the night he said, “Ace, we start recording at three in the morning. We want to invite you and any of your band guys who want to to come down and listen.” I said, “I’m right be- hind you!” Some of the other guys had girl friends and stuff, and they were going home, but I told him I could make it. I’m there. Then he said, “How about tomorrow night, do you think I could bring my whole band in and play the last set, kind of to warm up for our recording session?” And I said, “Sure, I’d love that, Elvin. Only thing is, you got to play a few songs with my band first.” (Laughs)


Did you ever work with other Capri- corn artists while you were there? I tell you. It was a small town, but it had a lot of big bands- The Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker, Wet Willie. All the Capricorn bands. Grinderswitch. I had the best local band in town. Them guys were all national stars. But I had the best local band. Hell, it might have been the only local band. No, I think there was another band or two. But all them guys, when they were in town would find out where I was playing and they’d come in and jam- Dickey Betts, Butch Trucks, Jaimoe- Jaimoe was a good friend of my drummer at the time. I jammed with Gregg at the park one time. He came pulling up in a red Excalibur, with Cher, that she had just bought him. And she sat on the back of the stage like she was waiting on somebody to ask here for her autograph or something. (Laughs) Yeah. Them were the


days. When did you move to Florida, and how did you come to be signed to Kingsnake Records? I came to Florida in a group called Smoot Mahuti. Our drummer lived in Jacksonville. We were out of Joplin, Missouri. He got us to come down there, and we played for two or three months and then the band went back to Joplin and I stayed. Then I started a band called Ace Moreland’s West Side Story. A lot of the musicians in my band lived on the West side of Jacksonville, and that’s where Lynyrd Skynyrd was from. My organ player, Barry Rapp, that I had played with off and on since about 1970, he was married to Steve Gaines’ widow Teresa. Artimus Pyle, when he wasn’t on the road with the Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute, played with my band. He was good friends with my drummer, and we’d just have two drum kits. Leon Wilkeson would also play in my band when they weren’t on tour, same as Randall Hall. Right around that time this guy and his


9-year old son came up to me and my drum- mer, who was my band leader, and said “My kid really plays good slide guitar, would you let him up to play on a couple of songs?” I said, “Well Chip, what do you think?” He said, “I know this guy Chris Trucks is Butch Trucks’ brother, and he’s took little Derek all over town to every place that has bands, and all those bands were way too cool to let a 9- year old kid up to jam with them. Let’s let him up to play a song and see how he does.” Derek was standing by the front door, looking down, all scared looking. I asked his dad what he knew, and we decided on “One Way Out” and “Statesborro Blues.” So we got up there and he ripped. So I had him play two or three more after that, standard three-chord blues songs. He was great. After that his dad started bringing him to every single gig we played. After about a month, he was such a crowd pleaser, he’d play the last three songs in each set. The tip jar started going bonkers. One


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