through for a week in Atlanta. I told him that when we came through we would have a great jam session. So that is what I did. They had a great studio. I came back, and as a matter of fact, I was recording my back up band and they were making there own album called Frankie and Johnny. This was about 1972. So we were there for one month and worked every day from noon until about eight. Then I met someone that I went to
summer camp with and he was a manager of a club and I thought I could just go to his club and chase some women. Record all day and then chase women at night. That’s what it’s about. This place is called Finokeose on Peachtree Street. It was a rough place and there were lots of fights going on and stuff. We had a private balcony and we would tell the waitress to go tell that girl in the orange sweater that we were inviting her up here. We loved going there. The first week we were there they had a band called Boot playing. I went and sat in with them. In those days you played for a week at a time. It was not a one night thing like it is now. You would be there for one week. Boot played there for one week and the next week I saw it was Lynyrd Skyn- ryd. I said, "what the hell is this?" Then they played and I thought, boy this is a weird band. They were doing originals. I always liked that. A couple of them really started getting
to me and I thought, this is really good. The singer is barefoot and walking around and throwing the mike stand around. By the third night I had heard some of the tunes and I was hoping they would play them again and by the end of the week, I was completely sold and felt like they were a great band. So I offered them a deal. We went back and forth on that and I heard lots of great bands in Atlanta. I didn’t even want to go home. I had my road- ies go back and pack up my stuff and got a place to live in Atlanta and decided to stay there and start a label. That’s what I did. Skynyrd was the second album I released on
my label and it just knocked all the other bands into the toilet unfortunately.
Oh, Sounds of the South, I remember that one. It always amazed me how leg- endary Ronnie became after the plane crash of '77. I guess when people die they turn into much more of a legend than if they had lived. Well, if that is the truth maybe I should have died so I could have gotten a record deal. (Laughs)
I met Ronnie one time and that was the night before he flew off from Greenville, South Carolina. The next day that he died in the crash. I met them all backstage that night. I remem- ber asking him about how everyone in the press has him painted as being a badass and wanting to fight all the time. Which I am sure that he did fight a lot. But I remember him saying that he would never fight unless he had to. I wanted to see if you could tell me with all your experience of being around that guy, what was he really like. He was an amazing bandleader. I have never
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