player. He’s the best I’ve ever heard. To this day, I never write a bass part without asking myself “What would Leon play?” As a matter of fact, the last two songs
we recorded, “Free Bird” and “Simple Man” contain my bass parts that are very far re- moved from all of the other bass parts on that album. Mainly because I had caught the vi- sion from Leon of how the bass should be played for this band. One night, after the first album was
Strawberry Alarm Clock was my first real major band. I was 17. By November, 1967, we had a #1 song with “Incense and Pepper- mints” and our picture on the cover of Cash Boxmagazine. We never had another hit and the band went bankrupt in late 1968. But it was on one of our last tours that I met Ronnie Van Zant and the Lynyrd Skynyrd band. They were our opening act for about three months of college dates we did in the South in 1970. Ronnie and I got along really well, and I told him if he ever needed another guitar player or bass player he should call me, and he did in 1972 when Leon Wilkeson quit the band. By the way, even though the music to
“Incense” was written by myself and Mark Weitz, the keyboard player, we were not given credit and never paid a dime for it. We were ripped off by managers and publishers and the like. Oh well, we had a good time.
Sum up your days with the original Lynyrd Skynyrd band. I played on the first three albums along with the First and Last album, which was actually the first album [that had been rejected by var- ious record companies]. I was recruited to play bass on the first album, Pronounced, but during rehearsals, Leon came out to the re- hearsal cabin. While there, the band played “Simple Man” with Leon on bass. I had never heard the song before. After hearing Leon play bass, I decided he should be the bass
done but not released, Ronnie came to me. I was sitting on my bed playing my Strato- caster. He put his arm around me and said “Ed, you’re really the worst bass player I’ve ever played with.” So, the next day Ronnie and Gary went out to this ice cream factory where Leon was working. They asked him to return to the band. Two days later, with Leon on bass, we wrote our first two songs with the new lineup, “Sweet Home Alabama” and “I Need You”. Not bad for the first day. I really enjoyed working with Al
Kooper. I believe, had it not been for Al, no one would’ve heard of Skynyrd. He was the visionary behind the band and how it should be presented to the world. We didn’t always agree with Al, but I certainly enjoyed his pres- ence.(See also our archived Al Kooper inter- view in this issue! Ed.) When we drove up to Atlanta to record
“Simple Man,” we played the song for Al in the studio. He hadn’t heard it. He didn’t care
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