Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
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so that I had cigars next to my bed so I could wake up, grab a cigar, get a cup of coffee, go to the back, and enjoy my day the way I deserve to enjoy my day. Use code BERT at checkout for 20% off your order of $50 or more plus free shipping or visit cigarsinternational.com slash BERT and the discount will automatically apply. I'm going to do like Epstein's Island but for menopausal women.
I'm going to have ramps going into every room. There's going to be hand railings. We're going to have that seat.
We're going to have that seat that gets you out of the pool. That's freaking awesome.
You guys would love her. She is demographically, like, grew up in the same area, kind of Georgia, on the border of Alabama, Georgia. Oh, hardcore. I mean, it's what we connected on. You know, it's like, it's funny you don't realize You don't realize how, maybe you do when you travel and you tour, but you don't realize how much where you came from matters on who you marry.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
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Chapter 2: How do cigars and smoking culture influence the conversation?
Oh, yeah.
And I had never listened to Dwight at the time. I was like, okay. I knew who he was because of Sling Blade.
Yeah.
He was friends with Billy Bob Thornton.
Oh, yeah.
And he was like, you know. And I was like, okay. And she's like, I go to all his shows. It has been 22 years. And she went and saw him the other day at the Roxy and called. She goes, don't get upset. I bought his guitar at auction. Wow.
Oh, man.
She goes, he signed it. It's the one he played tonight. The money's going to a good cause. I go, how much did you spend? You know what?
He does a lot of that because I just did an auction. My daughter has what they call a cavernoma on the brain, and it's a group of blood vessels that seep blood. They don't burst. So we did an auction. He gave us a guitar for the auction. Oh, for real? Yeah. I got a funny story about Dwight. You can tell him this. We were in Alabama. Was it Mountain, Stone Mountain? No, that's in Georgia.
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Chapter 3: What personal anecdotes connect the speakers?
And you know what's crazy? Growing up in Florida, I grew up in Tampa. Growing up in Florida, I can picture the bar. One of those square, just square cement block bars. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's it. Yeah.
You know what? I think that's why the music's still here. You know, Ronnie wrote words that... were true, you know? And he always said, hey, if it wasn't about himself, it was about somebody else, you know? And that makes a great songwriter, you know, it really does.
Can I ask you, how were you, what's the age difference between you and him?
He was 11 years older than me.
That's the perfect, my little sister's 11. What was he like?
Very sweet, kind. If you wanted a shirt, about taking off a shirt. If you told him you liked his shirt, he took it off. He goes, go find me one I can put on. Never wore shoes.
Really?
Yeah. He never wore shoes.
I think that's a Florida thing, though. Yeah, yeah.
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Chapter 4: How does the conversation shift to the legacy of Lynyrd Skynyrd?
How does it feel singing with a broken back?
I know. Well, I did it. But anyway, I sat down, and they were like, do not do anything. Sorry, Ricky. Do not do anything to mess yourself up. You could be paralyzed. So I'm sitting on the stool. Here comes Gary. He sits on my knee, and I'm like, Oh, God. Oh, God. And he looks over at me and goes, look, don't ever do that again. So I'm like, oh, man. But I did the rest of that tour in a brace.
I named it Albert. Oh, for real? Yeah. If you ever played the amphitheater in St. Louis, there's a picture of him in the back brace. He's just sitting there like this in the picture. I mean, you can tell he's in hurt and he's in pain. Yeah. But he's there. When I first joined Skinner, pretty much, I didn't do anything.
How did that start? I'm curious. Like, did they approach you and say, listen?
Or was it something almost like... I had the best week in the world. I was still doing my own solo stuff. And a friend of mine knew Ahmed Erdogan, one of the founders of Atlantic Records. And Ahmed was an old Turkish guy. Don't like this hair, you know. I love you, you know. And so anyway, he says, hey, Johnny, I played Amon some of your songs. He wants to come in and talk to you about it.
And I'm like, yeah, sure. Amon Erdogan wants to talk to me, you know, founder of Atlantic Records. He said, yeah, Monday he wants to fly into Jacksonville. So I went out to the private hangar and here come down this plane with a WB on it. I went, holy crap, this is true. You know, so we go and we go into the funny thing. We go into a little meeting at the Holiday Inn down the road.
He's like, I really love your stuff. I want to sign you into Atlantic. What would it take you? So I spurted out some money and he goes, well, who's your lawyer? And at the time I didn't have a lawyer, but I said, how old are you at this time? How old? I was 28. Oh, man. Yeah, 28. And so anyway, he says, who's your lawyer? I said, I know my back. And that was the only lawyer I knew.
And I knew her from a long time ago. Yeah. And he goes, oh, no, I know. I'll call her. We'll do the deal today. I went, holy shit. Back then, you know, it was payphone. So I'm on the payphone trying to find a number for Ina Maybach to say that she's my lawyer. Yeah. You know, so I'm at her to get up like I'm lying to him. So anyway, I get the deal that day. And Friday night.
Gary Rosington calls me and says, Hey, we're doing this tribute tour. Would you want to be a part of it? And I said, well, you know what? I want my brother, Donnie. If I even think about it, you know, I want my brother, Donnie, who's from 38 special.
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Chapter 5: What health issues do Johnny and Rickey discuss?
Please take them. I got the same shit. You know what? I take four pills a day for my blood pressure and cholesterol.
Wait, I'm really curious.
What are your pills? Hell, I didn't even know I had it until I about cut my finger off doing my hedge, by the way.
Someone remind me of this one. Hey, by the way, is there some water? Yeah, right here, right here. Oh.
This one.
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Chapter 6: How did Ricky reconnect with Lynyrd Skynyrd?
Oh, yeah, this stuff's good. That's sparkling. Oh, that's sparkling? Yeah, I'm not the sparkling kind.
Someone remind me I need to give you my baby aspirin, although I'm on a ridiculous amount of blood thinners.
What? Yeah. Yeah, he was talking about it. No, I mean, when I left, you know, I had left them before and now reformed them again. And they went on to have, you know, good success, I mean, for a while. And we had out Train Train and Highway Song and, you know, some great albums.
Yeah.
But I got to a point, I really did, I got to a point after the good times came down, crashing down, you know, because of radio and all the stuff that happens. I got to a point to where, honestly, I didn't know what I was going to do. And it was really weird for me. So fortunately, I got invited to Freebird, the movie premiere. And that was in Atlanta, Georgia at the end of 95 after Christmas.
And I was able to see Johnny again and Gary and Billy, Leon. And we kind of reunited in a way. And I was able to get up and jam, sing with Johnny. We did I Ain't the One. And we sang that. And I was able to get up and play acoustically by myself a highway song. And at that point, their manager at the time said to my manager, Gary has been talking for a while about getting Ricky back in the band.
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Chapter 7: What memories do they share about growing up in Florida?
And he goes, I think we need to talk about this. And so come March of 96, I got a call. And this is the exact call. I've checked my messages at home and the tape's going, you know, the little tape.
Kids, 1996. Yeah. We didn't have cell phones yet. They weren't as popular. That's right. I know this is crazy. That's it. This is stupid. Cell phones show up in like 98 is when we start getting cell phones. But at this time, we had answering machines. Right. Where you would say on the, hi, I'm not home right now. If you leave a message, I'll call you back. And then we go beep. Keep going.
So Gary is on the phone. And he said, hey, Brother Ricky, it's Gary Rossington. I want to come down to Fort Myers, and I want to audition you.
Chapter 8: What insights do they provide about their upcoming tour and music?
I want you to learn I Ain't the One, Saturday Night Special, That Smell in Freeburg. And I'll audition you, and if you pass the audition, I'll give you $1.50 and a Snickers bar. And I thought to myself, really? Well, passed the audition, got in the band, and about 10 years later, We get on the bus, and on the galley, on the counter, by the sink, is a damn $1.50 wrapped up in a Snickers bar.
And a note that said, paid in full. Paid in full. And that was Gary. You had to know Gary. Gary was an awesome dude.
Very shy. It seemed like such a brotherhood. Oh. It seemed like, I mean, and I'm talking like watching the documentaries, and when you listen to the music, it seems like such a synergy of personality. You know, it's very hard to explain what it's like being from Florida to other people. They don't understand it. Like people ā I did an interview with Gayle King on CBS. Yeah.
And she came in the green room and my shirt was off. I was barefoot and my shirt was off. And she was like, oh, my God. Like what ā how are you comfortable like this? I said, I grew up in Florida. I was shirtless my whole childhood. The second we got out of school, your shirt was off. You got a summer burn. And then that was you for the fucking year. And barefoot.
Hell, we were so poor, we couldn't afford flip-flops. My wife went to, I think, up to second grade barefoot. It was in a church, and then she just went across the street into a church.
I remember I used to have, what do you call it, where you step on the rocks on your hill, like bruises on the hills from just walking.
7-11 feet. I remember, I mean, I would walk. I would walk now when I jog. I'd probably jog it. But I would walk barefoot to the Circle K from my house to get a Jolly Rancher. Like, do you remember the long Jolly Ranchers? Uh-huh. Oh. Yeah. Watermelon Jolly Ranchers? Shut the fuck up. Uh-huh, yeah.
And that was 10 cents. I did that shit after school every day. I'd walk down. We had a little country store. It was called Claude's Midway. Yeah. We had a running tab there, you know. You'd have to sign a little piece of paper. And at the end of the week, Mom and Dad would pay the thing. But I had to get a moon pie and an RC Cola. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. That was my go-to.
And me was an RC Cola with salted peanuts.
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