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Post by JerseyGirl on Oct 22, 2022 12:43:14 GMT -5
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Cagey
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Post by Cagey on Oct 25, 2022 15:55:56 GMT -5
Lynyrd Skynyrd's Artimus Pyle to Newsmax: Time Now to Honor the Music
(Newsmax/"National Report")
By Sandy Fitzgerald | Thursday, 20 October 2022 03:14 PM EDT
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Artimus Pyle, one of the only two original members of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd to survive the Oct. 20, 1977 plane crash that killed three members of the band, told Newsmax on Thursday, the 45th anniversary of the crash, that now he just wants to remember the legendary music the band created.
"For 40 years, I was saying that I've been sad," Pyle, who was the southern rock band's drummer, said in an interview on Newsmax's "National Report." "Now at 45 years, I just want to revel in the music and celebrate the power of the music."
The Artimus Pyle Band has released a tribute album to honor Lynyrd Skynyrd's frontman, Ronnie Van Zant, and the band's music. The crash killed Van Zant and band members Steve Gaines and his sister, Cassie Gaines, along with the band's assistant road manager and the plane's pilot and co-pilot. Twenty others survived the incident.
The album, which is being presold through the band's website, features Pyle's band backing up several contributors, he told Newsmax.
"Dolly Parton is on our new album, singing 'Free Bird,'" Pyle said. "On the track is my good friend Gary Rossington, the only other surviving member, and he played his iconic slide solo. We've got Sammy Hagar singing 'Simple Man.' It's time to celebrate the music. I still am reverent, but I stopped being so sad because it used to really depress me."
Pyle in 2020 also released the film "Street Survivors: The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash," but says it got passed over somewhat because of the COVID pandemic, so he sees it as a "brand-new release."
"This is a live-action film with actors and actresses portraying us in our 20s," he said. "They did an incredible job and I narrate a little bit, so it kind of seems like a documentary."
He added that the did not make any money on the movie, but that he made it because he wanted the band's fans to know the true story.
"I'm 74 years old," he said. "I"m not getting any younger. I wanted Skynyrd fans to know what happened that fateful day and that night. I wanted them to know what we went through, so that's why I gave the story to Hollywood."
He added that his friends and his sons, along with his band, wrote the soundtrack for the movie, which is separate from the tribute album to Van Zant.
"I'm very lucky to be included in that," said Pyle. "Because of Ronnie Van Zant, I was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006 and Gary Rossington was. I love Gary very, very much. He's such a great person."
Meanwhile, looking at a picture of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Pyle recalled his days with the band as a "laugh riot every day."
"So many funny things happened and was a great experience," he said. "We opened up for the Rolling Stones in front of 300,000 people. I got to hang out with Paul McCartney and Jack Nicholson. I mean, I never would have gotten to do that."
But now, he said, the songs are sentimental to him.
"I get very emotional sometimes right in the middle of a set when I'm playing the songs," he said. "I'm thinking about my friends. Sometimes the tears stream. When Dolly Parton played me her version of 'Free Bird' that we cut for her, I cried like a baby."
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