January 28, 2024 • 71 mins
Hello Backstory Fans! We are back with the start of Season 11! In this episode, we welcome back the iconic drummer and musician, Artimus Pyle, in a long discussion about his journey, filled with unexpected turns and intriguing stories. From surviving plane crashes and recording his exciting new project, "Anthems", to be released on Feb 2nd, to the pain of losing his friend and former bandmate Gary Rossington last year, Artimus reveals it all. Explore the incredible journey of this iconic artist, learn about some of the intricacies of the music world, and get an inside look into the process of recording the album ‘Anthems’ to honor the Lynyrd Skynyrd legacy.
It is an emotional rollercoaster ride through Artimus's experiences - from interactions with renowned artists like Dolly Parton, Sammy Hagar, and Ronnie Dunn to name a few, to dealing with the sometimes harsh realities of life on the road with the Artimus Pyle Band, and grappling with personal and professional trials. Find out how and why he rerecorded some of the classic Lynyrd Skynyrd hits to appeal to long time fans as well as new audiences and the legacy he wishes to uphold in the world of timeless music.
You will recognize Artimus's resilience as he shares his journey against health challenges, including cancer and a heart attack, his commitment to a healthy lifestyle, legal challenges encountered in the music business, and his future plans in this engaging episode. This is a compelling tale of a musician shaped by adversity but driven by his unwavering love and passion for music.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:49):
Hey everybody, it's Kat, and I want to welcome you to this episode of Backstory Sessions.
I'm joined today by my co-host, Matt.
Hey, Matt. Hey, Kat. Hey, everyone. How are you? Well, here we are.
Indeed we are. Season 11.
Yeah. You know, since I heard that, I've like a song's been going through my
(01:12):
head. Oh, really? What's that?
I'm finding it hard to believe we're in season 11.
You know, like in heaven, you know, it's Friday.
But it went through my head and I'm thinking like, really? Season 11?
(01:33):
Yeah. It's hard to believe, isn't it?
Yeah. I mean, it's been, you know, it's been what? Three years now?
Well, are we coming up on four?
I don't even remember. I don't know. Coming up on the third year.
So, yeah. The end of the third year or the beginning?
I want to say that we started like around February, February, March, I believe.
(02:00):
It was March, yeah. I just don't remember what year.
So, it would have been. All right. So, it would have been in 2021.
Right no 2020 2020 yes
all right so we'll be finishing our third year yes yes we will so in three years
(02:25):
we have done over 150 episodes yeah we are now in the 11th season so,
I think we've done very well. Yeah, it's been pretty interesting.
We saw some good growth last year, and it's going to be hard to top this year, I think.
(02:49):
But look who we're kicking it off with, Artemis Kyle.
So that's a great way to keep the attraction going.
Yeah, Artemis was gracious enough to come back and talk about his new project.
And you know it's so i
said it last time when we talked to him it's so
(03:11):
strange talking to someone as iconic
as him well you know last time we
interviewed him the album was
just starting to be you know
recorded and they were choosing the collaborators
you know who's going to sing free bird
was the big mystery you
(03:34):
know yeah and and he
kind of left us with that cliffhanger and now
of course we know it was dolly carton that's right yeah yeah but now we also
know because the anthems is being released this friday on groundhog's day i
might add february 2nd yeah so now we you You know,
(03:58):
we know who is singing, like, all of the anthems.
And I think that's a really cool title.
I really want to ask him about that and, you know, how they chose that title or who chose the title.
It's really very fitting, I think, for the work that's on there.
Yeah, I know they have some pretty, I mean, you mentioned Dolly,
(04:21):
and I know there's some other really great collaborators on there.
Yeah, Sammy Hagar and Simple Man. That's right.
And I think I saw that Ronnie Dunn was on there from Berkshire and Dunn. Yes.
I remember who else off the top of my head. But anyway, we'll talk to Artemis about that. And-
(04:41):
get his input on what you know
who all was on it and you know
some of the stories on getting them to
be on it i think a difficult thing
in this interview that we're getting ready to
do with him will be you know gary rossington's
passing and how he feels
(05:03):
about that in light of you know
gary was is on the album and it's in
that way i'm sure it's very sad that he is
not here to see the album drop on friday yeah yeah that's it that is uh you
know unfortunate but i'm sure it'll uh give us the whole rundown on what happened
(05:25):
with that well artemis is fascinating i mean you know I have to say,
like, surviving a plane crash,
not once, but twice. Right.
I mean, getting shot, yes. Yeah.
And still, you know, like, I would never get back, well, you know,
(05:50):
I would never get back on a plane if I survived, you know, one plane crash.
I'd be like, okay, you know, I was so lucky because the chances of survival are not that high.
And then to do it a second time and survive, I mean, you know,
he is an amazing person, despite his talent for drums and, you know,
(06:14):
all of the other things, like, that are related to the music career.
I mean, just in his perseverance, you know, I think I find that very motivating and very interesting.
It's just very odd to me.
Yeah, I'd be interested to, I mean, I don't know how he gets around these days,
(06:35):
like if he, you know, if he does fly a lot or if he.
Spends his time on the bus and stuff. So be interested in hearing about that.
And what is, you know, if he is like you, you said you wouldn't get back on a plane.
So I wonder if he's a little averse to that. But we'll see.
Well, I didn't, I know he talked about this in the last, the last time we interviewed
(07:00):
him, but didn't his father die in a plane crash? He did, yes.
So, I mean, you know, like that would be just, So I could not,
I could not be on a plane if, if all those things happened.
I just, you know, I just know that about myself.
I, I couldn't do it. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, I don't know.
(07:24):
We'll find out what, what his feeling is about that. Yeah.
Well, I find it fascinating. You know, I'd love to have a little bit of whatever
that is that, you know, I don't know if it's bravery.
I mean, I don't know what it is. Would you get back on the plane? Yeah, probably.
Maybe not like right away, but, you know, I probably would. I can't,
(07:48):
you know, I just can't see it.
I mean, you know, you got to do what you got to do sometimes. Yeah.
I just, you know, I just don't think I could, but I admire it.
I mean, and, you know, as far as Artemis goes, his band plays all over the world, I believe.
(08:09):
So, I mean, he kind of has to.
Yeah. I mean, it is, I'm sure, a major part of being an entertainer and having
to get from place to place.
But even at that, you know, there's just limits to what my mind,
it would be constantly going through my mind.
(08:31):
And I just know that I would just be traumatized I think that's how I feel I
would be and two times maybe like the more it happens to you the more you think like I'm invincible.
It's not meant for me to happen you know
(08:52):
to die this way but my mind's not wired
like that so I'm gonna you know
I think I'm gonna going to post this in the backstory group
tonight after the episode just to
see what the listeners think when they get back on
the plane or not good question you think yeah yeah
i guess that is a good idea you know good question i think i know what the outcome
(09:16):
will be but you know what more use than me i would think that more people would
not more means than you i think yeah probably way. Yeah, I think so too.
Um, but you know, you got to admire the use.
I do. I admire Artemis and I look forward to hearing this whole story because
(09:42):
it's been a while and now it's like we were, you know, being teased to see,
and now, you know, now we get all the answers. It's like, great. I can't wait.
Yeah. Um, you know, our last interview with him was pretty short.
This one will be a little bit longer. I'm hoping.
Yep. I feel like he's just going to open right up to us.
(10:08):
We have that effect on people. That's right.
Well, let's jump in and talk to Artemis about his upcoming project, Anthems.
And then we'll get into some of the other stuff and see what he has to say.
Let's do it. We've been working on this thing for years. It seems like years.
(10:29):
But when you're working with 14 different artists
and 14 different managers and 14
different record companies and 150 different lawyers for all these people it
takes more time than we thought but it it was worth it because i got gary rossington
you know who we lost six months ago So, yeah,
(10:53):
the biggest thing for me, there's two points I want to make.
One is it was really difficult navigating Nashville and all of the shenanigans
that go on in Nashville with the lawyers and the managers and all the wannabes
and the butt kissers and the brown nosers.
(11:15):
But it was worth it because we got,
you know, I worked really hard to get Gary Rossington on three bird with Dolly
and it happened and we got it done after Gary was lied to by the management
company that Dolly had pulled out of the,
you know, pulled out of the project and it wasn't true.
(11:37):
None of that was true. They were just trying to ruin it for everybody.
But we got Gary on there with Dolly, and then we lost Gary about six, seven months ago.
The last founding member of Leonard Skinner, and it left me as the last living
member of Leonard Skinner.
And it's not something I'm bragging about, for sure.
(12:00):
It's not a good feeling. As a matter of fact, it's a bad feeling.
Our band has been together 15 years. We're not going to change what we do.
We go to these beautiful venues all over the country and these older theaters
that have been remodeled and fixed up and really cool festival sites all over
(12:23):
the country. And that's what we're going to continue to do.
We take Leonard Skinner music into places that the bigger bands,
they won't play someplace unless they get $200,000. And, you know,
unless there's 20 gigs in a row.
We recently did a gig in Rio de Janeiro, New Mexico.
It was a one-off. We drove five days on the tour bus to go out there and back.
(12:49):
We played one show with, you know, one of the country artists out there.
And and and there's no bands
that would do that they would they would you know demand a
certain amount of money they would demand this and demand
that and we just get on the bus and go
and even though our agency had no respect for us whatsoever by doing that to
(13:14):
us when they knew that it was hard on everybody the band the crew the driver
you know i i got rid of all of the agencies in in Nashville because they're, they're jaded.
Unless you're Taylor Swift, you know, they're not going to really pitch for you.
And now we're, you know, we're with a company out of New Jersey called Blue
(13:36):
Raven and Sean at Blue Raven, and they stand up for us.
You know, they, they are on our side and they're, they're about us.
And in Nashville, they just, they say anything
that they think you want to hear but you
know they have a hidden agenda so you
know we're very happy to have our agency in new jersey and and and you know
(14:02):
we we got the album done it's called anthems yeah and the you know the the worldwide
consensus is that it's it's a very solid good record with great players.
And of course, all the basic track is Brad Durden and Scott Raines,
Jerry Lyda, David Fowler, and myself, Artemis Gomer Pyle, USMC.
(14:27):
And we were the soundtrack. We were the basic track on every single song.
And we had Dolly's producer, Kent Wells, who's been with her for 35 years he
was our producer on this project and he he got me a big fat nashville drum sound
probably the the best drum sound i've ever had and uh their thunder and sonically,
(14:52):
you know the album is strong and rocks and the performances of of our band,
We got up to Nashville and they started saying, well, look, if we need this,
we'll just get some session players to play on it. And I said, no, you won't.
The basic track of APB is APB, the five of us.
(15:14):
We're not going to bring in a bunch of ringers.
We played this music for 15 years and we play it better than anybody in the
world. Right. So, you know, Matt and Matt.
But we're just going to continue to do what we do.
And the album comes out February the 2nd, which is Groundhog's Day coming up here.
(15:39):
There are 3 000 copies of
the album already out we
did about 1500 pre-sales starting last
year it seems like we've been working on this thing for eight years but the
pre-sales went out 1500 of them and then there are 1500 vinyls available and
(16:02):
i i would I appreciate y'all letting me rant here.
I want to make it perfectly clear that the majority of the money,
the lion's share of the money on this album goes to my rock and roll friends that are up in heaven.
(16:22):
I'm the last guy. I, you know,
and and it's like I wanted to do something that would make money for the children
and grandchildren of my my rock star friends that I always think about them
like in a parallel universe playing on the largest stage ever seen in the history of stages,
you know, and and I feel like, you know, the last thing I heard from Gary Rossington
(16:47):
is he texted me and said, Artemis, this album sounds great.
I love being able to play with Dolly on Freebird.
Ronnie would love it. The whole band would love it. They're looking down,
giving the thumbs up. You know, I love you. I love your family.
I love your brother. Can't wait to see you.
And, you know, because we were kept apart for years and years,
(17:10):
so there'd be more money for the management companies to steal.
And, you know, but Dolly on Freebird.
Was the impetus for bringing gary and
i back together as you know old friends that
toured the world together and played for the
rock and roll kings and queens of the planet and it
(17:31):
really it was it was really worth it for for that part of it for gary to be
on there with dolly two icons on an iconic song free bird and for gary and i
to be able to work on the project together and And I don't know if y'all know this,
but, you know, that was, that was the last thing Gary Rossington recorded was
(17:52):
his slide solo with Dolly Parton, you know, on Freebird.
Wow. I did not know that.
It's on her album, Freebird, number 30.
Yeah. And it's, of course, on our album as well. So, excuse me,
I interrupted you. No, no, you're fine.
I was just curious. It's like, so you said the management had kept you apart,
(18:16):
but so you didn't see each other very often? Is that true?
Oh, absolutely true.
You know, I was, of course, poisoned because of, you know, all of the false
allegations that had been posed against me.
And if any of that stuff would have been true, I'd be in prison right now.
(18:39):
But, you know, none of it was true. I'm not in prison.
I've never hid under a rock. I've always been in the public eye. Yeah.
And, but the management company, they turned their back on me.
And there was a, there was a time when the band, you know, was so into a gluttonous
consumption of cocaine and alcohol.
(18:59):
They didn't care about me, our friendship, my life, my family, anything.
The only thing that that they cared about was the next, you know, line of cocaine.
And that was, that was years ago. That was years ago and in all fairness,
but there was a time when they told me that I saved their lives in the plane
crash and that I certainly needed some moral support on my side going through a false accusation.
(19:26):
And they let, they left me for dead because they had this gluttonous drug and alcohol problem.
You know, I'm not, it's not sour grapes. I'm only saying the truth.
And I forgave everybody for everything. And, you know, we're just,
we were just trying to do something good, positive for the name of Leonard Skinner and we did it.
(19:49):
And Gary was a part of it. And I will, you know, be forever thankful that the
project brought us together because it wasn't ever about money for me.
It was always about the music and Gary was about the music, but everybody surrounding
him, a very sinister crowd of crooks. It was about the money.
(20:11):
And Gary was only 71.
And to me, they worked him to death. He had like seven heart attacks and heart problems.
And they would always like, you know, beg him to go back out on the road so
they could make that damn money.
And, And, and, and so it finally took its toll, but Gary's service,
(20:32):
I was there with my two guitar players, Gary and I mean, uh,
Jerry and Scott, and it was a, it was a very dignified service.
There was a thousand people there from all over the world.
Everybody loved Gary and Paul Rogers from bad company spoke some really nice words about Gary.
Simon Kirk was there, the drummer for bad companies. Well, they're, they're old friends.
(20:55):
Yeah. Travis Tritt sang a song for Gary.
Kid Rock was there representing, you know, showing his love for Gary.
And all of Gary's famous, beautiful guitars were all over the chapel next to
pictures of his grandchildren and children and his family.
And it was a very dignified service.
(21:19):
Service and you know gary and i
and the whole band we used to love watching andy griffith and as you were leaving
after gary's service was over in the chapel and we were going to go to graveside
as you're leaving the chapel they were blasting the theme song to the andy griffith show.
(21:42):
And and it was so awesome i mean it brought tears to my eyes because you know
even on our bus today with APB and we play Scannard music better than any band in the world.
Even on our bus, before we go on stage, on our bus we always have Andy Griffith playing.
(22:03):
While we're getting ready, you know, and gearing up to go out and putting on
our, you know, our in-ear monitors and getting wired up and everything.
We got Andy Griffith on there because it just makes you feel like you're home, you know?
And so, yeah, we miss Gary pretty badly, guys.
Yeah, he was certainly quite the guitar player, for sure.
(22:26):
And I'm sure you have lots of great memories of touring with him.
And I'm curious, like how, how did
the meeting go when you saw him for the first time in such a long time?
Oh, we didn't actually meet. We talked about, you know, getting together for
lunch, you know, no lawyers, no,
(22:47):
no, uh, you know, wannabes, nobody, but just Gary and I, we talked about,
you know, that, that, that would happen. And then, of course, Gary passed.
But, you know, we never actually physically got together because I knew the
way to handle it to get Gary on Freebird with Dolly was to let Kent Wells,
(23:10):
who was a respected producer and Dolly's friend of 35 years in Nashville.
I was going to let Kent, you know, make that happen.
And I worked with Kent on one side and Gary on the other side and a third party,
a friend of mutual friend of Gary and mine.
(23:32):
A man named Timmy that grew up next door to Gary and I when I lived with Gary
at his place in Florida on the St. John's River.
And so we made it happen against all odds. As I say, Gary was lied to by people
telling him that Dolly had pulled out of the project and that I wasn't going
(23:55):
to pay any of the licensing fees on all these songs.
Well, that's just ridiculous. ridiculous. I mean, I'm going to work with Dolly
Parton and the top people in the business, and I'm going to try to steal Freebird from some,
not pay the licensing fees and the mechanicals, songs like that. No, hell no.
(24:16):
And as I said, I reiterate, all the money, the lion's share is going to go to
the children and grandchildren of Gary and Ronnie and Billy and Alan and Leon.
You know that's where the money's gonna go
we did this as a tribute my band did
we are a live band that's how
we make our living we get on the bus we go
(24:37):
to the gig we play the show people love us because we play the music so so sincerely
and not with a bunch of it's not like a circus act where we're running around
you know doing flip-flops and everything and we play the music and sing the words and the crowd,
you know, the, the people that come and see us, they really appreciate our presentation
(25:01):
that it's not some big, flashy, gaudy, you know, we're here for the money. Right.
So, you know, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
So you don't have a private jet at this point?
We have three Gulfstream 5s. Oh, okay, cool.
Yeah, and one of them's mine, one of them belongs to the crew,
(25:24):
and I let the band use the other one.
And, you know, we make a little money in the gigs, but it costs $2 million in fuel to get there.
Oh, Lord. no we we have a
we have a tour bus a 1999 prevo
we call her pearl she's pearl
(25:46):
white we bought her from lenny kravitz it's
a long story cool and she we
keep her clean as a pin we have a tight ship
we have a beautiful galley as i say you know
we keep her clean and she fast fast we found
out in texas that she's very fast and so
you know on a full moon at three o'clock in the morning on
(26:09):
one of those long texas straight highways you know
we we we found out she's very fast but no that's that's our home away from home
we're we're very comfortable on there uh we have a great driver our our driver
eddie drove for taylor hawkins he drove for uh billy gibbons from ZZ.
(26:29):
He's driven for everybody.
And he only lives about 20 miles from me out here in the country.
And it worked out great. We can sleep when he's driving. He's such a great driver.
We never worry about it at all.
And we have a backup driver, our guitar player, Jerry Lida. He is a great driver.
He drives slower than Eddie, but it's very steady and solid.
(26:54):
And I always know when I'm in my bunk, I know when Jerry's taken over for a
minute to let Eddie rest his eyes, you know, it's slower but very smooth.
So we're a well-oiled machine, our crew.
Of three, a ride with us, of course. So there's nine, nine of us on the bus
(27:17):
and everybody's got a, you know, a nice bunk.
We've lit them up really, you know, with all the, the lighting you can buy at Walmart.
You know, we, we, we, I think one guy's got a mirror ball in his,
in his bunk, but we're, we're very comfortable on, on the bus.
(27:38):
A lot of times when we stop to let our driver rest, we won't,
you know, like run him into the ground.
We'll get it. We'll get a room or two for the band to shower and use the restroom
and, you know, kick back and watch TV.
But a lot of the band members and the crew and myself included,
(27:59):
I'm more comfortable just staying on the bus and, you know, waiting for the
driver to get, you know, 10 or 11 hours of sleep.
And then we, you know, then we move on and we, the, the band,
all of these guys in my band are successful businessmen.
I'm 75 and they're like 60 and younger.
(28:22):
And they're, they're all, you know, they have a beautiful wives and children
and homes and businesses.
They're successful. they absolutely do
not need this band
to to make money i i
won't say you know they're they're independently wealthy but they but they they
(28:43):
are they've worked really hard for their wealth and and think their homes and
what have you and they deserve them but they love this music as much as i do
and they are so proud of this album and you know guys think about.
It the for for a few weeks ago for just a short period of time the dolly parton
(29:08):
album that we're on where we play freebird we're number 30 on her album yeah
what was like number one in the world on many formats yeah.
Because it's Dolly and it felt kind of good to be on a number one record in the entire world. Yeah.
And we're, we're, we, we wrote in on Dolly's coattails, but she's on our album as well.
(29:32):
We were the first ones to record with her on her new rock album.
And I told Dolly, I said, I'm going to vote for you in the rock and roll hall of fame.
And she said, well, I don't know if I should accept it because I'm not a rocker
and I don't know if I deserve it.
And I said, well, Dolly, you know, for goodness sakes, you're,
you're a humanitarian, number one in the world, you're a singer,
(29:55):
songwriter, movie star, you can play guitar as good as a man.
I said, but you're a humanitarian, you deserve everything.
And then she said, well, I guess this is the day that she played Free,
she played me her vocal on Freebird to our track that we recorded for her.
And I mean, to tell you, I cried like I boohooed like a baby.
(30:16):
It was so, so emotional. And that's before we lost Gary Rossington. Right.
And, and, and, you know, right. So anyway, she, she said, well,
Artemis and I put Three Bird on my album.
And I said, you know, the whole band said, I think unanimously,
we all said, yeah, it's Dolly.
(30:37):
It's Dolly. And of course, with our album, our tribute to Ronnie Van Zandt, his music and his band,
having Dolly on board on Freebird, that opened the doors to people like Sammy
Hagar and all the other great artists that sang on the album.
Because they're all like, yeah, I'd like to be on an album with Dolly.
(31:00):
And so with all of the trials and tribulations and the shenanigans,
We are very proud of our work and the work that was put in to finish this record
and finally get it out there.
As I say, February 2nd, Groundhog's Day, is the official release date.
(31:22):
And I did mention that there's already 3,000 albums that are out there.
So, you know, the horse is out of the barn.
What was your favorite moment recording that album?
Well, I know there's, you know, it's probably hard to pick one out, but.
(31:43):
Well, no, I mean, absolutely. It's pretty easy for me.
You know, sitting there at the console with Dolly at Kent Wells Studios there in Nashville,
that moment where I heard her vocal for the first time and it made me weep,
you know, tears of joy, you know, tears of joy.
(32:05):
But it was very emotional.
And the fact that Dolly is such a great human being, and she put her arm around
me and gave me a hug and made me feel better.
Dolly is the best, and she's been married for many, many years to a great guy named Carl.
(32:27):
Dolly could be married and date anybody in the world, but she was loyal to the
person that she loved. And the person that she knew loved her for not the fact
that she was Dolly Parton.
But the fact that that, you know, Carl looked at her, this is my wife and I
(32:47):
love her very much. And they've they've always been in love.
And, you know, you know, we talked I talked to Dolly about Carl in the studio
and gave her a picture of the band,
me playing drums because I, you know, and I signed it to Carl because he he
always encouraged Dolly on the rock side of music.
(33:08):
Right and then when you know when she
decided to accept the rock and roll hall of fame nomination and
dolly doesn't do anything halfway you know she
she went out and and did 30 songs
with paul mccartney and ringo and elton
and every everybody all
the greats yeah you know dolly dolly on
(33:30):
her album and and we're so happy to
be included you know yeah so you
mentioned and dolly and sammy hagar and who
are some of the others are on the album lauren haynes
from almond brothers and government mule ronnie dunn from brooks and dunn he
sang sweet of alabama awesome billy ray billy ray cyrus okay a girl named lindsey
(33:55):
l from canada she's 33 hotter than a firecracker sweet as she can be guitar player singer yeah.
You know, reminds me of a Canadian Sheryl Crow.
Wait a minute. Sheryl Crow is from Canada. That's right. She is. Oh my God.
But Lindsay is an amazing artist and low-cash. I mean, you know, Lee Bryce...
(34:22):
There's so well there's 14 okay i
believe it's and of course one of the songs we wanted
apb to represent we had you know bradwell durden his i call him bradley and
he said no i'm actually a my name is bradwell i thought that's pretty cool that's
(34:42):
pretty cool but uh brad has a beautiful beautiful Southern rock voice.
He has a real voice, not one of those fake country rock grunts.
He's not a grunner. He's actually a vocalist with pipes and a real voice and
a vibrato and tone control.
(35:03):
And he sings in key and he has intonation.
And so he sang a song called on the hunt right on the album and you know we
couldn't be happier he as far as i'm concerned.
Brad it was right up there with all
of the other great vocalists that are on the record you
(35:24):
know he's his voice is is is a beautiful voice so and so is all of the the rest
of and billy ray cyrus man what a hoot i mean he's he's saying call me the breeze
right yeah and ronnie Ronnie sang Call Me the Breeze up in a higher register, and then J.J.
Cale, who wrote Call Me the Breeze, sang it in a lower register.
(35:47):
Well, Billy Ray sang it right in the middle.
He sang it like a common man, hitting the notes that a lot of people will hear
it and go, wow, I can sing along with that.
I can actually sing along with Billy Ray. faith.
What he did is he sparked new life into the song.
(36:08):
And I think he's made it, when it comes out and people start digging it,
it's like a new road song, you know? Yeah, cool.
You put the top back, you know, and you crank it up, your system up as loud,
and you go down the road and, you know, look at the ocean or the mountains.
And, you know, it's like a road song. So he's ad-libbing through the whole thing,
(36:33):
yelling, you know, yee-haw, and all this kind of stuff.
Man it's a hoot and i love it
i i really love it and you know ronnie
dunn from uh brooks and dunn yeah
he sings sweet home alabama and he the
the little southern rock twang that
he put on it was so cool yeah
(36:54):
you know like because he'd sing it with that sweet home
alabama right a little bit a little bit
of a twang in there yeah that you know ronnie certainly
from florida had a southern southern accent but ronnie didn't have a twang right
and and ronnie dunn has kind of opened that song up to a whole new audience
and so that's what we wanted to do we wanted to put modern technology and modern
(37:17):
recording techniques and all the latest stuff and getting that sonic sound.
That kent wells knows how to get and the big fat
drum sound that i got and that i'm happy we're
so so happy with and you know and put a
little polish on these songs and and put
them out there again because nobody can record these
(37:38):
songs better than they were originally recorded no band is
going to be better than the original leonard skinner no no
singer is going to sing ronnie van zandt's free
bird better than ronnie you know but it's
just we want to keep them in perpetude and and
put a little polish on them and and put
them out there and like a little renewed interest
(38:01):
in the songs because why because ronnie van zandt and his band and and his music
deserve it he deserves it and so that's why that's why we did it you know so
are you going to do anything special for the release or do you have any plans for that,
I don't know. I'd like to jump out of an airplane, you know, again.
(38:26):
My last jump was 14,500 feet. Wow.
Over North Carolina over there. I jumped with the Golden Knights from Fort Bragg.
Yeah. Of course, it's a different fort. What do they call it now? Fort Liberty?
Yeah, something like that. They changed the name, but yeah, the Golden Knights
jump team for the Army. me, they're, you know, I'm a Marine and I'll guarantee
(38:49):
you the, the, uh, jump school that they have out there for the golden Knights.
These guys are absolutely amazing.
I, I, I would trust them, you know, to jump out of an airplane anytime at all.
And they, they were my jump team when I, when I did my last jump and I never
(39:11):
thought I'd jump out of a perfectly good airplane, but I did.
It why well it
was it was a hoot you know that that
last second just before i released and let myself
fall into space you know up until
that point i wasn't uh nervous at all and
(39:33):
that one split second before i dropped out of
the plane i thought to myself what in the hell am i doing you
know and but once i was airborne and
and and you know and looking at
the planet and saw the the curvature of the earth and
and and you know i was in free fall it was incredible man i i loved it i i absolutely
(39:56):
loved it so was that like was that like a bucket list item for you oh no no
i i'll do it i'll do it again it it was you know it was something that i always wanted to do,
You know, I didn't get to take jump school in the Marines because I was aviation
electronics and I worked on A4C Skyhawks. Uh-huh.
(40:19):
And I flew the back seat of the A4C Skyhawk trainers, the A4TFs.
I remember you talking about this last time a little bit.
A4Ts. And that was my dream was to fly jets for the Marine Corps.
But I'm sure I told you last time after my father was killed in a mid-airplane
collision in Albuquerque, the dream changed.
(40:41):
And I went from being a captain in the Marine Corps flying jets to a drummer
in a rock band called Inner Skinner.
So like life life throws
you some some curves sometimes quite a transition well
cat what do you got yeah so anthems i think is like a really iconic name for
(41:04):
this album i do i i love anthems how did you decide which songs you were gonna
put on there Oh, that's hard.
I mean, you know, you got to do Sweet Home. You got to do Free Bird. You got to do Simple Man.
The rest of the songs, just kind of as the artists that were available.
(41:26):
I mean, you know, we wanted Bob Dylan because he loved Ronnie Van Zandt and
he talked about Simple Man all the time. We wanted Neil Young because Ronnie
and Neil were going to write music together, but Ronnie was killed.
So that ended that we, I wanted Jack White out of Nashville,
you know, to, to come on board.
But scheduling is really hard when you've got all the different bands and artists,
(41:52):
you know, they, they're just like us. They've got gigs, they have commitments.
Everybody that was available and willing to be a part of the project,
we welcomed them with open arms and made the set list around them.
We could have done a quadruple album.
(42:16):
We had to, you know, confine it, you know, because it's very expensive to do
something like this, too.
Sure. And, you know, none of
us have money to burn, but it was really important for us to get it done.
And with the help of our record company and, you know, they're called Get Joe
(42:40):
Records. They're out of Texas. us.
And they went through all the headaches that we went through.
And, you know, they weren't really used to dealing with Nashville.
They didn't realize that there's a lot of shenanigans. And, you know,
our management company out of Nashville, under the circumstances,
did the best that they could, you know, our PR people.
(43:03):
And so, you know, all is forgiven.
We got it done. It was worth it. It's a great record. It's an incredible tribute record to Ronnie.
I got to get Gary on there with Dolly. And so, you know, in answer to your question, Kat,
the songs after we got Dolly and Ronnie Dunn and, of course, Sammy Hagar on board,
(43:31):
everything just kind of mapped out a natural progression, everybody that was available.
And we had people from Canada, we had country people, we had rock people.
So it's a very different tribute record.
And I can tell you from the band's point of view, it is sincere and from the heart.
(43:55):
So do you feel with Gary's passing and now you being the one that's left to
carry on the legacy, do you feel like...
An increased duty, I guess, to do that?
Absolutely, Kent. I mean, you
know, I always stayed for a couple of hours after our shows and I signed,
(44:18):
you know, old albums and people bring me pictures of Ronnie and the band and,
you know, and ticket stubs from, you know, coming to see us play in the 70s,
you know, where the tickets were like $6,
you know, and, and, and I, so I always felt a duty anyway,
(44:40):
because the rest of the members weren't as accessible as I, and I love meeting
people. I love hearing the stories.
And I, you can imagine, I've heard hundreds of stories of people,
a lot of bikers that bury their friends to Freebird.
And, you know, somebody's high school prom theme was Simpleman,
(45:04):
you know, and Freebird and just all of the different applications to life that people used.
You know, Ronnie wrote Simpleman for his mother and his grandmother, mother and I knew them.
And a lot of people relate to that. You know, listen to what your mom tells you.
(45:25):
You know, she's not going to, your mom, in most cases, is not going to steer you wrong.
So these songs are part of the fabric of not only America, but the world.
I get feedback from all over the world about their Skinner songs.
There are fans of Ronnie Van Zandt all over the planet. it.
(45:47):
And so, yes, my sense of duty has been heightened, you know,
and I'm just going to continue to do what we've been doing.
And that is, you know, going out and playing the music live and taking the music
in smaller towns and smaller venues.
You know, it's small. I mean, we play festivals, 40,000 people,
(46:09):
50,000 people, but we play a lot of the theaters that have been,
restored all over America, up north in the northern states,
all those old theaters that were
just beautifully done, that sat empty for years and just went to seed.
And the city fathers realized that they were diamonds in the rough and went
(46:32):
back in, completely restored them.
And they're acoustically beautiful. I love playing these theaters. Yeah.
A lot of them, most of them have come back with state-of-the-art sound and lights.
And you're already in a place that was built acoustically.
So we get to play those and the outdoor festivals and huge amphitheaters sitting on lakes.
(46:57):
And up in Minnesota on the Finger Lakes, the Glacier Lakes up there,
they just built a brand new facility.
We played there three times called Arnold's Park.
Park and it's it's right on the old glacier
finger lakes up there and the water is
crystal clear the venue is state-of-the-art uh
we just played there last year last summer and
(47:20):
and and and it was sold out we just played in rochester new york for the jazz
festival on a friday night we had 10 000 people wow and and i almost cried when
i got off our bus and walked onto the stage and walked out there and looked
out, I thought there'd be a couple thousand people.
(47:40):
But, you know, and it's when Rochester was under all that smoke coming from
Canada, you know, because Canada was on fire.
And, you know, Rochester's right there on the border and there was a lot of
smoke in the air. And I thought, well, there'll be a couple thousand people.
But there was 10,000 people street to street, street to street,
you know, outdoor, you know, right in the middle of downtown,
(48:03):
town, surrounded by the city.
It was beautiful. And I saw 10,000 people, a sea of people, and I literally got emotional.
And we put in one of the best sets we've ever put in.
So, you know, I'm never disappointed by the people that show up.
(48:26):
Love the music because people from all walks of life, young people,
I mean, children and the older people like me, you know, 75 and above,
they all have a favorite Skinner song.
Probably the last five presidents of the United States of America have had somewhere
in their heart a favorite Leonard Skinner song.
(48:48):
You know, that means a lot to me. So, and, you know, think about Ronnie One
of the greatest movies of all time, Forrest Gump, you know, and Ronnie had two
songs in that movie, Free Bird and Sweet Home Alabama.
And, you know, remember when Forrest was teaching Jenny how to dance?
And it was Sweet Home. Yeah.
(49:10):
So, you know, the music, it's it's an amazing phenomenon, because no matter where I go,
what little town in Texas or anywhere in America, there is a band that covers
Leonard Skinner. There's a Leonard Skinner tribute band.
I'm serious. Almost in every city of this country.
(49:31):
And I've played with many of them. And some of them are really good.
They put a lot of work into the music.
And then some of them are not quite as rehearsed. But the spirit is still there.
They still play these songs with everything they've got.
And they're playing with me. So, you know, they're feeling like they have a
(49:57):
connection to the real Leonard Skinner that they grew up and admired and loved.
But, you know, 15, 16 years ago, I got tired of playing with 200 different bands.
And I wanted to put something together that was solid. And Brad and Jerry and
Scott and I put the band together.
(50:17):
And Dave came along later, has been with us for quite a few years.
And we are a well-oiled machine.
And everybody that hears us really enjoys the presentation.
A couple of places in the show we do acoustic. We break down to acoustic,
no drums, just some percussion in the background, some chimes.
(50:40):
And Jerry and Scott and Brad do beautiful three-part vocal harmonies on Tuesday's Gone.
And all I can do is write about it, you know.
And it gives everybody in the audience a chance not to be bombarded,
you know, by, you know, because we rock.
And we bring it. You know, we bring it. We are not timid. And we are ferocious.
(51:05):
We are a ferocious band. It's a perfect venue for you.
So the next time you come back or you're planning a tour back to Kentucky,
you need to be at the train station in Corbin, Kentucky.
It's a nonprofit and they do a lot of arts for veterans as like healings and
(51:29):
therapy, that kind of thing with art.
So, you know, and it's also one of those charming little venues like you're talking about.
So, you know, I love that cat.
We just played last year with my son's band, Pile Tribe.
We played Corbin and that's the home of Colonel Sanders. Right.
And and so I met Colonel Sanders when I was a little kid.
(51:54):
Because I'm from Tennessee and Kentucky, and we traveled those old roads before
I-75 went through there.
And the place that we played was the old Ice House, that big,
cool venue there in Corbin, the Ice House.
And it was a wild place. And we had a nice crowd. It wasn't packed or anything.
(52:16):
But, you know, I'm from Kentucky. I was born in Louisville. and recently,
you can edit this out if you want to, August 30th, I had back-to-back cancer
surgery, prostate cancer surgery.
And, you know, that was just in August, August 30th.
And I am a Marine. I drank the water at Camp Lejeune.
(52:39):
So when the doctor told me that I had a little prostate cancer,
my vet doctor, they take good care of me.
And I wasn't surprised at at all. I said, well, doctor, I'd be surprised if
I didn't have cancer because, you know, the fact is, you know,
I'm a Marine. I was stationed at Camp Lejeune four times.
I went there, you know, as a kid in the fifties, I went there to visit my uncle
(53:01):
who was a Marine first sergeant from the Korean war.
My family would stay with his family on base and drink that water.
So I would have been surprised if I didn't have cancer. Now, I'm fine.
The surgery that I opted for, robotic surgery, and I said, I don't want to mess
around with it. I want it all taken out.
(53:23):
So they did. I'm fine.
Then like right halfway through the there's
a point to my story right halfway through healing up
i took the month of september off to heal up
properly and my first show was in elizabethtown kentucky outside of louisville
there e-town yeah and i didn't want to miss any of the shows that was october
(53:47):
6th and i didn't want to miss any shows because you know we got dolly on there and I didn't,
we're promoting the new record and I, I didn't want to miss anything.
So I'm healing up and halfway through my healing at four o'clock in the morning,
I had a massive heart attack and they rushed me to Hickory, North Carolina,
(54:09):
20 people jumped on top of me and took all my clothes off and,
and shot me up with morphine and saved my life.
And they put a stent you know they
they put a stent through my femoral artery and and
you know now i'm on heart medication and everything
(54:30):
i take statin and the blood thinners and all
that stuff but i'm fine and i know why i had the heart attack because i was
put under tremendous stress with this album yeah all kinds of people up in nashville
lying about this and lying about that you know it was it was driving me crazy
you know why can't people just tell the damn truth You know,
(54:50):
we were trying to do something good for everybody to help everybody.
And, you know, we got all these people trying to take in cheap shots at us and
they didn't succeed. They did not succeed.
But, you know, having back to back cancer surgery and then a massive heart attack,
you know, all within like a month, you know, I was worried about whether I would
(55:12):
be able to play the way I should play.
But October 6th, I was at a beautiful theater in Elizabethtown, Kentucky,
and the band told me—I've done 30 gigs since, by the way, I never missed a single
gig—and the band told me that I'm playing as good as ever.
(55:34):
You know, I just use smaller sticks because I use a 5B stick,
a Vic Firth Wooden Tip 5B, which is a pretty meaty stick.
And I just pulled back to a Wooden Tip 7A's.
And, you know, I take all of my cramping. I drink pickle juice. I eat my magnesium.
(55:58):
I use TheraWorks for cramping. I take my medication. I journal all of my medication.
I take my own vitals every single day.
I don't miss it because I have eight children and grandchildren,
and I play music with them.
I'm not worried about my health. I'm fine. I'm going to be great.
(56:20):
I am great as far as my health, but I am 75 years old. So I realize now that
I have to watch what I eat even more.
I was always a vegetarian and I ate, you know, it's, you know,
if I needed protein, I would have some white fish or white turkey,
you know, to bring my level up a little bit.
(56:43):
I'm not anal, but I'm basically a vegetarian.
And, you know, I, I'm not a cigarette smoker. I do not smoke cigarettes.
Wink, wink, wink. but, but, you know, that's, that's been me. That's always been me.
I'm a, I'm a liberal hippie and, you know, my band are conservatives,
(57:05):
you know, and, and if we can get along on that bus for thousands of miles,
which we do, we're all good friends. I love those guys.
And, you know, I agree to disagree with them.
They know how I feel about, you know, politicians and we agree to disagree.
(57:26):
I'm not trying to ram anything down their throat, and they're not trying to
convince me of anything.
The only thing that we do when we get on that bus is we go out and we play Lynyrd
Skynyrd music for Lynyrd Skynyrd people that love good music.
And we agree on that, and people love it. So I thought I'd just let you know.
(57:47):
I haven't said this in any of my interviews, but I'm telling you guys,
and you don't have to use it. But I'm fine.
And I wouldn't want, you know, any of my people that and I do have enemies,
the people in Florida that that, you know, that plane crash survivors that that
(58:08):
have their own conspiracy theories of what happened.
Nobody knows what happened on that plane from the perspective of the pilots
and being a pilot other than I do.
And most people were knocked unconscious.
I was never knocked unconscious. I've had three airplane crashes,
you know, I've survived three of them.
(58:30):
And I did go for help in the crash site for the Leonard Skinner crash.
You know, I did get shot. And all of these people, they weren't there.
They weren't there. They don't know what happened. I know what happened.
They're just speculating and guessing.
And they're all these big experts. Let them let them flap their lips.
(58:52):
I don't care. I know what happened. I told them the story in a movie.
That movie was accurate, except for we had to use a different airplane because
we couldn't afford to rent.
And rent one of those big tricycle landing gear
like we used right like we had so we
used a tail dragger a c-117 which was
(59:13):
we called them goonie birds in the marine corps and they have a very safe flying
record but they have a good looking cockpit and cabin area they're twin engine
and they sound good they got that big growl like our plane had so you know that's
what we use that's But other than that,
the movie was accurate. My son wrote music for it.
(59:33):
My band wrote music for it. My friend wrote music for it.
We were very proud of the movie and the soundtrack under the circumstances.
It was no easy task either.
And nor was Anthems. And, you know, Kat, what you said about Anthems, I love that name.
We didn't come up with that. Our management company and record label came up
(59:56):
with that, and I love it because the working title was honoring the music of
Ronnie Van Zandt and his band,
and I'm lucky to be included.
Well, anthems is true because Ronnie didn't just write hit songs or hit albums.
He wrote anthems that will be here a thousand years from now.
So, you know, I agree with you, Kat, and thanks for pointing that out.
(01:00:20):
Well, one more thing to point out to you. After the first time we had you on,
several months later, we had Jared Kahn as a guest.
And he's a movie director and we
had no idea that he had directed your
movie so we asked him you
know like what's the favorite movie that you've directed and he
(01:00:43):
picked yours and we're like oh my goodness you know we we have interviewed him
and he's like oh i love artemis and i love this story and so it's a small world
in that way but i wanted you to know that he didn't say that was his favorite movies ever directed.
Well, that is so cool. Jared Cohn is a great guy.
(01:01:04):
And, you know, he and I wrote the screenplay for the movie.
I flew out to California five, six times working on the movie.
And when I first went out there after they asked me to do it,
Cleopatra Films, I spent two 11 hour days with Jared.
(01:01:25):
Jared, you know, we work, working up the story and, and me reliving it.
And I mean, I, I, I was yelling and screaming and punching walls and laughing
and crying and, and, you know, just, I mean, it was intense.
It was very cathartic, but it was an intense thing to go through for Jared,
(01:01:46):
you know, him seeing the emotional impact that it had on me,
but we got through it and, and out of Out of the screenplay,
he was able to write his movie.
He was able to write the script.
We had a budget of $1,800,000. The whole time we were doing it,
(01:02:10):
we were being sued by $1,000-an-hour blood-sucking weasel attorneys.
In the end, we won in the circuit court. Three judges unanimously told the other side that Mr.
Pyle has a right to tell his story, so shut up.
And we finished it.
(01:02:31):
But it did cause a lot of problems in working on the movie.
And we ran into shenanigans on anthems as well.
Well but you know all all you
can do is just try to navigate through
and try to see light at the end of the
tunnel and and i always i keep
(01:02:55):
that light out there i keep the carrot in front
of the donkey because you know to me the
way my feeling about music is the greatest gig i've ever done in my life will
be the next show you know and while we're playing the show the greatest greatest
song is the next song because there might be that golden magic moment that makes it all worthwhile.
(01:03:20):
And we get those all the time when the crowd sometimes sings louder than we're
on stage and we can hear the crowd.
And it's a phenomenon. It really is wild.
And we love those magic moments. They're golden.
So Artemis, you got the album coming out and you're going to be touring, I assume, this year?
(01:03:44):
We never stop touring, Matt. We're always touring.
We're not like bands that you have big budgets that go out for six months and
play every arena and every soccer stadium and every place in the world.
Uh we we don't do that but we go out
on the weekends warriors you know we
(01:04:07):
do thursday friday saturday sunday and you know
we take care of our driver we don't run him
into the ground and and we make sure
if we have to leave two days early to get
somewhere you know for the shows to begin that's
what we do we are dedicated and loyal
to this band and i am i i'm
(01:04:27):
loyal the guys are are loyal to the music and i'm loyal
to them so yeah we we we will
continue to tour exactly any any
other projects you have going on i'm working on an album with my son marshall
oh cool and we're going to record in winston-salem north carolina at a beautiful
(01:04:48):
studio that was just built built in a 1948 vintage building in downtown Winston-Salem,
30,000 square feet.
A friend of mine bought it and turned it into this unbelievable studio.
I've been in studios all over the world. This place is second to none.
I'll never record another album in Nashville, Tennessee.
(01:05:12):
And so my son Marshall's album will be in Winston-Salem. My son Chris's album,
we're going to record it as well.
Pile Tribe, that's my other band. I'm the drummer of Chris's band.
My son Chris is the lead singer and vocalist.
And he wrote all of the material. And so he's 52 now, and we rock.
(01:05:32):
I mean, we're a legacy band.
No other member of Leonard Skinner has children that are professional musicians,
and all my kids are. That's so cool.
(01:06:11):
All original apb southern rock
album and i guarantee you right now
i'll put it up against any southern rock album
ever put out all right and awesome our guys
our guys are good and so yeah yeah we
have we we have we were talking today
about a european tour going over and doing the festivals in the summer with
(01:06:35):
there's some interest in us coming over there wow because we don't demand $100,000
or $200,000 because we call our man, Leonard Stenard.
We're not greedy. We like to get paid like anybody else, but we don't mind earning our money.
(01:06:55):
And so I talked to Australia, Sydney the other day, and they would like us,
APB, to come to Sydney, Australia. Yeah.
We were on our way to Sydney, Australia on the 95-city world tour that we were
on when we crashed our airplane.
(01:07:16):
We were only five shows into a 95-city world tour ending up in Sydney, Australia.
So there is interest in us coming to Sydney.
There's an Australian, of course, playing there. We've got some interest in
playing the Hawaiian Islands.
We have a friend over there that would, you know, not just going to play one
(01:07:37):
show on the main island, but playing smaller places, even clubs all over the
Hawaiian islands. I love playing clubs.
You know, it's an intimate atmosphere. And I like people being able to be close
to the band and seeing what I do. I love showing off, you know.
(01:07:58):
I can tell. hell. We're thinking onward and upward.
And by the way, guys, Kat, Matt,
thank you for the questions because it gives me, affords me the opportunity
to, you know, to go there and let people know that we're not letting any grass grow under our feet.
(01:08:19):
We're going to move forward until it's time for me to get on one of my horses
and go right out into the pasture.
All right well we're gonna speaking of time we're gonna let you go because you've
given us an hour and we really appreciate it,
can't wait to see you guys you see us playing close by
(01:08:40):
come and see us we definitely will you can
come back and see us anytime you got
my telephone number so call me if you need me if something comes up
all right cat a cat if you've got something and like you're you know you were
talking about that gig in kentucky i mean we are we are a band we like to play
music and you know All of our stuff goes through Blue Raven Entertainment out
(01:09:06):
of New Jersey, a man named Sean.
He's a great guy. He believes in the band. He's got my back.
If somebody calls up and says, we'd like to have the Artemis Pile band,
but somebody told us that Artemis might be a bad guy.
Sean does not mess around like
they do in Nashville, where they cheese and fold up like a lawn chair.
(01:09:29):
Sean says to the people, hey, look, you know, whatever they said about Artemis
that is bad, it's not true.
He's a good person. He loves children. He loves his family. He loves his band.
He plays the music better than anybody else. If you pass, it's your loss.
So get on board or, you know, don't let the door hit you in the ass.
(01:09:51):
You know, that's the kind of agent you want on your side.
Yes, definitely. All right, guys. Well, thank you for your time.
Thank you so much, Artemis.
Great. Yes. And I did listen to Simple Man. Love that. That's great.
With Sammy Hagar, too. You can hear the hurt, the cry in his voice.
(01:10:14):
Do you know what I mean by the cry in a voice? Yes.
Elvis had a cry in his voice.
Dolly Parton has that cry in her voice. and you can hear in phase performance
of simple man and he's you know he's showing out man he's doing that for Ronnie
and you can hear that that cry in his voice which means anytime I hear,
(01:10:39):
somebody go deep like that you know
I know that it's sincere so yeah the
Sammy did a great job on that you know and i toured with
sammy when i as i told you he was
in the band montrose ronnie montrose yeah and
um then sammy went on to uh you
(01:10:59):
know uh reach for the stars he still is
you know yeah but uh love you
love you guys stay safe stay warm and uh
hope to see you soon as always if you have any questions concerns or comments
you can send those to cat Matt at IWritePlaysAtOutlook.com or you can write
(01:11:21):
to me at BackstorySessions at gmail.com or Matt at Level11Ventures.
Music.
Music.
(00:49):
Hey everybody, it's Kat, and I want to welcome you to this episode of Backstory Sessions.
I'm joined today by my co-host, Matt.
Hey, Matt. Hey, Kat. Hey, everyone. How are you? Well, here we are.
Indeed we are. Season 11.
Yeah. You know, since I heard that, I've like a song's been going through my
(01:12):
head. Oh, really? What's that?
I'm finding it hard to believe we're in season 11.
You know, like in heaven, you know, it's Friday.
But it went through my head and I'm thinking like, really? Season 11?
(01:33):
Yeah. It's hard to believe, isn't it?
Yeah. I mean, it's been, you know, it's been what? Three years now?
Well, are we coming up on four?
I don't even remember. I don't know. Coming up on the third year.
So, yeah. The end of the third year or the beginning?
I want to say that we started like around February, February, March, I believe.
(02:00):
It was March, yeah. I just don't remember what year.
So, it would have been. All right. So, it would have been in 2021.
Right no 2020 2020 yes
all right so we'll be finishing our third year yes yes we will so in three years
(02:25):
we have done over 150 episodes yeah we are now in the 11th season so,
I think we've done very well. Yeah, it's been pretty interesting.
We saw some good growth last year, and it's going to be hard to top this year, I think.
(02:49):
But look who we're kicking it off with, Artemis Kyle.
So that's a great way to keep the attraction going.
Yeah, Artemis was gracious enough to come back and talk about his new project.
And you know it's so i
said it last time when we talked to him it's so
(03:11):
strange talking to someone as iconic
as him well you know last time we
interviewed him the album was
just starting to be you know
recorded and they were choosing the collaborators
you know who's going to sing free bird
was the big mystery you
(03:34):
know yeah and and he
kind of left us with that cliffhanger and now
of course we know it was dolly carton that's right yeah yeah but now we also
know because the anthems is being released this friday on groundhog's day i
might add february 2nd yeah so now we you You know,
(03:58):
we know who is singing, like, all of the anthems.
And I think that's a really cool title.
I really want to ask him about that and, you know, how they chose that title or who chose the title.
It's really very fitting, I think, for the work that's on there.
Yeah, I know they have some pretty, I mean, you mentioned Dolly,
(04:21):
and I know there's some other really great collaborators on there.
Yeah, Sammy Hagar and Simple Man. That's right.
And I think I saw that Ronnie Dunn was on there from Berkshire and Dunn. Yes.
I remember who else off the top of my head. But anyway, we'll talk to Artemis about that. And-
(04:41):
get his input on what you know
who all was on it and you know
some of the stories on getting them to
be on it i think a difficult thing
in this interview that we're getting ready to
do with him will be you know gary rossington's
passing and how he feels
(05:03):
about that in light of you know
gary was is on the album and it's in
that way i'm sure it's very sad that he is
not here to see the album drop on friday yeah yeah that's it that is uh you
know unfortunate but i'm sure it'll uh give us the whole rundown on what happened
(05:25):
with that well artemis is fascinating i mean you know I have to say,
like, surviving a plane crash,
not once, but twice. Right.
I mean, getting shot, yes. Yeah.
And still, you know, like, I would never get back, well, you know,
(05:50):
I would never get back on a plane if I survived, you know, one plane crash.
I'd be like, okay, you know, I was so lucky because the chances of survival are not that high.
And then to do it a second time and survive, I mean, you know,
he is an amazing person, despite his talent for drums and, you know,
(06:14):
all of the other things, like, that are related to the music career.
I mean, just in his perseverance, you know, I think I find that very motivating and very interesting.
It's just very odd to me.
Yeah, I'd be interested to, I mean, I don't know how he gets around these days,
(06:35):
like if he, you know, if he does fly a lot or if he.
Spends his time on the bus and stuff. So be interested in hearing about that.
And what is, you know, if he is like you, you said you wouldn't get back on a plane.
So I wonder if he's a little averse to that. But we'll see.
Well, I didn't, I know he talked about this in the last, the last time we interviewed
(07:00):
him, but didn't his father die in a plane crash? He did, yes.
So, I mean, you know, like that would be just, So I could not,
I could not be on a plane if, if all those things happened.
I just, you know, I just know that about myself.
I, I couldn't do it. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, I don't know.
(07:24):
We'll find out what, what his feeling is about that. Yeah.
Well, I find it fascinating. You know, I'd love to have a little bit of whatever
that is that, you know, I don't know if it's bravery.
I mean, I don't know what it is. Would you get back on the plane? Yeah, probably.
Maybe not like right away, but, you know, I probably would. I can't,
(07:48):
you know, I just can't see it.
I mean, you know, you got to do what you got to do sometimes. Yeah.
I just, you know, I just don't think I could, but I admire it.
I mean, and, you know, as far as Artemis goes, his band plays all over the world, I believe.
(08:09):
So, I mean, he kind of has to.
Yeah. I mean, it is, I'm sure, a major part of being an entertainer and having
to get from place to place.
But even at that, you know, there's just limits to what my mind,
it would be constantly going through my mind.
(08:31):
And I just know that I would just be traumatized I think that's how I feel I
would be and two times maybe like the more it happens to you the more you think like I'm invincible.
It's not meant for me to happen you know
(08:52):
to die this way but my mind's not wired
like that so I'm gonna you know
I think I'm gonna going to post this in the backstory group
tonight after the episode just to
see what the listeners think when they get back on
the plane or not good question you think yeah yeah
i guess that is a good idea you know good question i think i know what the outcome
(09:16):
will be but you know what more use than me i would think that more people would
not more means than you i think yeah probably way. Yeah, I think so too.
Um, but you know, you got to admire the use.
I do. I admire Artemis and I look forward to hearing this whole story because
(09:42):
it's been a while and now it's like we were, you know, being teased to see,
and now, you know, now we get all the answers. It's like, great. I can't wait.
Yeah. Um, you know, our last interview with him was pretty short.
This one will be a little bit longer. I'm hoping.
Yep. I feel like he's just going to open right up to us.
(10:08):
We have that effect on people. That's right.
Well, let's jump in and talk to Artemis about his upcoming project, Anthems.
And then we'll get into some of the other stuff and see what he has to say.
Let's do it. We've been working on this thing for years. It seems like years.
(10:29):
But when you're working with 14 different artists
and 14 different managers and 14
different record companies and 150 different lawyers for all these people it
takes more time than we thought but it it was worth it because i got gary rossington
you know who we lost six months ago So, yeah,
(10:53):
the biggest thing for me, there's two points I want to make.
One is it was really difficult navigating Nashville and all of the shenanigans
that go on in Nashville with the lawyers and the managers and all the wannabes
and the butt kissers and the brown nosers.
(11:15):
But it was worth it because we got,
you know, I worked really hard to get Gary Rossington on three bird with Dolly
and it happened and we got it done after Gary was lied to by the management
company that Dolly had pulled out of the,
you know, pulled out of the project and it wasn't true.
(11:37):
None of that was true. They were just trying to ruin it for everybody.
But we got Gary on there with Dolly, and then we lost Gary about six, seven months ago.
The last founding member of Leonard Skinner, and it left me as the last living
member of Leonard Skinner.
And it's not something I'm bragging about, for sure.
(12:00):
It's not a good feeling. As a matter of fact, it's a bad feeling.
Our band has been together 15 years. We're not going to change what we do.
We go to these beautiful venues all over the country and these older theaters
that have been remodeled and fixed up and really cool festival sites all over
(12:23):
the country. And that's what we're going to continue to do.
We take Leonard Skinner music into places that the bigger bands,
they won't play someplace unless they get $200,000. And, you know,
unless there's 20 gigs in a row.
We recently did a gig in Rio de Janeiro, New Mexico.
It was a one-off. We drove five days on the tour bus to go out there and back.
(12:49):
We played one show with, you know, one of the country artists out there.
And and and there's no bands
that would do that they would they would you know demand a
certain amount of money they would demand this and demand
that and we just get on the bus and go
and even though our agency had no respect for us whatsoever by doing that to
(13:14):
us when they knew that it was hard on everybody the band the crew the driver
you know i i got rid of all of the agencies in in Nashville because they're, they're jaded.
Unless you're Taylor Swift, you know, they're not going to really pitch for you.
And now we're, you know, we're with a company out of New Jersey called Blue
(13:36):
Raven and Sean at Blue Raven, and they stand up for us.
You know, they, they are on our side and they're, they're about us.
And in Nashville, they just, they say anything
that they think you want to hear but you
know they have a hidden agenda so you
know we're very happy to have our agency in new jersey and and and you know
(14:02):
we we got the album done it's called anthems yeah and the you know the the worldwide
consensus is that it's it's a very solid good record with great players.
And of course, all the basic track is Brad Durden and Scott Raines,
Jerry Lyda, David Fowler, and myself, Artemis Gomer Pyle, USMC.
(14:27):
And we were the soundtrack. We were the basic track on every single song.
And we had Dolly's producer, Kent Wells, who's been with her for 35 years he
was our producer on this project and he he got me a big fat nashville drum sound
probably the the best drum sound i've ever had and uh their thunder and sonically,
(14:52):
you know the album is strong and rocks and the performances of of our band,
We got up to Nashville and they started saying, well, look, if we need this,
we'll just get some session players to play on it. And I said, no, you won't.
The basic track of APB is APB, the five of us.
(15:14):
We're not going to bring in a bunch of ringers.
We played this music for 15 years and we play it better than anybody in the
world. Right. So, you know, Matt and Matt.
But we're just going to continue to do what we do.
And the album comes out February the 2nd, which is Groundhog's Day coming up here.
(15:39):
There are 3 000 copies of
the album already out we
did about 1500 pre-sales starting last
year it seems like we've been working on this thing for eight years but the
pre-sales went out 1500 of them and then there are 1500 vinyls available and
(16:02):
i i would I appreciate y'all letting me rant here.
I want to make it perfectly clear that the majority of the money,
the lion's share of the money on this album goes to my rock and roll friends that are up in heaven.
(16:22):
I'm the last guy. I, you know,
and and it's like I wanted to do something that would make money for the children
and grandchildren of my my rock star friends that I always think about them
like in a parallel universe playing on the largest stage ever seen in the history of stages,
you know, and and I feel like, you know, the last thing I heard from Gary Rossington
(16:47):
is he texted me and said, Artemis, this album sounds great.
I love being able to play with Dolly on Freebird.
Ronnie would love it. The whole band would love it. They're looking down,
giving the thumbs up. You know, I love you. I love your family.
I love your brother. Can't wait to see you.
And, you know, because we were kept apart for years and years,
(17:10):
so there'd be more money for the management companies to steal.
And, you know, but Dolly on Freebird.
Was the impetus for bringing gary and
i back together as you know old friends that
toured the world together and played for the
rock and roll kings and queens of the planet and it
(17:31):
really it was it was really worth it for for that part of it for gary to be
on there with dolly two icons on an iconic song free bird and for gary and i
to be able to work on the project together and And I don't know if y'all know this,
but, you know, that was, that was the last thing Gary Rossington recorded was
(17:52):
his slide solo with Dolly Parton, you know, on Freebird.
Wow. I did not know that.
It's on her album, Freebird, number 30.
Yeah. And it's, of course, on our album as well. So, excuse me,
I interrupted you. No, no, you're fine.
I was just curious. It's like, so you said the management had kept you apart,
(18:16):
but so you didn't see each other very often? Is that true?
Oh, absolutely true.
You know, I was, of course, poisoned because of, you know, all of the false
allegations that had been posed against me.
And if any of that stuff would have been true, I'd be in prison right now.
(18:39):
But, you know, none of it was true. I'm not in prison.
I've never hid under a rock. I've always been in the public eye. Yeah.
And, but the management company, they turned their back on me.
And there was a, there was a time when the band, you know, was so into a gluttonous
consumption of cocaine and alcohol.
(18:59):
They didn't care about me, our friendship, my life, my family, anything.
The only thing that that they cared about was the next, you know, line of cocaine.
And that was, that was years ago. That was years ago and in all fairness,
but there was a time when they told me that I saved their lives in the plane
crash and that I certainly needed some moral support on my side going through a false accusation.
(19:26):
And they let, they left me for dead because they had this gluttonous drug and alcohol problem.
You know, I'm not, it's not sour grapes. I'm only saying the truth.
And I forgave everybody for everything. And, you know, we're just,
we were just trying to do something good, positive for the name of Leonard Skinner and we did it.
(19:49):
And Gary was a part of it. And I will, you know, be forever thankful that the
project brought us together because it wasn't ever about money for me.
It was always about the music and Gary was about the music, but everybody surrounding
him, a very sinister crowd of crooks. It was about the money.
(20:11):
And Gary was only 71.
And to me, they worked him to death. He had like seven heart attacks and heart problems.
And they would always like, you know, beg him to go back out on the road so
they could make that damn money.
And, And, and, and so it finally took its toll, but Gary's service,
(20:32):
I was there with my two guitar players, Gary and I mean, uh,
Jerry and Scott, and it was a, it was a very dignified service.
There was a thousand people there from all over the world.
Everybody loved Gary and Paul Rogers from bad company spoke some really nice words about Gary.
Simon Kirk was there, the drummer for bad companies. Well, they're, they're old friends.
(20:55):
Yeah. Travis Tritt sang a song for Gary.
Kid Rock was there representing, you know, showing his love for Gary.
And all of Gary's famous, beautiful guitars were all over the chapel next to
pictures of his grandchildren and children and his family.
And it was a very dignified service.
(21:19):
Service and you know gary and i
and the whole band we used to love watching andy griffith and as you were leaving
after gary's service was over in the chapel and we were going to go to graveside
as you're leaving the chapel they were blasting the theme song to the andy griffith show.
(21:42):
And and it was so awesome i mean it brought tears to my eyes because you know
even on our bus today with APB and we play Scannard music better than any band in the world.
Even on our bus, before we go on stage, on our bus we always have Andy Griffith playing.
(22:03):
While we're getting ready, you know, and gearing up to go out and putting on
our, you know, our in-ear monitors and getting wired up and everything.
We got Andy Griffith on there because it just makes you feel like you're home, you know?
And so, yeah, we miss Gary pretty badly, guys.
Yeah, he was certainly quite the guitar player, for sure.
(22:26):
And I'm sure you have lots of great memories of touring with him.
And I'm curious, like how, how did
the meeting go when you saw him for the first time in such a long time?
Oh, we didn't actually meet. We talked about, you know, getting together for
lunch, you know, no lawyers, no,
(22:47):
no, uh, you know, wannabes, nobody, but just Gary and I, we talked about,
you know, that, that, that would happen. And then, of course, Gary passed.
But, you know, we never actually physically got together because I knew the
way to handle it to get Gary on Freebird with Dolly was to let Kent Wells,
(23:10):
who was a respected producer and Dolly's friend of 35 years in Nashville.
I was going to let Kent, you know, make that happen.
And I worked with Kent on one side and Gary on the other side and a third party,
a friend of mutual friend of Gary and mine.
(23:32):
A man named Timmy that grew up next door to Gary and I when I lived with Gary
at his place in Florida on the St. John's River.
And so we made it happen against all odds. As I say, Gary was lied to by people
telling him that Dolly had pulled out of the project and that I wasn't going
(23:55):
to pay any of the licensing fees on all these songs.
Well, that's just ridiculous. ridiculous. I mean, I'm going to work with Dolly
Parton and the top people in the business, and I'm going to try to steal Freebird from some,
not pay the licensing fees and the mechanicals, songs like that. No, hell no.
(24:16):
And as I said, I reiterate, all the money, the lion's share is going to go to
the children and grandchildren of Gary and Ronnie and Billy and Alan and Leon.
You know that's where the money's gonna go
we did this as a tribute my band did
we are a live band that's how
we make our living we get on the bus we go
(24:37):
to the gig we play the show people love us because we play the music so so sincerely
and not with a bunch of it's not like a circus act where we're running around
you know doing flip-flops and everything and we play the music and sing the words and the crowd,
you know, the, the people that come and see us, they really appreciate our presentation
(25:01):
that it's not some big, flashy, gaudy, you know, we're here for the money. Right.
So, you know, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
So you don't have a private jet at this point?
We have three Gulfstream 5s. Oh, okay, cool.
Yeah, and one of them's mine, one of them belongs to the crew,
(25:24):
and I let the band use the other one.
And, you know, we make a little money in the gigs, but it costs $2 million in fuel to get there.
Oh, Lord. no we we have a
we have a tour bus a 1999 prevo
we call her pearl she's pearl
(25:46):
white we bought her from lenny kravitz it's
a long story cool and she we
keep her clean as a pin we have a tight ship
we have a beautiful galley as i say you know
we keep her clean and she fast fast we found
out in texas that she's very fast and so
you know on a full moon at three o'clock in the morning on
(26:09):
one of those long texas straight highways you know
we we we found out she's very fast but no that's that's our home away from home
we're we're very comfortable on there uh we have a great driver our our driver
eddie drove for taylor hawkins he drove for uh billy gibbons from ZZ.
(26:29):
He's driven for everybody.
And he only lives about 20 miles from me out here in the country.
And it worked out great. We can sleep when he's driving. He's such a great driver.
We never worry about it at all.
And we have a backup driver, our guitar player, Jerry Lida. He is a great driver.
He drives slower than Eddie, but it's very steady and solid.
(26:54):
And I always know when I'm in my bunk, I know when Jerry's taken over for a
minute to let Eddie rest his eyes, you know, it's slower but very smooth.
So we're a well-oiled machine, our crew.
Of three, a ride with us, of course. So there's nine, nine of us on the bus
(27:17):
and everybody's got a, you know, a nice bunk.
We've lit them up really, you know, with all the, the lighting you can buy at Walmart.
You know, we, we, we, I think one guy's got a mirror ball in his,
in his bunk, but we're, we're very comfortable on, on the bus.
(27:38):
A lot of times when we stop to let our driver rest, we won't,
you know, like run him into the ground.
We'll get it. We'll get a room or two for the band to shower and use the restroom
and, you know, kick back and watch TV.
But a lot of the band members and the crew and myself included,
(27:59):
I'm more comfortable just staying on the bus and, you know, waiting for the
driver to get, you know, 10 or 11 hours of sleep.
And then we, you know, then we move on and we, the, the band,
all of these guys in my band are successful businessmen.
I'm 75 and they're like 60 and younger.
(28:22):
And they're, they're all, you know, they have a beautiful wives and children
and homes and businesses.
They're successful. they absolutely do
not need this band
to to make money i i
won't say you know they're they're independently wealthy but they but they they
(28:43):
are they've worked really hard for their wealth and and think their homes and
what have you and they deserve them but they love this music as much as i do
and they are so proud of this album and you know guys think about.
It the for for a few weeks ago for just a short period of time the dolly parton
(29:08):
album that we're on where we play freebird we're number 30 on her album yeah
what was like number one in the world on many formats yeah.
Because it's Dolly and it felt kind of good to be on a number one record in the entire world. Yeah.
And we're, we're, we, we wrote in on Dolly's coattails, but she's on our album as well.
(29:32):
We were the first ones to record with her on her new rock album.
And I told Dolly, I said, I'm going to vote for you in the rock and roll hall of fame.
And she said, well, I don't know if I should accept it because I'm not a rocker
and I don't know if I deserve it.
And I said, well, Dolly, you know, for goodness sakes, you're,
you're a humanitarian, number one in the world, you're a singer,
(29:55):
songwriter, movie star, you can play guitar as good as a man.
I said, but you're a humanitarian, you deserve everything.
And then she said, well, I guess this is the day that she played Free,
she played me her vocal on Freebird to our track that we recorded for her.
And I mean, to tell you, I cried like I boohooed like a baby.
(30:16):
It was so, so emotional. And that's before we lost Gary Rossington. Right.
And, and, and, you know, right. So anyway, she, she said, well,
Artemis and I put Three Bird on my album.
And I said, you know, the whole band said, I think unanimously,
we all said, yeah, it's Dolly.
(30:37):
It's Dolly. And of course, with our album, our tribute to Ronnie Van Zandt, his music and his band,
having Dolly on board on Freebird, that opened the doors to people like Sammy
Hagar and all the other great artists that sang on the album.
Because they're all like, yeah, I'd like to be on an album with Dolly.
(31:00):
And so with all of the trials and tribulations and the shenanigans,
We are very proud of our work and the work that was put in to finish this record
and finally get it out there.
As I say, February 2nd, Groundhog's Day, is the official release date.
(31:22):
And I did mention that there's already 3,000 albums that are out there.
So, you know, the horse is out of the barn.
What was your favorite moment recording that album?
Well, I know there's, you know, it's probably hard to pick one out, but.
(31:43):
Well, no, I mean, absolutely. It's pretty easy for me.
You know, sitting there at the console with Dolly at Kent Wells Studios there in Nashville,
that moment where I heard her vocal for the first time and it made me weep,
you know, tears of joy, you know, tears of joy.
(32:05):
But it was very emotional.
And the fact that Dolly is such a great human being, and she put her arm around
me and gave me a hug and made me feel better.
Dolly is the best, and she's been married for many, many years to a great guy named Carl.
(32:27):
Dolly could be married and date anybody in the world, but she was loyal to the
person that she loved. And the person that she knew loved her for not the fact
that she was Dolly Parton.
But the fact that that, you know, Carl looked at her, this is my wife and I
(32:47):
love her very much. And they've they've always been in love.
And, you know, you know, we talked I talked to Dolly about Carl in the studio
and gave her a picture of the band,
me playing drums because I, you know, and I signed it to Carl because he he
always encouraged Dolly on the rock side of music.
(33:08):
Right and then when you know when she
decided to accept the rock and roll hall of fame nomination and
dolly doesn't do anything halfway you know she
she went out and and did 30 songs
with paul mccartney and ringo and elton
and every everybody all
the greats yeah you know dolly dolly on
(33:30):
her album and and we're so happy to
be included you know yeah so you
mentioned and dolly and sammy hagar and who
are some of the others are on the album lauren haynes
from almond brothers and government mule ronnie dunn from brooks and dunn he
sang sweet of alabama awesome billy ray billy ray cyrus okay a girl named lindsey
(33:55):
l from canada she's 33 hotter than a firecracker sweet as she can be guitar player singer yeah.
You know, reminds me of a Canadian Sheryl Crow.
Wait a minute. Sheryl Crow is from Canada. That's right. She is. Oh my God.
But Lindsay is an amazing artist and low-cash. I mean, you know, Lee Bryce...
(34:22):
There's so well there's 14 okay i
believe it's and of course one of the songs we wanted
apb to represent we had you know bradwell durden his i call him bradley and
he said no i'm actually a my name is bradwell i thought that's pretty cool that's
(34:42):
pretty cool but uh brad has a beautiful beautiful Southern rock voice.
He has a real voice, not one of those fake country rock grunts.
He's not a grunner. He's actually a vocalist with pipes and a real voice and
a vibrato and tone control.
(35:03):
And he sings in key and he has intonation.
And so he sang a song called on the hunt right on the album and you know we
couldn't be happier he as far as i'm concerned.
Brad it was right up there with all
of the other great vocalists that are on the record you
(35:24):
know he's his voice is is is a beautiful voice so and so is all of the the rest
of and billy ray cyrus man what a hoot i mean he's he's saying call me the breeze
right yeah and ronnie Ronnie sang Call Me the Breeze up in a higher register, and then J.J.
Cale, who wrote Call Me the Breeze, sang it in a lower register.
(35:47):
Well, Billy Ray sang it right in the middle.
He sang it like a common man, hitting the notes that a lot of people will hear
it and go, wow, I can sing along with that.
I can actually sing along with Billy Ray. faith.
What he did is he sparked new life into the song.
(36:08):
And I think he's made it, when it comes out and people start digging it,
it's like a new road song, you know? Yeah, cool.
You put the top back, you know, and you crank it up, your system up as loud,
and you go down the road and, you know, look at the ocean or the mountains.
And, you know, it's like a road song. So he's ad-libbing through the whole thing,
(36:33):
yelling, you know, yee-haw, and all this kind of stuff.
Man it's a hoot and i love it
i i really love it and you know ronnie
dunn from uh brooks and dunn yeah
he sings sweet home alabama and he the
the little southern rock twang that
he put on it was so cool yeah
(36:54):
you know like because he'd sing it with that sweet home
alabama right a little bit a little bit
of a twang in there yeah that you know ronnie certainly
from florida had a southern southern accent but ronnie didn't have a twang right
and and ronnie dunn has kind of opened that song up to a whole new audience
and so that's what we wanted to do we wanted to put modern technology and modern
(37:17):
recording techniques and all the latest stuff and getting that sonic sound.
That kent wells knows how to get and the big fat
drum sound that i got and that i'm happy we're
so so happy with and you know and put a
little polish on these songs and and put
them out there again because nobody can record these
(37:38):
songs better than they were originally recorded no band is
going to be better than the original leonard skinner no no
singer is going to sing ronnie van zandt's free
bird better than ronnie you know but it's
just we want to keep them in perpetude and and
put a little polish on them and and put
them out there and like a little renewed interest
(38:01):
in the songs because why because ronnie van zandt and his band and and his music
deserve it he deserves it and so that's why that's why we did it you know so
are you going to do anything special for the release or do you have any plans for that,
I don't know. I'd like to jump out of an airplane, you know, again.
(38:26):
My last jump was 14,500 feet. Wow.
Over North Carolina over there. I jumped with the Golden Knights from Fort Bragg.
Yeah. Of course, it's a different fort. What do they call it now? Fort Liberty?
Yeah, something like that. They changed the name, but yeah, the Golden Knights
jump team for the Army. me, they're, you know, I'm a Marine and I'll guarantee
(38:49):
you the, the, uh, jump school that they have out there for the golden Knights.
These guys are absolutely amazing.
I, I, I would trust them, you know, to jump out of an airplane anytime at all.
And they, they were my jump team when I, when I did my last jump and I never
(39:11):
thought I'd jump out of a perfectly good airplane, but I did.
It why well it
was it was a hoot you know that that
last second just before i released and let myself
fall into space you know up until
that point i wasn't uh nervous at all and
(39:33):
that one split second before i dropped out of
the plane i thought to myself what in the hell am i doing you
know and but once i was airborne and
and and you know and looking at
the planet and saw the the curvature of the earth and
and and you know i was in free fall it was incredible man i i loved it i i absolutely
(39:56):
loved it so was that like was that like a bucket list item for you oh no no
i i'll do it i'll do it again it it was you know it was something that i always wanted to do,
You know, I didn't get to take jump school in the Marines because I was aviation
electronics and I worked on A4C Skyhawks. Uh-huh.
(40:19):
And I flew the back seat of the A4C Skyhawk trainers, the A4TFs.
I remember you talking about this last time a little bit.
A4Ts. And that was my dream was to fly jets for the Marine Corps.
But I'm sure I told you last time after my father was killed in a mid-airplane
collision in Albuquerque, the dream changed.
(40:41):
And I went from being a captain in the Marine Corps flying jets to a drummer
in a rock band called Inner Skinner.
So like life life throws
you some some curves sometimes quite a transition well
cat what do you got yeah so anthems i think is like a really iconic name for
(41:04):
this album i do i i love anthems how did you decide which songs you were gonna
put on there Oh, that's hard.
I mean, you know, you got to do Sweet Home. You got to do Free Bird. You got to do Simple Man.
The rest of the songs, just kind of as the artists that were available.
(41:26):
I mean, you know, we wanted Bob Dylan because he loved Ronnie Van Zandt and
he talked about Simple Man all the time. We wanted Neil Young because Ronnie
and Neil were going to write music together, but Ronnie was killed.
So that ended that we, I wanted Jack White out of Nashville,
you know, to, to come on board.
But scheduling is really hard when you've got all the different bands and artists,
(41:52):
you know, they, they're just like us. They've got gigs, they have commitments.
Everybody that was available and willing to be a part of the project,
we welcomed them with open arms and made the set list around them.
We could have done a quadruple album.
(42:16):
We had to, you know, confine it, you know, because it's very expensive to do
something like this, too.
Sure. And, you know, none of
us have money to burn, but it was really important for us to get it done.
And with the help of our record company and, you know, they're called Get Joe
(42:40):
Records. They're out of Texas. us.
And they went through all the headaches that we went through.
And, you know, they weren't really used to dealing with Nashville.
They didn't realize that there's a lot of shenanigans. And, you know,
our management company out of Nashville, under the circumstances,
did the best that they could, you know, our PR people.
(43:03):
And so, you know, all is forgiven.
We got it done. It was worth it. It's a great record. It's an incredible tribute record to Ronnie.
I got to get Gary on there with Dolly. And so, you know, in answer to your question, Kat,
the songs after we got Dolly and Ronnie Dunn and, of course, Sammy Hagar on board,
(43:31):
everything just kind of mapped out a natural progression, everybody that was available.
And we had people from Canada, we had country people, we had rock people.
So it's a very different tribute record.
And I can tell you from the band's point of view, it is sincere and from the heart.
(43:55):
So do you feel with Gary's passing and now you being the one that's left to
carry on the legacy, do you feel like...
An increased duty, I guess, to do that?
Absolutely, Kent. I mean, you
know, I always stayed for a couple of hours after our shows and I signed,
(44:18):
you know, old albums and people bring me pictures of Ronnie and the band and,
you know, and ticket stubs from, you know, coming to see us play in the 70s,
you know, where the tickets were like $6,
you know, and, and, and I, so I always felt a duty anyway,
(44:40):
because the rest of the members weren't as accessible as I, and I love meeting
people. I love hearing the stories.
And I, you can imagine, I've heard hundreds of stories of people,
a lot of bikers that bury their friends to Freebird.
And, you know, somebody's high school prom theme was Simpleman,
(45:04):
you know, and Freebird and just all of the different applications to life that people used.
You know, Ronnie wrote Simpleman for his mother and his grandmother, mother and I knew them.
And a lot of people relate to that. You know, listen to what your mom tells you.
(45:25):
You know, she's not going to, your mom, in most cases, is not going to steer you wrong.
So these songs are part of the fabric of not only America, but the world.
I get feedback from all over the world about their Skinner songs.
There are fans of Ronnie Van Zandt all over the planet. it.
(45:47):
And so, yes, my sense of duty has been heightened, you know,
and I'm just going to continue to do what we've been doing.
And that is, you know, going out and playing the music live and taking the music
in smaller towns and smaller venues.
You know, it's small. I mean, we play festivals, 40,000 people,
(46:09):
50,000 people, but we play a lot of the theaters that have been,
restored all over America, up north in the northern states,
all those old theaters that were
just beautifully done, that sat empty for years and just went to seed.
And the city fathers realized that they were diamonds in the rough and went
(46:32):
back in, completely restored them.
And they're acoustically beautiful. I love playing these theaters. Yeah.
A lot of them, most of them have come back with state-of-the-art sound and lights.
And you're already in a place that was built acoustically.
So we get to play those and the outdoor festivals and huge amphitheaters sitting on lakes.
(46:57):
And up in Minnesota on the Finger Lakes, the Glacier Lakes up there,
they just built a brand new facility.
We played there three times called Arnold's Park.
Park and it's it's right on the old glacier
finger lakes up there and the water is
crystal clear the venue is state-of-the-art uh
we just played there last year last summer and
(47:20):
and and and it was sold out we just played in rochester new york for the jazz
festival on a friday night we had 10 000 people wow and and i almost cried when
i got off our bus and walked onto the stage and walked out there and looked
out, I thought there'd be a couple thousand people.
(47:40):
But, you know, and it's when Rochester was under all that smoke coming from
Canada, you know, because Canada was on fire.
And, you know, Rochester's right there on the border and there was a lot of
smoke in the air. And I thought, well, there'll be a couple thousand people.
But there was 10,000 people street to street, street to street,
you know, outdoor, you know, right in the middle of downtown,
(48:03):
town, surrounded by the city.
It was beautiful. And I saw 10,000 people, a sea of people, and I literally got emotional.
And we put in one of the best sets we've ever put in.
So, you know, I'm never disappointed by the people that show up.
(48:26):
Love the music because people from all walks of life, young people,
I mean, children and the older people like me, you know, 75 and above,
they all have a favorite Skinner song.
Probably the last five presidents of the United States of America have had somewhere
in their heart a favorite Leonard Skinner song.
(48:48):
You know, that means a lot to me. So, and, you know, think about Ronnie One
of the greatest movies of all time, Forrest Gump, you know, and Ronnie had two
songs in that movie, Free Bird and Sweet Home Alabama.
And, you know, remember when Forrest was teaching Jenny how to dance?
And it was Sweet Home. Yeah.
(49:10):
So, you know, the music, it's it's an amazing phenomenon, because no matter where I go,
what little town in Texas or anywhere in America, there is a band that covers
Leonard Skinner. There's a Leonard Skinner tribute band.
I'm serious. Almost in every city of this country.
(49:31):
And I've played with many of them. And some of them are really good.
They put a lot of work into the music.
And then some of them are not quite as rehearsed. But the spirit is still there.
They still play these songs with everything they've got.
And they're playing with me. So, you know, they're feeling like they have a
(49:57):
connection to the real Leonard Skinner that they grew up and admired and loved.
But, you know, 15, 16 years ago, I got tired of playing with 200 different bands.
And I wanted to put something together that was solid. And Brad and Jerry and
Scott and I put the band together.
(50:17):
And Dave came along later, has been with us for quite a few years.
And we are a well-oiled machine.
And everybody that hears us really enjoys the presentation.
A couple of places in the show we do acoustic. We break down to acoustic,
no drums, just some percussion in the background, some chimes.
(50:40):
And Jerry and Scott and Brad do beautiful three-part vocal harmonies on Tuesday's Gone.
And all I can do is write about it, you know.
And it gives everybody in the audience a chance not to be bombarded,
you know, by, you know, because we rock.
And we bring it. You know, we bring it. We are not timid. And we are ferocious.
(51:05):
We are a ferocious band. It's a perfect venue for you.
So the next time you come back or you're planning a tour back to Kentucky,
you need to be at the train station in Corbin, Kentucky.
It's a nonprofit and they do a lot of arts for veterans as like healings and
(51:29):
therapy, that kind of thing with art.
So, you know, and it's also one of those charming little venues like you're talking about.
So, you know, I love that cat.
We just played last year with my son's band, Pile Tribe.
We played Corbin and that's the home of Colonel Sanders. Right.
And and so I met Colonel Sanders when I was a little kid.
(51:54):
Because I'm from Tennessee and Kentucky, and we traveled those old roads before
I-75 went through there.
And the place that we played was the old Ice House, that big,
cool venue there in Corbin, the Ice House.
And it was a wild place. And we had a nice crowd. It wasn't packed or anything.
(52:16):
But, you know, I'm from Kentucky. I was born in Louisville. and recently,
you can edit this out if you want to, August 30th, I had back-to-back cancer
surgery, prostate cancer surgery.
And, you know, that was just in August, August 30th.
And I am a Marine. I drank the water at Camp Lejeune.
(52:39):
So when the doctor told me that I had a little prostate cancer,
my vet doctor, they take good care of me.
And I wasn't surprised at at all. I said, well, doctor, I'd be surprised if
I didn't have cancer because, you know, the fact is, you know,
I'm a Marine. I was stationed at Camp Lejeune four times.
I went there, you know, as a kid in the fifties, I went there to visit my uncle
(53:01):
who was a Marine first sergeant from the Korean war.
My family would stay with his family on base and drink that water.
So I would have been surprised if I didn't have cancer. Now, I'm fine.
The surgery that I opted for, robotic surgery, and I said, I don't want to mess
around with it. I want it all taken out.
(53:23):
So they did. I'm fine.
Then like right halfway through the there's
a point to my story right halfway through healing up
i took the month of september off to heal up
properly and my first show was in elizabethtown kentucky outside of louisville
there e-town yeah and i didn't want to miss any of the shows that was october
(53:47):
6th and i didn't want to miss any shows because you know we got dolly on there and I didn't,
we're promoting the new record and I, I didn't want to miss anything.
So I'm healing up and halfway through my healing at four o'clock in the morning,
I had a massive heart attack and they rushed me to Hickory, North Carolina,
(54:09):
20 people jumped on top of me and took all my clothes off and,
and shot me up with morphine and saved my life.
And they put a stent you know they
they put a stent through my femoral artery and and
you know now i'm on heart medication and everything
(54:30):
i take statin and the blood thinners and all
that stuff but i'm fine and i know why i had the heart attack because i was
put under tremendous stress with this album yeah all kinds of people up in nashville
lying about this and lying about that you know it was it was driving me crazy
you know why can't people just tell the damn truth You know,
(54:50):
we were trying to do something good for everybody to help everybody.
And, you know, we got all these people trying to take in cheap shots at us and
they didn't succeed. They did not succeed.
But, you know, having back to back cancer surgery and then a massive heart attack,
you know, all within like a month, you know, I was worried about whether I would
(55:12):
be able to play the way I should play.
But October 6th, I was at a beautiful theater in Elizabethtown, Kentucky,
and the band told me—I've done 30 gigs since, by the way, I never missed a single
gig—and the band told me that I'm playing as good as ever.
(55:34):
You know, I just use smaller sticks because I use a 5B stick,
a Vic Firth Wooden Tip 5B, which is a pretty meaty stick.
And I just pulled back to a Wooden Tip 7A's.
And, you know, I take all of my cramping. I drink pickle juice. I eat my magnesium.
(55:58):
I use TheraWorks for cramping. I take my medication. I journal all of my medication.
I take my own vitals every single day.
I don't miss it because I have eight children and grandchildren,
and I play music with them.
I'm not worried about my health. I'm fine. I'm going to be great.
(56:20):
I am great as far as my health, but I am 75 years old. So I realize now that
I have to watch what I eat even more.
I was always a vegetarian and I ate, you know, it's, you know,
if I needed protein, I would have some white fish or white turkey,
you know, to bring my level up a little bit.
(56:43):
I'm not anal, but I'm basically a vegetarian.
And, you know, I, I'm not a cigarette smoker. I do not smoke cigarettes.
Wink, wink, wink. but, but, you know, that's, that's been me. That's always been me.
I'm a, I'm a liberal hippie and, you know, my band are conservatives,
(57:05):
you know, and, and if we can get along on that bus for thousands of miles,
which we do, we're all good friends. I love those guys.
And, you know, I agree to disagree with them.
They know how I feel about, you know, politicians and we agree to disagree.
(57:26):
I'm not trying to ram anything down their throat, and they're not trying to
convince me of anything.
The only thing that we do when we get on that bus is we go out and we play Lynyrd
Skynyrd music for Lynyrd Skynyrd people that love good music.
And we agree on that, and people love it. So I thought I'd just let you know.
(57:47):
I haven't said this in any of my interviews, but I'm telling you guys,
and you don't have to use it. But I'm fine.
And I wouldn't want, you know, any of my people that and I do have enemies,
the people in Florida that that, you know, that plane crash survivors that that
(58:08):
have their own conspiracy theories of what happened.
Nobody knows what happened on that plane from the perspective of the pilots
and being a pilot other than I do.
And most people were knocked unconscious.
I was never knocked unconscious. I've had three airplane crashes,
you know, I've survived three of them.
(58:30):
And I did go for help in the crash site for the Leonard Skinner crash.
You know, I did get shot. And all of these people, they weren't there.
They weren't there. They don't know what happened. I know what happened.
They're just speculating and guessing.
And they're all these big experts. Let them let them flap their lips.
(58:52):
I don't care. I know what happened. I told them the story in a movie.
That movie was accurate, except for we had to use a different airplane because
we couldn't afford to rent.
And rent one of those big tricycle landing gear
like we used right like we had so we
used a tail dragger a c-117 which was
(59:13):
we called them goonie birds in the marine corps and they have a very safe flying
record but they have a good looking cockpit and cabin area they're twin engine
and they sound good they got that big growl like our plane had so you know that's
what we use that's But other than that,
the movie was accurate. My son wrote music for it.
(59:33):
My band wrote music for it. My friend wrote music for it.
We were very proud of the movie and the soundtrack under the circumstances.
It was no easy task either.
And nor was Anthems. And, you know, Kat, what you said about Anthems, I love that name.
We didn't come up with that. Our management company and record label came up
(59:56):
with that, and I love it because the working title was honoring the music of
Ronnie Van Zandt and his band,
and I'm lucky to be included.
Well, anthems is true because Ronnie didn't just write hit songs or hit albums.
He wrote anthems that will be here a thousand years from now.
So, you know, I agree with you, Kat, and thanks for pointing that out.
(01:00:20):
Well, one more thing to point out to you. After the first time we had you on,
several months later, we had Jared Kahn as a guest.
And he's a movie director and we
had no idea that he had directed your
movie so we asked him you
know like what's the favorite movie that you've directed and he
(01:00:43):
picked yours and we're like oh my goodness you know we we have interviewed him
and he's like oh i love artemis and i love this story and so it's a small world
in that way but i wanted you to know that he didn't say that was his favorite movies ever directed.
Well, that is so cool. Jared Cohn is a great guy.
(01:01:04):
And, you know, he and I wrote the screenplay for the movie.
I flew out to California five, six times working on the movie.
And when I first went out there after they asked me to do it,
Cleopatra Films, I spent two 11 hour days with Jared.
(01:01:25):
Jared, you know, we work, working up the story and, and me reliving it.
And I mean, I, I, I was yelling and screaming and punching walls and laughing
and crying and, and, you know, just, I mean, it was intense.
It was very cathartic, but it was an intense thing to go through for Jared,
(01:01:46):
you know, him seeing the emotional impact that it had on me,
but we got through it and, and out of Out of the screenplay,
he was able to write his movie.
He was able to write the script.
We had a budget of $1,800,000. The whole time we were doing it,
(01:02:10):
we were being sued by $1,000-an-hour blood-sucking weasel attorneys.
In the end, we won in the circuit court. Three judges unanimously told the other side that Mr.
Pyle has a right to tell his story, so shut up.
And we finished it.
(01:02:31):
But it did cause a lot of problems in working on the movie.
And we ran into shenanigans on anthems as well.
Well but you know all all you
can do is just try to navigate through
and try to see light at the end of the
tunnel and and i always i keep
(01:02:55):
that light out there i keep the carrot in front
of the donkey because you know to me the
way my feeling about music is the greatest gig i've ever done in my life will
be the next show you know and while we're playing the show the greatest greatest
song is the next song because there might be that golden magic moment that makes it all worthwhile.
(01:03:20):
And we get those all the time when the crowd sometimes sings louder than we're
on stage and we can hear the crowd.
And it's a phenomenon. It really is wild.
And we love those magic moments. They're golden.
So Artemis, you got the album coming out and you're going to be touring, I assume, this year?
(01:03:44):
We never stop touring, Matt. We're always touring.
We're not like bands that you have big budgets that go out for six months and
play every arena and every soccer stadium and every place in the world.
Uh we we don't do that but we go out
on the weekends warriors you know we
(01:04:07):
do thursday friday saturday sunday and you know
we take care of our driver we don't run him
into the ground and and we make sure
if we have to leave two days early to get
somewhere you know for the shows to begin that's
what we do we are dedicated and loyal
to this band and i am i i'm
(01:04:27):
loyal the guys are are loyal to the music and i'm loyal
to them so yeah we we we will
continue to tour exactly any any
other projects you have going on i'm working on an album with my son marshall
oh cool and we're going to record in winston-salem north carolina at a beautiful
(01:04:48):
studio that was just built built in a 1948 vintage building in downtown Winston-Salem,
30,000 square feet.
A friend of mine bought it and turned it into this unbelievable studio.
I've been in studios all over the world. This place is second to none.
I'll never record another album in Nashville, Tennessee.
(01:05:12):
And so my son Marshall's album will be in Winston-Salem. My son Chris's album,
we're going to record it as well.
Pile Tribe, that's my other band. I'm the drummer of Chris's band.
My son Chris is the lead singer and vocalist.
And he wrote all of the material. And so he's 52 now, and we rock.
(01:05:32):
I mean, we're a legacy band.
No other member of Leonard Skinner has children that are professional musicians,
and all my kids are. That's so cool.
(01:06:11):
All original apb southern rock
album and i guarantee you right now
i'll put it up against any southern rock album
ever put out all right and awesome our guys
our guys are good and so yeah yeah we
have we we have we were talking today
about a european tour going over and doing the festivals in the summer with
(01:06:35):
there's some interest in us coming over there wow because we don't demand $100,000
or $200,000 because we call our man, Leonard Stenard.
We're not greedy. We like to get paid like anybody else, but we don't mind earning our money.
(01:06:55):
And so I talked to Australia, Sydney the other day, and they would like us,
APB, to come to Sydney, Australia. Yeah.
We were on our way to Sydney, Australia on the 95-city world tour that we were
on when we crashed our airplane.
(01:07:16):
We were only five shows into a 95-city world tour ending up in Sydney, Australia.
So there is interest in us coming to Sydney.
There's an Australian, of course, playing there. We've got some interest in
playing the Hawaiian Islands.
We have a friend over there that would, you know, not just going to play one
(01:07:37):
show on the main island, but playing smaller places, even clubs all over the
Hawaiian islands. I love playing clubs.
You know, it's an intimate atmosphere. And I like people being able to be close
to the band and seeing what I do. I love showing off, you know.
(01:07:58):
I can tell. hell. We're thinking onward and upward.
And by the way, guys, Kat, Matt,
thank you for the questions because it gives me, affords me the opportunity
to, you know, to go there and let people know that we're not letting any grass grow under our feet.
(01:08:19):
We're going to move forward until it's time for me to get on one of my horses
and go right out into the pasture.
All right well we're gonna speaking of time we're gonna let you go because you've
given us an hour and we really appreciate it,
can't wait to see you guys you see us playing close by
(01:08:40):
come and see us we definitely will you can
come back and see us anytime you got
my telephone number so call me if you need me if something comes up
all right cat a cat if you've got something and like you're you know you were
talking about that gig in kentucky i mean we are we are a band we like to play
music and you know All of our stuff goes through Blue Raven Entertainment out
(01:09:06):
of New Jersey, a man named Sean.
He's a great guy. He believes in the band. He's got my back.
If somebody calls up and says, we'd like to have the Artemis Pile band,
but somebody told us that Artemis might be a bad guy.
Sean does not mess around like
they do in Nashville, where they cheese and fold up like a lawn chair.
(01:09:29):
Sean says to the people, hey, look, you know, whatever they said about Artemis
that is bad, it's not true.
He's a good person. He loves children. He loves his family. He loves his band.
He plays the music better than anybody else. If you pass, it's your loss.
So get on board or, you know, don't let the door hit you in the ass.
(01:09:51):
You know, that's the kind of agent you want on your side.
Yes, definitely. All right, guys. Well, thank you for your time.
Thank you so much, Artemis.
Great. Yes. And I did listen to Simple Man. Love that. That's great.
With Sammy Hagar, too. You can hear the hurt, the cry in his voice.
(01:10:14):
Do you know what I mean by the cry in a voice? Yes.
Elvis had a cry in his voice.
Dolly Parton has that cry in her voice. and you can hear in phase performance
of simple man and he's you know he's showing out man he's doing that for Ronnie
and you can hear that that cry in his voice which means anytime I hear,
(01:10:39):
somebody go deep like that you know
I know that it's sincere so yeah the
Sammy did a great job on that you know and i toured with
sammy when i as i told you he was
in the band montrose ronnie montrose yeah and
um then sammy went on to uh you
(01:10:59):
know uh reach for the stars he still is
you know yeah but uh love you
love you guys stay safe stay warm and uh
hope to see you soon as always if you have any questions concerns or comments
you can send those to cat Matt at IWritePlaysAtOutlook.com or you can write
(01:11:21):
to me at BackstorySessions at gmail.com or Matt at Level11Ventures.
Music.
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