October 20, 2025 • 31 mins
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ronnie van Zant wrote that song after two of the
band members in a matter of days crashed their brand
new automobiles under the influence of drugs or alcohol, making
the point we're not going to have much of a
band when you guys all kill yourself yourselves living like this,
you don't think it'll happen to you. It will. Oddly enough,
(00:25):
they did die shortly thereafter, but when their plane crashed
over Gilsburg, Mississippi, on its way to a show in
Baton Rouge. Every time I mentioned its forty eight years
ago today, the greatest rock band in the history crashed,
leaving the real genius behind it, Ronnie van Zant and
(00:49):
Steve Gaines dead. What continued on can only be described
as their manager at the time, who survived but has
since passed since he did the interview with us back
in twenty thirteen as the best tribute band of all time.
But it is a tribute band. It's not Leonard skinnerd
any longer. But it was forty eight years ago. Today
(01:10):
when they're convet two forty, I think it was crashed
when it ran out of gas and killed half the
band in the process. But I always try to add
something every year to the story, because there are so
many stories behind this one. And it's been probably ten
years since I told this story, so I'll tell it again.
(01:32):
The most remarkable thing to happen on that day that
didn't get much attention is as follows. So Artemis Pyle,
who we've had on the show as a drummer, escapes
from the wreckage and he crawls out and he sees
his band members around him dead, some of whom would
(01:54):
survive were knocked out. There's blood and gore everywhere, and
he goes to get help. He is severely injured and
he is bloodied. So As he crawls from the wreckage
and he starts staggering to find somebody that might be
(02:17):
able to bring them assistance. He staggers through the woods,
severely injured, and he comes into an opening where he
spots a farmhouse. He starts heading toward that farmhouse, clearly
visibly bleeding heavily. The owner of the farmhouse, Johnny Motes,
(02:43):
sees what he is certain must be an escaped convict,
so he fires what he calls a warning shot. Now
I'll leave this to your judgment. I don't think anybody
faults him for what he did, but he fires what
he considers there's a warning shot above what he thinks
is the escaped convict's head, and he hits him in
(03:07):
the shoulder, dropping him. Whereupon, as he approaches Artemis Pile,
he doesn't know who that is. He listened to that
devil music. Says, I'm the drummer for Lenyard Skinnert. Our
band has crashed. We need help. The farmer believed him,
assisted him, called for help, and the rest is history.
(03:31):
But imagine your Artemis Pile. You've just survived an awful
car crash. You are in a bad way mentally and physically.
You are staggering to get help and maybe save some
of your band. There's a farmhouse. There's your help. As
(03:56):
you stagger toward the farmhouse, he comes out, raises his
gun and shoots you. Now you've been hit. This is
how I'm gonna die. I survived the crash, and this
is how I'm gonna die. Those stories always get me.
(04:17):
You know, the guy who makes it through the horrible
thing and then dies in the rescue. Yeah, I'm guessing
most people probably don't know that part of the story
because it gets lost in all the rest of the Lord,
but I've always found that a little bit fascinating to consider.
(04:38):
Forty eight years ago today, four thieves dressed up as
construction workers broke into Louver Museum in Paris, stealing French
Crown jewels that once belonged to Emperor Napoleon and his wife.
The story from NBC News.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
It all happened in just seven minutes, raised in daylight
heights at the most visited museum in the world, around
nine point thirty this morning, and tonight those thieves still
on the run. The robbery is so dramatic, like a
scene out of the Netflix show Looping.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Necklace, Belonta, Marie and Fournette. We're going to steal it.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
The Interior minister says. The experienced burglars used this ladder
mounted on the back of a truck, then broke a
window with a disc cutter, forcing their way in during
museum hours. The apparent target La Gallery da Poullon, on
the second floor, home to the French Crown jewels, smashing
two display cabinets, according to the Culture Ministry, stealing nine
(05:36):
priceless royal items in all, including a tiara, a sapphire necklace,
a single sapphire earring, an emerald necklace and a pair
of emerald earrings approach another tiara and corsage beau, both
belonging to fashion icon Empress Eugenie Napoleon the Third's wife.
In the gallery, the thieves left behind the one hundred
and forty cart Regent diamond, one of the Louver's most
(05:59):
prized possessions, and in the getaway it appears they drop
something on their way out. A crown belonging to Empress
Eugeny was found outside the museum.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
When you rob the Louver, that's a big deal to all.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
A from official say the operation was nonviolent, but tourists
already inside were evacuated and the museum shuddered for the
rest of the day and tonight the race is on
to find those responsible.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
They have cleared the Crosswall. Yeah, a girl was arrested.
She was reading in the Crosswald. I guess I thought
that would make a good visual that story about skinner
drummer Artemis Pile, emerging from the crash, staggering through the woods,
finds a farmhouse. The farmer comes out, thinks he's an
(06:54):
escaped convict because he's bloody, and shoots him in the shoulder,
comes and discovers, okay, he really is. He believes his
story helps him get assistance if he kills Artemus Pile, which,
by the way, nobody would have convicted him for that.
(07:18):
He had every reason to believe. You're out on a farm,
way out in the country, you got no backup. Nobody would,
his neighbors, a jury of his peers would have never
convicted him for that. And if he'd killed him, who
(07:39):
knows whether there is a call for help for the
band in time to save those who were saved. It's
a crazy story Jim and I were talking about during
the break. Different stories we've heard of friends who sustain
what they believe is a life ending injury. If I
(08:01):
give you one example, my friend Sundance Head. He's out
hunting by himself. It's been two years ago. Maybe gun
goes off in his belly. Now it was only a
twenty two, but I don't want to get shot in
the belly to you. And that thing is rooting around
in there and knocking around and ripping stuff up, and
(08:23):
he ends up walking. I need to confirm how far
he walked, bleeding out the whole while, but I know
he walked over a mile to get help and he did.
Shocking that he survived. And I bet there are a
lot of folks out there that have a story of
some accident where you were left for dead and you
were certain you were done, whether it was on the
(08:45):
battlefield or you got cut up by a propeller or
a gun went off. I knew some folks that were
out hunting. Guy's father in law shot at a deer,
missed him and quite the distance pass. That son in
law is in the truck and gets hit and he
(09:06):
never knew he was over there, or at least that
was the story. Maybe even like his son in law.
And you know, telling the story, it makes me think
about it separately. But if you've got such a story
seven one three nine nine nine one thousand seven one
three nine nine nine one thousand seven one three nine
nine nine one thousand. So if you watch any financial news,
(09:26):
and actually at this point it's bled into general news,
you know that that oil, that gold is at record prices.
It's going crazy. It's over forty three hundred dollars per
ounce right now. So I call Kenny Duncan Junior. They
do more gold than anybody and I said, is us
coins eighty four thirty five KD freeway. He's a show,
(09:50):
a sponsor of the show, and a good friend, has
been for years. And I said, so what are you seeing?
He said, it is madness. I've never seen it like this.
Give me an example, he said, Saturday morning, one hundred
and seventeen people were lined up before we opened the door.
One hundred seventeen people. And I said, who are these people?
(10:11):
I mean, these are these professionals? He says, No, it's
women forty to sixty years old and they've got they
don't know what it's worth, but they've got things that
they know are not worth much, if anything, to them,
and they're bringing them in like they've got a necklace,
a gold necklace, but it's broken. They haven't worn it
(10:33):
for years, or they inherited something that went in their
jewelry box because they didn't want to throw it away
because it belonged to mama. But they're never going to
wear it. It's broken, it's out of style, out doesn't
fit whatever. And they bring them in at forty three
hundred dollars an ounce. He said. One lady came in.
(10:53):
She had just a little bitty little bitty like a
charm what are those called? A little bity thin bracelet,
And it was worth over three hundred dollars, and she'd
brought some other stuff, but she could not believe that that.
She said, that's more than it was worth when it
was purchased, and it wasn't of great value because it
wasn't of great value when it was originally purchased, and
(11:14):
she was never going to wear it. So anyway, rather
than give you the phone number and overwhelm them, if
you have gold that you're never going to use and
you're holding on to it for sentimental values value, now
is the time. It's I ten between Chimney Rock and Voss.
Go see Kenny Duncan Junor and his family. It's called
us Coins, it said. Eighty four to thirty five Katie Freeway.
(11:37):
It's on the south side of the freeway. You can't
miss it. Standalone building. They'll probably have at least one
officer maybe today, probably maybe more out front. It's very safe,
very secure. They're good folks, big supporters of our show.
Eighty four to thirty five Katie Freeway. And here's the deal.
You can take your gold in there and you don't
have to sell it. You can say what's this worth
(11:58):
and they tell you, you know, it's worth twenty five
hundred dollars and you go, ah, that's okay. But if
it's going to be worth anything at some point, it's
gonna be worth money right now because gold is at
phenomenal rates. One other thing regarding a show sponsor and
Camp Hope, every month SPECS picks a charity of choice.
(12:19):
And even though the PTSD Foundation of America our wounded
combat veterans are not a charitable or are not a charity,
you do get a charitable deduction for anything that you donate,
so they deserve our support, I feel. But if you
give it is a charitable donation. If you are going
(12:39):
to restock your bar, please do it in the month
of October, because if you do it right now, while
you're there, at every checkout and other places, you can
make a donation. Our goal is to do one hundred
thousand dollars. That's what we did last year. We're at
sixty five thousand dollars today and we're two thirds through
the month, so I'm hoping that we'll raise one hundred thousand.
Last year did above that for Camp Hope. I can
(13:02):
tell you that Camp Hope donations go to helping veterans.
There's I think you're three percent overhead. It's the least
of any charity you're ever going to see. It is
dollars directly helping veterans, help veterans avoid suicide and cope
and get back on their feet. And so if you're
going to buy alcohol for any reason, especially if now's
(13:24):
the time to get ready for your Christmas parties, please
do it in the month of October. And please, while
you're there at a SPECS and there's one near you,
make a donation to Camp Hope. It makes a big difference,
and I appreciate you. So that is that. Now we
go to the calls Scott, what's yours? Go ahead?
Speaker 3 (13:41):
But grew up in central Wisconsin on a seven hundred
acre farm, and at the end of every season, when
you finish collecting all the crops in the field, you
rake your fields and you have a huge bonfire with
all the workers and neighbors, and it's always a big party.
We're sitting there his neighbors two miles down the road,
(14:02):
ambulance and fire truck go flying by. We just keep
drinking our beers and having a great time. Huge bonfire
going ambulance goes back. Next morning, we find out our
neighbor had a massive allergy to poison ivy. When we
raked the field, that smoke went into a window and
almost killed her.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Oh wow, wow, boys, and obviously nasty stuff. Bill, John, Gary,
the rest of you, hangtut. We'll get right to you.
It's the Michael Barry's shows, all right. Artemis Pile, the
drummer for skinnerd after the crash, crawled from the wreckage,
(14:42):
stumbled and staggered him through the woods, came upon a farmhouse.
The farmer shot him in his shoulder, believing he was
an escaped convict, didn't kill him, thank goodness, discovered that
he was the drummer for Skinnard and helped him get
help and get help to the crash site. So I
(15:05):
asked a question, tell me the story of when you
almost died. Bill, you're up, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Good morning, Michael. Longtime listener, first time caller. I was
probably about eleven years old. We were down in the
haller A bunch of us were just out, you know,
I had to say my age. Anyway, We was hunting
and we had stopped to take a rest, and I
had looked over to a friend of mine and about
that time he had his gun sitting on his leg
(15:32):
and it went off and I felt my head snap
back and didn't dawn on me at first what had happened,
But then I lost sight in my left eye and
then realized I've been shot in the head, and so
we all panicked, freaked out, and then we started. We
were in the holler about four almost five miles out,
(15:57):
basically holding everything inside my head, trying to get out
of the haller and we come to the first trailer
we came to, and uh, like I said, and we
knocked on the door, and you imagine a eleven year
old child standing there with blood and everything going everywhere.
And she pit me up, threw me in a car.
She took me to my house, believe it or not,
(16:20):
and then my parents called the ambulance and they came
to pick me up. They life flighted me to Children's
Hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas, and they did save my life.
Almost died, yeah, believe it or not. Michael, I have
had four close brushes with death. Uh So I truly
(16:40):
feel blessed that he has seen the effort of keeping
me on the surface, but was a major one. Yeah,
my left eye, Uh no, I lost it, lost sight. Uh,
it's there's remnants of it there. I didn't want to
completely removed. I thought that was just too at that time,
you know, being at a just too horrific to think
(17:01):
of that.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
But you know, he's hitt me here. So every day
my feet hits the floor is a blessing. Every time
I wake up and started day, it's it's a direct
blessing from them.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
So, so, who was the person who was cleaning the
gun when it went on.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
No, we were just sitting down and he had inadvertently
pulled the trigger. He was a very good friend of mine.
We no longer speak. I haven't seen him since since
that incident. I've tried to contact him, let him know that, hey,
you know, it happens, but I have had no contact
with him. But now, we were just sitting down, resting
and he had inadvertently, uh pulled the trigger.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
And uh, and that's when they hit me.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
That's wow, John, you're up, go ahead.
Speaker 6 (17:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (17:49):
Yeah, So this story is about my cousin's not about myself.
Speaker 6 (17:54):
But that's it.
Speaker 7 (17:55):
That's a true story as a teenager back of the
day before cell phones and before Highway six was as
developed as it is today. He was speaking on the
tunnel phone, on the payphone with his dad when he
(18:17):
was abducted by three former residents of the TDC and
he was with his then girlfriend. And so then they that,
the five of them, you know, took a ride and uh.
And while this ride they were they were assaulted by
(18:38):
these three guys. And he my cousin, having grown up
uh being with weapons, he and his dad were hunters.
He waited until opportune time he was able to get
(19:03):
the knife that these guys had, and and then he went.
He went to town on him and it was so
bad for one of them that his two buddies left
him out in the middle of Highway six.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Did he die?
Speaker 7 (19:26):
I don't know if he died or not, but happy
ending that, like I said, it was his He was
with his then girlfriend and they've been buried over thirty
years and they have a beautiful peobley.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
How about that. That's a hell of story though there
you're up what you got?
Speaker 4 (19:50):
Yes, Uh. Back when I was a junior in high school,
I was going to a football game and I ride
the motorcycle course, says dark. Late in the evening, we
had a wreck. Of course, I don't remember nothing after
the wreck. Everything disappeared from my brain from then. But
(20:10):
what happened was the county come out there. Of course,
I'm probably ten miles away from town. Either town, the
county comes out, they declared me dead, that already signed
the certificate of death, put my name on it and everything.
But somehow the ambulance service, I guess, finally got me
(20:34):
back to life and took me to sant Anton. I
spent about probably three or four days in the hospital
in San Tone. Of course, my eyes were messed up
then from that wreck, but I survived it.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Well, that's the hell of a story. Thank you for sharing. Mike.
You're up, go ahead, Yeah, can you hear me? I
can hear you, go ahead, Okay.
Speaker 8 (20:59):
It's about my brother back in nineteen seventy six, he'd
just got his first week on the job as a
manager at a pizza restaurant up on Antwine. He was
late one Sunday night. He was in there getting ready
to close. They'd locked the doors. There was still a
couple of customers in there talking to the assistant manager
and his roommate, and my brother walked up to tell
(21:22):
the two visitors it's time to leave. The one visitor
gets his gun out, shoots the assistant manager and the
assistant manager's roommate in the head and shoots my brother,
and he goes down. They go back in the back,
ransack empties the register and they come back out. They're
(21:43):
standing there over the assistant manager. He puts another bullet
in his head, finishes them all. Does the same with
the assistant manager's roommate, puts another bullet in his head.
My brother is laying there, conscious but playing like he's dead,
and the guy is standing over and he can hear
him there, and here's a gun click. The guy ran
(22:06):
out of bullets when it was time to finish off
my brother. They go to try to get out the door,
but the door's locked because the restaurant was closed. My
brother had the keys in his pocket. They had to
come and pick him out and pick the keys out
of his pocket so they could get out. So he
lived through all that. The assistant manager's roommate died. They
(22:30):
eventually caught the guy. He actually turned himself in. His
name was James Demashett and he was the venus man
on good brooded.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
For a while, suns Bill escaped from the ordinary.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Twenty eight years ago today, the greatest rockman of all
time as it stood, perished. Some members survived, but not
Running Evans nor Steve Gaines. The drummer, Artemis Pile crawled
from the wreckage, stumbled and staggered through the woods to
(23:09):
find a farmhouse where he could get help fro himself
and help for those who hopefully had survived the crash.
He came upon the farmhouse and the farmer saw what
he believed was an escaped convict, blood all over him
and rags, and he shot him in the shoulder, says
(23:30):
he was firing a warning shot. I don't believe it.
I think he shot the dude because he thought he
was a convict. Artemis Pile explained, no, no, no, I'm
with the band. The plane crashed. We need to get
help to them, and now I need even more help
because you just shot me in the shoulder. This is
like a movie. So I asked you for your close
calls with death, and we start with Mike. Mike, You're
(23:54):
on the Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 9 (23:55):
Make it quick, Good morning, I run a street dog
rescue out in the Sunnyside and one morning I was
loading up to go to work. I have my home
help nurse and I take dogs with me in the car.
One of my dogs got out went to one of
the yards where I had three dogs in it, and
he got in there, and you know, I said, well,
(24:15):
I just got to go break this up real quick.
But the other three dogs that were in the car
with me came into the yard. It was a pit bull,
of two pit bulls and a rock. I was in
the middle of a seven dog dog fight, and I
was like, oh my god. I was punching them, hitting them,
kicking them nothing. And I remember I just told myself
(24:37):
laying there running rolling around in bud and dog poo
poo and dog teeth in my face and all that stuff.
I said, so this is how you hear about people
getting killed by dogs. This is how it happens. And
I had a dude from Camp Hope who was going
to do some work for me. An Iraqi wore better
and I started screaming, like it's about eight fifteen in
(24:58):
the morning on Saturday. I just started screaming, screaming, screaming,
hell hell. He come into the yard and I square
hand to God Man. All of a sudden, I just
start seeing dogs fly through the air, and he got
them dogs off me. That was my first trip to
the VA for dog wounds. But yeah, if Adam hadn't
been there, the dude from Camp Hope, I think it
(25:19):
would I don't think it would have ended well for me.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Do you remember Adam's last name?
Speaker 9 (25:24):
Monkeys m O n k Ees.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
I'm going to send that over. I'm sure they would they.
Speaker 9 (25:30):
I ain't heard from him in a while. We lost contact,
and I think he had some trouble, but I hope
he's doing okay.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
David Mauls, being the guys there, will be able to
track him down, and I'm sure he will be delighted
to hear this story of how he helped.
Speaker 9 (25:43):
Out Mike ol Pastor Mallsby Mike and Sunnyside said, Hey, so.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
You're a home health nurse and you rescue dogs.
Speaker 9 (25:51):
I'm a home health nurse who I got a house
out in Sunnyside about eight years ago. It was the
first time I'd ever got a house. I was fifty
eight years old, and I just started see all these
damn dogs all over the place. That just like all
over So I said. At the time I was single.
I said, I ain't got no wife and I've got
no girlfriend. I can bring home as many dogs as
I want. That's what I did. And then over time
(26:14):
I became a five o' one seat three where Sunnyside
Street dogs and yeah, I'm a nurse.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Yeah no, I say that because there are just certain
people who have a personality that they help other you know, others.
You know, there's a if you want something done, ask
a busy person, they'll get it done. There's certain people
who just nurture, whether it's humans, dogs, everything and everyone
around you. God bless you. You're a good person. I
can I can tell that. Ron you're up. Go ahead.
Speaker 10 (26:43):
My dad seventy five years ago had a car wrecked
car before they had seatbelts, car rolled over his head,
skinned him almost live, spent four months setting up in
the hospital. Three years later, he working for as alignment
for the phone Come. He's on a high up on
the high line, on the high wire. He gets electrocuted.
(27:06):
Oh doctor, he gets electrocuted. A doctor living across the
street who happened to be home for lunch saw it happen.
He grabbed his hit, his doctor's kit, hauled an ambulance,
ran across the street, administered CPR, and first aid to
my dad. It had blown out his both of his
(27:27):
Palmley's hand, one buttocks and one cat and he got
him to the hospital. He spent another six months in
the hospital setting up because he was so messed up,
skin grasps and so two times he dodged death that
should have taken his life.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
My goodness, Ron, you should be a professional radio show caller,
because when I went to you, you went straight to
the story. It's about one percent of people do that
great story. And he threw buttocks in. Anytime you throw
buttocks in, you got everybody's attaching Steven like Forrest Gump. Steven,
You're up, Go.
Speaker 5 (28:04):
Hey, Michael's back. In nineteen eighty four, the company I
was working for was a steel and sheet metal fabrication
company and we got a job to refit the sheet
metal at a grain elevator. And one of the pieces
that goes as part of that grain elevator filtration system
is called the cyclone, and this sets up on top
(28:26):
of the grain elevator, well, the grain elevator we were
working at was already about two hundred and ten feet up.
The cyclone stood about twenty feet tall, and it set on.
Speaker 6 (28:36):
Top of that.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
And the only way to put the canopy on top
of the cyclone is to chain it off with a
big crane, chain yourself off to it, tie your leads
to it, and ride up with that cyclone, I mean,
with that canopy until the crane brought it over on
top of the cyclone. It would drop it down slowly,
then he would drop down and weld it in play. Well,
(29:03):
everything was going fine. They get the canopy above the
cycle about halfway over the cyclone, and instead of hitting
the down lever, the crane operator hit the freefall lever.
Immediately me and that piece of canopy went plunging down
to the earth. The only thing that saved me, my foreman,
(29:23):
who's kind of a Paul Bunyon type guy, six foot eight,
two hundred and fifty pound three hundred fifty pounds, happened
to be standing next to that crane. He was tall
enough to reach up there and hit that freefall lever
and turn it off. I was about fifteen to twenty
feet from hitting the ground, and as the closest I
(29:45):
came to losing my life.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Damn, Steven, you had me, you had me captivated on
that one, Larry, go ahead.
Speaker 6 (29:56):
Uh nineteen fifty eight. I was just eleven years old.
My father and I were breaking in a horse and
uh she was about a year and a half. They
had had the halter. I jumped on the saddle. She
reared up, I mean went straight up and fell on me.
The saddle horn went off my chest, thank god. But
the uh fall split my jeans, my LEVI jeans on
(30:17):
both legs. My father hauled me into Sugarland Medical and
the doctor's name was doctor Slaughter. But thank god, the
uh I just bruised every muscle around, every vertebrae in
my back.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Can you survive?
Speaker 6 (30:34):
Survived? Even though the doctor's name was Slaughter.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
What kind of horse was it?
Speaker 6 (30:40):
It was just a quarter horse. She was about a
year and a half and it was a you know,
a young colt. And we were thought we were gonna
bring man.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
I got tell you, uh, well, by the way, David
and Tim, I see you hold tight. The second we
go to break, I'll come to you. We'll record your call.
So just stay with me for a moment. I'd like
to hear. Horses are beautiful things. I've never spent as
much time as most people around them. We used to
trail rides when I was a kid, and I think
they're beautiful and I can appreciate them, and they're glorious.
But man, the number of people who get hurt around
(31:10):
horses is amazing. I mean, those are big, powerful beasts.
There is no way around that. They are glorious, but
big powerful beasts, and a lot of people get hurt
around them. I'm not against them, I'm just saying it's noteworthy.
It same as true of motorcycles.
Ronnie van Zant wrote that song after two of the
band members in a matter of days crashed their brand
new automobiles under the influence of drugs or alcohol, making
the point we're not going to have much of a
band when you guys all kill yourself yourselves living like this,
you don't think it'll happen to you. It will. Oddly enough,
(00:25):
they did die shortly thereafter, but when their plane crashed
over Gilsburg, Mississippi, on its way to a show in
Baton Rouge. Every time I mentioned its forty eight years
ago today, the greatest rock band in the history crashed,
leaving the real genius behind it, Ronnie van Zant and
(00:49):
Steve Gaines dead. What continued on can only be described
as their manager at the time, who survived but has
since passed since he did the interview with us back
in twenty thirteen as the best tribute band of all time.
But it is a tribute band. It's not Leonard skinnerd
any longer. But it was forty eight years ago. Today
(01:10):
when they're convet two forty, I think it was crashed
when it ran out of gas and killed half the
band in the process. But I always try to add
something every year to the story, because there are so
many stories behind this one. And it's been probably ten
years since I told this story, so I'll tell it again.
(01:32):
The most remarkable thing to happen on that day that
didn't get much attention is as follows. So Artemis Pyle,
who we've had on the show as a drummer, escapes
from the wreckage and he crawls out and he sees
his band members around him dead, some of whom would
(01:54):
survive were knocked out. There's blood and gore everywhere, and
he goes to get help. He is severely injured and
he is bloodied. So As he crawls from the wreckage
and he starts staggering to find somebody that might be
(02:17):
able to bring them assistance. He staggers through the woods,
severely injured, and he comes into an opening where he
spots a farmhouse. He starts heading toward that farmhouse, clearly
visibly bleeding heavily. The owner of the farmhouse, Johnny Motes,
(02:43):
sees what he is certain must be an escaped convict,
so he fires what he calls a warning shot. Now
I'll leave this to your judgment. I don't think anybody
faults him for what he did, but he fires what
he considers there's a warning shot above what he thinks
is the escaped convict's head, and he hits him in
(03:07):
the shoulder, dropping him. Whereupon, as he approaches Artemis Pile,
he doesn't know who that is. He listened to that
devil music. Says, I'm the drummer for Lenyard Skinnert. Our
band has crashed. We need help. The farmer believed him,
assisted him, called for help, and the rest is history.
(03:31):
But imagine your Artemis Pile. You've just survived an awful
car crash. You are in a bad way mentally and physically.
You are staggering to get help and maybe save some
of your band. There's a farmhouse. There's your help. As
(03:56):
you stagger toward the farmhouse, he comes out, raises his
gun and shoots you. Now you've been hit. This is
how I'm gonna die. I survived the crash, and this
is how I'm gonna die. Those stories always get me.
(04:17):
You know, the guy who makes it through the horrible
thing and then dies in the rescue. Yeah, I'm guessing
most people probably don't know that part of the story
because it gets lost in all the rest of the Lord,
but I've always found that a little bit fascinating to consider.
(04:38):
Forty eight years ago today, four thieves dressed up as
construction workers broke into Louver Museum in Paris, stealing French
Crown jewels that once belonged to Emperor Napoleon and his wife.
The story from NBC News.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
It all happened in just seven minutes, raised in daylight
heights at the most visited museum in the world, around
nine point thirty this morning, and tonight those thieves still
on the run. The robbery is so dramatic, like a
scene out of the Netflix show Looping.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Necklace, Belonta, Marie and Fournette. We're going to steal it.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
The Interior minister says. The experienced burglars used this ladder
mounted on the back of a truck, then broke a
window with a disc cutter, forcing their way in during
museum hours. The apparent target La Gallery da Poullon, on
the second floor, home to the French Crown jewels, smashing
two display cabinets, according to the Culture Ministry, stealing nine
(05:36):
priceless royal items in all, including a tiara, a sapphire necklace,
a single sapphire earring, an emerald necklace and a pair
of emerald earrings approach another tiara and corsage beau, both
belonging to fashion icon Empress Eugenie Napoleon the Third's wife.
In the gallery, the thieves left behind the one hundred
and forty cart Regent diamond, one of the Louver's most
(05:59):
prized possessions, and in the getaway it appears they drop
something on their way out. A crown belonging to Empress
Eugeny was found outside the museum.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
When you rob the Louver, that's a big deal to all.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
A from official say the operation was nonviolent, but tourists
already inside were evacuated and the museum shuddered for the
rest of the day and tonight the race is on
to find those responsible.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
They have cleared the Crosswall. Yeah, a girl was arrested.
She was reading in the Crosswald. I guess I thought
that would make a good visual that story about skinner
drummer Artemis Pile, emerging from the crash, staggering through the woods,
finds a farmhouse. The farmer comes out, thinks he's an
(06:54):
escaped convict because he's bloody, and shoots him in the shoulder,
comes and discovers, okay, he really is. He believes his
story helps him get assistance if he kills Artemus Pile, which,
by the way, nobody would have convicted him for that.
(07:18):
He had every reason to believe. You're out on a farm,
way out in the country, you got no backup. Nobody would,
his neighbors, a jury of his peers would have never
convicted him for that. And if he'd killed him, who
(07:39):
knows whether there is a call for help for the
band in time to save those who were saved. It's
a crazy story Jim and I were talking about during
the break. Different stories we've heard of friends who sustain
what they believe is a life ending injury. If I
(08:01):
give you one example, my friend Sundance Head. He's out
hunting by himself. It's been two years ago. Maybe gun
goes off in his belly. Now it was only a
twenty two, but I don't want to get shot in
the belly to you. And that thing is rooting around
in there and knocking around and ripping stuff up, and
(08:23):
he ends up walking. I need to confirm how far
he walked, bleeding out the whole while, but I know
he walked over a mile to get help and he did.
Shocking that he survived. And I bet there are a
lot of folks out there that have a story of
some accident where you were left for dead and you
were certain you were done, whether it was on the
(08:45):
battlefield or you got cut up by a propeller or
a gun went off. I knew some folks that were
out hunting. Guy's father in law shot at a deer,
missed him and quite the distance pass. That son in
law is in the truck and gets hit and he
(09:06):
never knew he was over there, or at least that
was the story. Maybe even like his son in law.
And you know, telling the story, it makes me think
about it separately. But if you've got such a story
seven one three nine nine nine one thousand seven one
three nine nine nine one thousand seven one three nine
nine nine one thousand. So if you watch any financial news,
(09:26):
and actually at this point it's bled into general news,
you know that that oil, that gold is at record prices.
It's going crazy. It's over forty three hundred dollars per
ounce right now. So I call Kenny Duncan Junior. They
do more gold than anybody and I said, is us
coins eighty four thirty five KD freeway. He's a show,
(09:50):
a sponsor of the show, and a good friend, has
been for years. And I said, so what are you seeing?
He said, it is madness. I've never seen it like this.
Give me an example, he said, Saturday morning, one hundred
and seventeen people were lined up before we opened the door.
One hundred seventeen people. And I said, who are these people?
(10:11):
I mean, these are these professionals? He says, No, it's
women forty to sixty years old and they've got they
don't know what it's worth, but they've got things that
they know are not worth much, if anything, to them,
and they're bringing them in like they've got a necklace,
a gold necklace, but it's broken. They haven't worn it
(10:33):
for years, or they inherited something that went in their
jewelry box because they didn't want to throw it away
because it belonged to mama. But they're never going to
wear it. It's broken, it's out of style, out doesn't
fit whatever. And they bring them in at forty three
hundred dollars an ounce. He said. One lady came in.
(10:53):
She had just a little bitty little bitty like a
charm what are those called? A little bity thin bracelet,
And it was worth over three hundred dollars, and she'd
brought some other stuff, but she could not believe that that.
She said, that's more than it was worth when it
was purchased, and it wasn't of great value because it
wasn't of great value when it was originally purchased, and
(11:14):
she was never going to wear it. So anyway, rather
than give you the phone number and overwhelm them, if
you have gold that you're never going to use and
you're holding on to it for sentimental values value, now
is the time. It's I ten between Chimney Rock and Voss.
Go see Kenny Duncan Junor and his family. It's called
us Coins, it said. Eighty four to thirty five Katie Freeway.
(11:37):
It's on the south side of the freeway. You can't
miss it. Standalone building. They'll probably have at least one
officer maybe today, probably maybe more out front. It's very safe,
very secure. They're good folks, big supporters of our show.
Eighty four to thirty five Katie Freeway. And here's the deal.
You can take your gold in there and you don't
have to sell it. You can say what's this worth
(11:58):
and they tell you, you know, it's worth twenty five
hundred dollars and you go, ah, that's okay. But if
it's going to be worth anything at some point, it's
gonna be worth money right now because gold is at
phenomenal rates. One other thing regarding a show sponsor and
Camp Hope, every month SPECS picks a charity of choice.
(12:19):
And even though the PTSD Foundation of America our wounded
combat veterans are not a charitable or are not a charity,
you do get a charitable deduction for anything that you donate,
so they deserve our support, I feel. But if you
give it is a charitable donation. If you are going
(12:39):
to restock your bar, please do it in the month
of October, because if you do it right now, while
you're there, at every checkout and other places, you can
make a donation. Our goal is to do one hundred
thousand dollars. That's what we did last year. We're at
sixty five thousand dollars today and we're two thirds through
the month, so I'm hoping that we'll raise one hundred thousand.
Last year did above that for Camp Hope. I can
(13:02):
tell you that Camp Hope donations go to helping veterans.
There's I think you're three percent overhead. It's the least
of any charity you're ever going to see. It is
dollars directly helping veterans, help veterans avoid suicide and cope
and get back on their feet. And so if you're
going to buy alcohol for any reason, especially if now's
(13:24):
the time to get ready for your Christmas parties, please
do it in the month of October. And please, while
you're there at a SPECS and there's one near you,
make a donation to Camp Hope. It makes a big difference,
and I appreciate you. So that is that. Now we
go to the calls Scott, what's yours? Go ahead?
Speaker 3 (13:41):
But grew up in central Wisconsin on a seven hundred
acre farm, and at the end of every season, when
you finish collecting all the crops in the field, you
rake your fields and you have a huge bonfire with
all the workers and neighbors, and it's always a big party.
We're sitting there his neighbors two miles down the road,
(14:02):
ambulance and fire truck go flying by. We just keep
drinking our beers and having a great time. Huge bonfire
going ambulance goes back. Next morning, we find out our
neighbor had a massive allergy to poison ivy. When we
raked the field, that smoke went into a window and
almost killed her.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Oh wow, wow, boys, and obviously nasty stuff. Bill, John, Gary,
the rest of you, hangtut. We'll get right to you.
It's the Michael Barry's shows, all right. Artemis Pile, the
drummer for skinnerd after the crash, crawled from the wreckage,
(14:42):
stumbled and staggered him through the woods, came upon a farmhouse.
The farmer shot him in his shoulder, believing he was
an escaped convict, didn't kill him, thank goodness, discovered that
he was the drummer for Skinnard and helped him get
help and get help to the crash site. So I
(15:05):
asked a question, tell me the story of when you
almost died. Bill, you're up, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Good morning, Michael. Longtime listener, first time caller. I was
probably about eleven years old. We were down in the
haller A bunch of us were just out, you know,
I had to say my age. Anyway, We was hunting
and we had stopped to take a rest, and I
had looked over to a friend of mine and about
that time he had his gun sitting on his leg
(15:32):
and it went off and I felt my head snap
back and didn't dawn on me at first what had happened,
But then I lost sight in my left eye and
then realized I've been shot in the head, and so
we all panicked, freaked out, and then we started. We
were in the holler about four almost five miles out,
(15:57):
basically holding everything inside my head, trying to get out
of the haller and we come to the first trailer
we came to, and uh, like I said, and we
knocked on the door, and you imagine a eleven year
old child standing there with blood and everything going everywhere.
And she pit me up, threw me in a car.
She took me to my house, believe it or not,
(16:20):
and then my parents called the ambulance and they came
to pick me up. They life flighted me to Children's
Hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas, and they did save my life.
Almost died, yeah, believe it or not. Michael, I have
had four close brushes with death. Uh So I truly
(16:40):
feel blessed that he has seen the effort of keeping
me on the surface, but was a major one. Yeah,
my left eye, Uh no, I lost it, lost sight. Uh,
it's there's remnants of it there. I didn't want to
completely removed. I thought that was just too at that time,
you know, being at a just too horrific to think
(17:01):
of that.
Speaker 5 (17:02):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
But you know, he's hitt me here. So every day
my feet hits the floor is a blessing. Every time
I wake up and started day, it's it's a direct
blessing from them.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
So, so, who was the person who was cleaning the
gun when it went on.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
No, we were just sitting down and he had inadvertently
pulled the trigger. He was a very good friend of mine.
We no longer speak. I haven't seen him since since
that incident. I've tried to contact him, let him know that, hey,
you know, it happens, but I have had no contact
with him. But now, we were just sitting down, resting
and he had inadvertently, uh pulled the trigger.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
And uh, and that's when they hit me.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
That's wow, John, you're up, go ahead.
Speaker 6 (17:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (17:49):
Yeah, So this story is about my cousin's not about myself.
Speaker 6 (17:54):
But that's it.
Speaker 7 (17:55):
That's a true story as a teenager back of the
day before cell phones and before Highway six was as
developed as it is today. He was speaking on the
tunnel phone, on the payphone with his dad when he
(18:17):
was abducted by three former residents of the TDC and
he was with his then girlfriend. And so then they that,
the five of them, you know, took a ride and uh.
And while this ride they were they were assaulted by
(18:38):
these three guys. And he my cousin, having grown up
uh being with weapons, he and his dad were hunters.
He waited until opportune time he was able to get
(19:03):
the knife that these guys had, and and then he went.
He went to town on him and it was so
bad for one of them that his two buddies left
him out in the middle of Highway six.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Did he die?
Speaker 7 (19:26):
I don't know if he died or not, but happy
ending that, like I said, it was his He was
with his then girlfriend and they've been buried over thirty
years and they have a beautiful peobley.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
How about that. That's a hell of story though there
you're up what you got?
Speaker 4 (19:50):
Yes, Uh. Back when I was a junior in high school,
I was going to a football game and I ride
the motorcycle course, says dark. Late in the evening, we
had a wreck. Of course, I don't remember nothing after
the wreck. Everything disappeared from my brain from then. But
(20:10):
what happened was the county come out there. Of course,
I'm probably ten miles away from town. Either town, the
county comes out, they declared me dead, that already signed
the certificate of death, put my name on it and everything.
But somehow the ambulance service, I guess, finally got me
(20:34):
back to life and took me to sant Anton. I
spent about probably three or four days in the hospital
in San Tone. Of course, my eyes were messed up
then from that wreck, but I survived it.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Well, that's the hell of a story. Thank you for sharing. Mike.
You're up, go ahead, Yeah, can you hear me? I
can hear you, go ahead, Okay.
Speaker 8 (20:59):
It's about my brother back in nineteen seventy six, he'd
just got his first week on the job as a
manager at a pizza restaurant up on Antwine. He was
late one Sunday night. He was in there getting ready
to close. They'd locked the doors. There was still a
couple of customers in there talking to the assistant manager
and his roommate, and my brother walked up to tell
(21:22):
the two visitors it's time to leave. The one visitor
gets his gun out, shoots the assistant manager and the
assistant manager's roommate in the head and shoots my brother,
and he goes down. They go back in the back,
ransack empties the register and they come back out. They're
(21:43):
standing there over the assistant manager. He puts another bullet
in his head, finishes them all. Does the same with
the assistant manager's roommate, puts another bullet in his head.
My brother is laying there, conscious but playing like he's dead,
and the guy is standing over and he can hear
him there, and here's a gun click. The guy ran
(22:06):
out of bullets when it was time to finish off
my brother. They go to try to get out the door,
but the door's locked because the restaurant was closed. My
brother had the keys in his pocket. They had to
come and pick him out and pick the keys out
of his pocket so they could get out. So he
lived through all that. The assistant manager's roommate died. They
(22:30):
eventually caught the guy. He actually turned himself in. His
name was James Demashett and he was the venus man
on good brooded.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
For a while, suns Bill escaped from the ordinary.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Twenty eight years ago today, the greatest rockman of all
time as it stood, perished. Some members survived, but not
Running Evans nor Steve Gaines. The drummer, Artemis Pile crawled
from the wreckage, stumbled and staggered through the woods to
(23:09):
find a farmhouse where he could get help fro himself
and help for those who hopefully had survived the crash.
He came upon the farmhouse and the farmer saw what
he believed was an escaped convict, blood all over him
and rags, and he shot him in the shoulder, says
(23:30):
he was firing a warning shot. I don't believe it.
I think he shot the dude because he thought he
was a convict. Artemis Pile explained, no, no, no, I'm
with the band. The plane crashed. We need to get
help to them, and now I need even more help
because you just shot me in the shoulder. This is
like a movie. So I asked you for your close
calls with death, and we start with Mike. Mike, You're
(23:54):
on the Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 9 (23:55):
Make it quick, Good morning, I run a street dog
rescue out in the Sunnyside and one morning I was
loading up to go to work. I have my home
help nurse and I take dogs with me in the car.
One of my dogs got out went to one of
the yards where I had three dogs in it, and
he got in there, and you know, I said, well,
(24:15):
I just got to go break this up real quick.
But the other three dogs that were in the car
with me came into the yard. It was a pit bull,
of two pit bulls and a rock. I was in
the middle of a seven dog dog fight, and I
was like, oh my god. I was punching them, hitting them,
kicking them nothing. And I remember I just told myself
(24:37):
laying there running rolling around in bud and dog poo
poo and dog teeth in my face and all that stuff.
I said, so this is how you hear about people
getting killed by dogs. This is how it happens. And
I had a dude from Camp Hope who was going
to do some work for me. An Iraqi wore better
and I started screaming, like it's about eight fifteen in
(24:58):
the morning on Saturday. I just started screaming, screaming, screaming,
hell hell. He come into the yard and I square
hand to God Man. All of a sudden, I just
start seeing dogs fly through the air, and he got
them dogs off me. That was my first trip to
the VA for dog wounds. But yeah, if Adam hadn't
been there, the dude from Camp Hope, I think it
(25:19):
would I don't think it would have ended well for me.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Do you remember Adam's last name?
Speaker 9 (25:24):
Monkeys m O n k Ees.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
I'm going to send that over. I'm sure they would they.
Speaker 9 (25:30):
I ain't heard from him in a while. We lost contact,
and I think he had some trouble, but I hope
he's doing okay.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
David Mauls, being the guys there, will be able to
track him down, and I'm sure he will be delighted
to hear this story of how he helped.
Speaker 9 (25:43):
Out Mike ol Pastor Mallsby Mike and Sunnyside said, Hey, so.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
You're a home health nurse and you rescue dogs.
Speaker 9 (25:51):
I'm a home health nurse who I got a house
out in Sunnyside about eight years ago. It was the
first time I'd ever got a house. I was fifty
eight years old, and I just started see all these
damn dogs all over the place. That just like all
over So I said. At the time I was single.
I said, I ain't got no wife and I've got
no girlfriend. I can bring home as many dogs as
I want. That's what I did. And then over time
(26:14):
I became a five o' one seat three where Sunnyside
Street dogs and yeah, I'm a nurse.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Yeah no, I say that because there are just certain
people who have a personality that they help other you know, others.
You know, there's a if you want something done, ask
a busy person, they'll get it done. There's certain people
who just nurture, whether it's humans, dogs, everything and everyone
around you. God bless you. You're a good person. I
can I can tell that. Ron you're up. Go ahead.
Speaker 10 (26:43):
My dad seventy five years ago had a car wrecked
car before they had seatbelts, car rolled over his head,
skinned him almost live, spent four months setting up in
the hospital. Three years later, he working for as alignment
for the phone Come. He's on a high up on
the high line, on the high wire. He gets electrocuted.
(27:06):
Oh doctor, he gets electrocuted. A doctor living across the
street who happened to be home for lunch saw it happen.
He grabbed his hit, his doctor's kit, hauled an ambulance,
ran across the street, administered CPR, and first aid to
my dad. It had blown out his both of his
(27:27):
Palmley's hand, one buttocks and one cat and he got
him to the hospital. He spent another six months in
the hospital setting up because he was so messed up,
skin grasps and so two times he dodged death that
should have taken his life.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
My goodness, Ron, you should be a professional radio show caller,
because when I went to you, you went straight to
the story. It's about one percent of people do that
great story. And he threw buttocks in. Anytime you throw
buttocks in, you got everybody's attaching Steven like Forrest Gump. Steven,
You're up, Go.
Speaker 5 (28:04):
Hey, Michael's back. In nineteen eighty four, the company I
was working for was a steel and sheet metal fabrication
company and we got a job to refit the sheet
metal at a grain elevator. And one of the pieces
that goes as part of that grain elevator filtration system
is called the cyclone, and this sets up on top
(28:26):
of the grain elevator, well, the grain elevator we were
working at was already about two hundred and ten feet up.
The cyclone stood about twenty feet tall, and it set on.
Speaker 6 (28:36):
Top of that.
Speaker 5 (28:37):
And the only way to put the canopy on top
of the cyclone is to chain it off with a
big crane, chain yourself off to it, tie your leads
to it, and ride up with that cyclone, I mean,
with that canopy until the crane brought it over on
top of the cyclone. It would drop it down slowly,
then he would drop down and weld it in play. Well,
(29:03):
everything was going fine. They get the canopy above the
cycle about halfway over the cyclone, and instead of hitting
the down lever, the crane operator hit the freefall lever.
Immediately me and that piece of canopy went plunging down
to the earth. The only thing that saved me, my foreman,
(29:23):
who's kind of a Paul Bunyon type guy, six foot eight,
two hundred and fifty pound three hundred fifty pounds, happened
to be standing next to that crane. He was tall
enough to reach up there and hit that freefall lever
and turn it off. I was about fifteen to twenty
feet from hitting the ground, and as the closest I
(29:45):
came to losing my life.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Damn, Steven, you had me, you had me captivated on
that one, Larry, go ahead.
Speaker 6 (29:56):
Uh nineteen fifty eight. I was just eleven years old.
My father and I were breaking in a horse and
uh she was about a year and a half. They
had had the halter. I jumped on the saddle. She
reared up, I mean went straight up and fell on me.
The saddle horn went off my chest, thank god. But
the uh fall split my jeans, my LEVI jeans on
(30:17):
both legs. My father hauled me into Sugarland Medical and
the doctor's name was doctor Slaughter. But thank god, the
uh I just bruised every muscle around, every vertebrae in
my back.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Can you survive?
Speaker 6 (30:34):
Survived? Even though the doctor's name was Slaughter.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
What kind of horse was it?
Speaker 6 (30:40):
It was just a quarter horse. She was about a
year and a half and it was a you know,
a young colt. And we were thought we were gonna
bring man.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
I got tell you, uh, well, by the way, David
and Tim, I see you hold tight. The second we
go to break, I'll come to you. We'll record your call.
So just stay with me for a moment. I'd like
to hear. Horses are beautiful things. I've never spent as
much time as most people around them. We used to
trail rides when I was a kid, and I think
they're beautiful and I can appreciate them, and they're glorious.
But man, the number of people who get hurt around
(31:10):
horses is amazing. I mean, those are big, powerful beasts.
There is no way around that. They are glorious, but
big powerful beasts, and a lot of people get hurt
around them. I'm not against them, I'm just saying it's noteworthy.
It same as true of motorcycles.
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