we were always

You' and 'Sweet Home Alabama' with the three guitars ancl led bl

set'"

a police

King also has some observations aboLlt Kooper. "We've I,iad to pLrll Allen hack 'cause he was st;ding on the Edge up to him. Ronnie rvas ready to be:rt the shit ol'the stage and sonrchody could have pulled hiri in the uuter -stood out ol him one- time when we.were^rnaking the first ,fUrrr. and fiied lim-l'd haveir:st a good iriend and I;tL t.tt you One out of every-ten or twelve ol his ideas is okay. We thrt norrld havc lreen the end oilynyrC Skynyrd.'. sent him home after he played us his mix of the ilbum By this time, Charlie Daniels trai nnisnea"nis set and come The c'oncept of every nrix rvas hizarre.-l was ollendecl ancl in fbr a ferv rvurds with Ronnie. I wander outside into the I told him so. I rvasn't sure if he reallv cared anymore. corridor to see what is going on. A long-haired kid, ahout
Mr,rss,Jongt nas. Kooper's guinea pig and they listened i; l8 or so, u,ith a gruesomJjrifi on r,ri, righiiemple is n1i"*La uord. he said. They r.vere casy to manipulate. We had set "r;Lt and being staggired down the hall by ihree grim-faced ideas cctps.

the gig lasr night.i

dog-that takes away lronr anythinggood about or trlo*' p.opr."rplashing'wate?;; ;;g;-

all worth.it.LikethatguywhocametoseetheCharliel)aniels tan<j. sn. lries to refise but he walks Band and l-ynyrd Skvnyrd and ended up having his arm mang- "That'll make her think abour ir.,'E

doesn't mean anything e\cept.more responsibility. We don'-t outside had litile idea what was going on-the poii..'.f,5r. want anybody to leave the band any more. Evervbod-v's heart's to let them work up their wrath urimolisted in the'parkin!klt. got to he in.the same place." Skynvrd is reatly to go on. As they I cclrnered Ronnie van .Zant in the dressing ror-rm be{bre stage-entrance, Van Ziint comes oue. io wander io*ari the me and says,..See the shou and asked him about lhe.Muscle Shoals tapes. He her-e. tonight more people are getting hurt. I,m i.oiiv-t.ginsaid they spenl.a vear there and learned a lot from the people ning to windor il ii's all *nrih it.; They go ort urO p'toy he rlleclionatelv terms "the swampers." a biazing set ftrr the wildly enthusiastic crowdl climaxing ivith '.Wg went in there and th.ey said'Don't you knou the. hass a super iersion ol..Free Bird.,, Asthey leavethestage, R-onnie rund drtrms irrc \upp()sed to plav together?' We didn't clcn knrrw llashes mc ir .Whul did vou it,inf,f look. I nod back in how to count time to songs-we had just two speeds:.slou1 ,.We had good a time. That,s 11d approval ,nJ n. ,;;l.i ."ii;; fast. I don't understand this.phrase'l've paid my dues.'we *t"t 1,, talking about.', didn't have.any monev and'lived on peanut hrrtter and jelly, the. b,,,rJ pr.ir'ilir'it. limos and heads back to the hotel. and I loved it. I don't regret any ol it. We never expictid The bus is t<j leave in less than t,,vo hours lor the e,leven-hour to make it this far. but we worked hard to get here. The drive to the ne\t town. Ronnie invites me down to the bar lor money doesn't mean shit--l really don't care iboLrt it at all. a drink. A.. *. p.., the hotel, a van lilled All I;m concerned rvith is, the chance. to play concerts like Liar puil. up and onc offront door of the Van Zant stops to with tn., .,rit, out. lalk we're doin' now. We could even stand to come down a few u'hili, I go inside. Alter a lew minutes, he comes in and exolains notchcs-l'd likc to sec cveryb.dy uho wunts to sec us get in. thar the'kids hird uanlecl tn p,,rLy ;;; ;.-;;;;;; ,,;r;';;. "l don't care what the promoter says, I don't care rvhat putting them olf. we go into irr. 6oi, sit down and wait to order just care about. those.people out there who a drini. The waitress'comes the _rvriters say, I over. asks lor the rock sta..s ID. paid to see us' I know I've pawned coke botties and sluff in the and re{'uses to serve hinr when he lails to produce or.. fi. iut., past to get to see a concert, and rvhen it gets to the point Iike the $20 spencling monev allotted to each ;;;;; in. u".a lastnightwherepeoplearebein'burned. I starttorvonderilit's every clay anrl.-standing to go, piesses "] it into the waitress.

old drummer, wasn't sftong enough and he broke under the waiting lor kids to slither through the backstage aoo. nn.strain' The pressure's on nte all the time. The popularit,v hy-o.n_e. -so they can club them i-nto subrnission] fhe peopte

whal $'e u'anted to do. Close behincl. inother kid. equally discomfitid but less bat"?on'1 think the pressure ol hai'ing that hit single and tered, is being dragged R ciowd of cops with sticks iaised . playing large gigs doesn't get to us," he adcls. "Bob, our for action tdrround the rear entrance to the auditorium,
of.

out,.o*r"nting,

ffsBigDeaI
Kooper established the now-deiunct

understand it-Mose Jones was more commercial Al Kooper has been praised for his than Lynyrd Skynyrd, lt,s a drag for me that they foresight in looking to the South didn't make it 'cause I put more time and money into early for'the next music hotbed. He them than Lynyrd Skynyrd. has also been called a carpetbagger. "l left Atlanta because I couldn,t communicate with
produced all three of Lynyrd Skynyrd's albums and one failure for Mose Jones. comment, Kooper was.conciliatory about Mose Jones. ,,This is gonna be my cross to bear,,, he admitted. ,,1 have no bad feelings. I feel sorry for them being victimized, but one thing I found out aftert7 years in ihis business

it's me entirely is silly. They had two singles in a row that we leaned on but couldn,t bring homL. I still don't

Sounds of the South label. He has

When reached for

Sounds of the South label, MCA didn,t renew the con_ tract. They never paid irs much attention to Mose Jones

on top of them. Three months after I debuted the

MCA [the corporation with which Sounds of the South had a distribution deall. I moved to L.A. so I could be

they were good kids, they worked hard, and I did everything in my power to help them. I will take one_ fifth of the blame for them not making it, but to say
July 1975

I deserved that. "lf Mose Jones takes me over the coals,,' he continued, "l won't say a bad word about them. I thought

is there's a few people oul there who are bitter_you can't help that. Look at Blood, Sweat & Tears_thev murdered me when I left that group and I didn,t thinft

themselves.'

nightmare to work with them in the studio and I suppose it's the same for them with me. They take theii record_ ings very seriously and they definitely should prOduce

"When I sold Skynyrd's contiact, they could'have gotten any producer they wanted. I almost had a,fuck_ ing nervous breakdown on this album. They were d.is_ satisfied with a few things-to6 much tambourine on 'Saturday Night Special,' the background voices.on 'Am I Losin',' and the cowbell in ,On the Hunt., They,re hice guys except when it comes to recording. lt,s a

as they did_to Skynyrd, and that was one of my biggest problems. They just didn,t promote the produci equitfV.

_J.S.