BAINBRIDGE – For the second year, Rock in the Park will shake, rattle and roll Chenango County at the General Clinton Park this weekend, only this year will feature a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, as Artimus Pyle, one of the last remaining members of Ronnie Van Zant’s Lynyrd Skynyrd will be perform in Bainbridge this Saturday for the second annual Toys for Tots fundraiser.
As a former sergeant in the Marine Corps who served in the late 60s, Pyle is a long-time advocate of the Toys for Tots program, and when he was approached by Rock in the Park organizer Jason Hall he dramatically reduced his fee, making it possible for the fundraiser to hire him.
“Yeah man, it’s the right thing to do,” said Pyle between sporadic bursts of percussion on his gigantic American-made drums with matching snares, pedals and floor toms. Pyle’s drum set is so large he enjoys using it for an aerobic work out. On Saturday, he will be driving into Bainbridge from a gig in Connecticut while the rest of the band flies. “I don’t like to fly so much.”
Hardly surprising from a man who has survived three plane crashes, including the fateful 1977 crash which killed Ronnie Van Zant along with singer Cassie Gaines and guitarist/songwriter Steve Gaines.
The Artimus Pyle Band will perform a two-hour show Saturday, so Lynyrd Skynyrd fans and music lovers in general can expect to hear all of the southern hard-rock band’s greatests hits. “It’s everything; I like to do songs that you don’t normally hear, but we do all of the hits too,” added Pyle.
Pyle explained that he likes to listen to the fan’s stories of what the songs mean to them, and said, “I have heard how bikers like to bury their friends to ‘Free Bird.’ Or how ‘Simple Man’ was about Ronnie’s mother, I knew her and she was a great lady, a strong lady.”
Even though Pyle is 65 he still likes to play the drums as though he is 25, and seeing how his band members grew up with the music of Lynyrd Skynyrd, they play with respect to the original band, he said.
When Pyle talks with fans, many tell him where they were in 1977 when the plane went down.
“They tell me their story and sometimes we laugh and sometimes we cry. I was on that airplane, I went down with that band. It was my third airplane crash and it was the worst. It was traumatic, but I survived and I knew that the only thing to do was to go get help.”
So he pulled himself together, formed a few splints and tourniquets for those who were injured and set out in search of help. By the time he arrived at a farmhouse, first responders had already assembled there. Before he was rushed to the hospital, he pointed them in the direction of the plane. “They told me that my injuries were severe and I had to get to the hospital, and when I saw all of people heading into the woods I knew the people in the crash were going to be getting help in just a few seconds.”
For a time after the crash Pyle moved to Jerusalem. When he returned he joined a tribute band.
“Everything was okay for a while, but then people started slipping into the demons. It was then I realized that I didn’t want to be part of something less, something ... without respect. I am about going out and just playing. I will play anywhere, to me its all about the music and what it means.”
In 2006, Pyle and his band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, along with Black Sabbath and the Sex Pistols.
Said Pyle, “My band is the closest thing to hearing the real thing (Ronnie Van Zant’s Lynyrd Skynyrd). My guys really work hard. My lead vocalist doesn’t try to sound like Ronnie, but we are true southern boys and it comes out correct and it comes out from the heart.”
Pyle also had a few words of advice for up and coming musicians. “There’s a lot of good, and there is a lot of great times, but when you get to the point where your band is famous, you get a lot of people taking pot shots at you. I have experienced that but I survived it, you got to be prepared for the bad as well as the good because it’s not easy, if it were easy then I guess everyone would do it ... and what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
The Pyle band is a tribute band to Ronnie Van Zant’s Lynyrd Skynyrd, which is something he takes to heart. “We played for the kings and queens of the world and I miss him very much, Ronnie’s legacy is more then just trying to squeeze money.”