Lynyrd Skynyrd: Bringing the rebel spirit

By John Benson

The guitarist has strong memories of Youngstown’s old Agora club.

Lynyrd Skynyrd may be making a Monday appearance at the Canfield Fairgrounds, but you better believe guitarist Rickey Medlocke will be thinking about old-school Youngstown.

Specifically, he’s talking the ’70s and the Youngstown Agora Ballroom, where his erstwhile band Blackfoot played numerous times more than 30 years ago.

“It’s kind of interesting. A memory I have of Youngstown is playing the Agora Ballroom they used to have,” said Medlocke, calling from Toronto. “I played there several times and one thing that always stuck out in my mind about being there was what a great place it was to play. It really was.”

He added, “Not only was it the venue, but the audience was always killer. They just rocked. And that’s the one good thing about it was like that part of Ohio … I believe Ohio is a workingman’s land, right in the middle of the heartland, and they rock. That’s what they’re all about.”

What Lynyrd Skynyrd is finally all about is putting out a follow-up album to its 2003 effort “Vicious Cycle.” Medlocke said the group has many ideas in the mix with some songs already recorded. Even though the band isn’t playing any new material at its upcoming fair show, two new songs that have the Southern rock group members optimistic are the anthemic-sounding and dark-tinged “Floyd” and the up-tempo “Bang, Bang.”

When asked to explain stylistic nuances explored on the next album, Medlocke said, “That’s a hard one because I think when you’re a band like Lynyrd Skynyrd, we don’t worry about styles and where we’re going. We just do what we do and it comes out as we are. Honestly, we don’t really try to conform to anything.

“Skynyrd was always a band that was rebellious. And the band I was in, Blackfoot, was rebellious. We didn’t try to conform to anything, and that’s what Southern bands are all about anyway. So we just do what we do, we write what we write and we record it by putting our stamp on it. It just comes out that way.”

The album is tentatively slated to be out in early 2009, with yet another co-headlining tour with Kid Rock to follow in the spring or summer. While a similar co-headlining bill, called “Rock Rebel Tour,” is currently making its way across America, local fans get the “Sweet Home Alabama” band for a solo show.

Even though for some the bad news is Kid Rock won’t be visiting Mahoning County, Medlocke points out his band is bringing the same exciting arena show to the fairgrounds stage.

“What’s really cool is that we’re bringing the set we’re doing with Kid Rock,” Medlocke said. “And this set has been just killer. It’s kind of a funny thing for Lynyrd Skynyrd because our thing is always bottom line, we don’t need a lot of gimmicks and a lot of stuff.

“We just come in and play raw music. It’s music, lights and sound. That’s what we always rely on.”