Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Rickey Medlocke Interview & Facts

Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Rickey Medlocke called in to talk with Laura & Choad about his show at the Medina Entertainment Center on March 1st, 2024...and learned about the Florida Man Games.

Listen to the interview below and learn some facts about Rickey you may not know.

Rickey Medlocke

-Rickey was born on February 17th, 1950 in Jacksonville, Florida and was raised by his maternal grandparents.

-Rickey's first instrument was a miniature banjo, and he was performing on-stage by the time he was 3 years old.

-Rickey is a multi-instrumentalist has mastered the banjo, drums, guitar, mandolin, dobro, and keyboards.

-Rickey began recording drums and lead vocals with Lynyrd Skynyrd by the time he was 21.

-He longed for the front of the stage as a frontman instead of the back as a drummer, and reformed Blackfoot in 1972 as the singer/guitarist.

-Medlocke rejoined Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1996.

-Rickey has performed with American Idol contestants twice: with Bo Bice in 2005, and with Colin Stough in 2023.

-Rickey Medlocke is not only a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (with Lynyrd Skynyrd in 2006), he's also a member of the Native American Music Hall of Fame (inducted in 2008).

-Medlocke is of Lakota Sioux and Cherokee descent.

-I have seen Medlocke and Lynyrd Skynyrd more times than any other artist; partly because of how many rock radio stations I've worked for, and partly because they always put on a killer show.

-The first time I saw Lynyrd Skynyrd was at the Minnesota State Fair in 1998. I had a knockoff Zippo lighter that I kept lit for the excruciatingly-long wait between their "last" song and Free Bird, despite the lighter getting so hot it literally burned my fingers as well as my thigh when I absent-mindedly dropped it back into my pocket before letting it cool down.

Totally worth it.

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