Meeting a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer in Music City

My ex-biker buddy Gypsy from Racine (WI) & I were having lunch at Cafe Bosna at a suburban strip-mall in historic Hermitage when we struck up a conversation with a friendly couple at the next table. The guy turned out to be Ed King, guitarist with Lynyrd Skynyrd from 1972-75, a role that he reprised from 1987 to '95. His most lucrative claim to fame was as co-writer of "Sweet Home Alabama," which Kid Rock performed with Skynyrd at the ceremony celebrating the Jacksonville (FL) Southern rockers' induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (Class of 2006).

Before that legendary stint with Ronnie Van Zant & the boys, King was a founding member of the L.A. psychedelic rock band The Strawberry Alarm Clock ("Incense & Peppermints"). While touring along with The Beach Boys in 1967-68, King said that Carl Wilson stopped by his hotel room & showed him the chords for "God Only Knows" (from brother Brian Wilson's masterpiece album Pet Sounds). Ed also told us that Ronnie Van Zant never wrote down the lyrics to Skynyrd songs before recording sessions. Man, was that good ol' boy a poet. To seal his rockstar legend, Van Zant even died in a Buddy Holly-esque way (plane crash in Mississippi, 1977).

Just goes to show you: you never know who you might bump into in Music City. Or where. Gypsy was astounded -- I've been telling him that he needs to get out more. Ed was kind enough to give us an autograph & shake his admirers' hands. The only cross word he had was when I mentioned Warren Zevon; Ed complained that the late, great L.A. raconteur & provocateur stole his "Alabama" riff on "Werewolves of London." Ed is now retired & living in Belle Meade, Tennessee. Former security manager (& crash survivor) Gene Odom had a heap of praise for Ed in his book about Lynyrd Skynyrd. Ed is quoted as saying that manager/producer Al Kooper made the band's commercial success possible. Props to Al.