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.
