ED KING
Ed King (born September 14, 1949 in Glendale, California) is an American musician. He is most well-known as the guitarist for psychedelic rock band Strawberry Alarm Clock and Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd.
King was one of the founding members of psychedelic rock band Strawberry Alarm Clock, formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1960's. The band's largest success was with a song that King co-wrote, "Incense and Peppermints" (but, along with Mark Weitz, didn't get credit). The song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1967. Their follow-up single, "Tomorrow", reached #23 in January 1968.
King met the members of Jacksonville, Florida-based Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd when the band opened up for Strawberry Alarm Clock on a few shows in the early '70s. It wasn't until 1972 that he joined Skynyrd, replacing Leon Wilkeson on bass, who left the band briefly. Wilkeson rejoined the band, and King switched to guitar, creating the triple-guitar attack that became a signature sound for the band.
His guitar playing and songwriting skills were an essential element to the band's first three albums, "Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd;" " Second Helping," and "Nuthin' Fancy." King co-wrote Skynyrd's biggest hit song "Sweet Home Alabama" and it's his voice you can hear counting off the tune before launching into his infamous Stratocaster riff.
King decided to leave the band in 1975 during the 'Torture Tour'. He was replaced by Steve Gaines in 1976, who was killed in a plane crash along with singer Ronnie Van Zant in 1977. Coincidentally, Gaines and King share the same birth date!
King was one of the guitarists for the reunited Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1987, until being forced to leave in 1996 due to congestive heart failure. He left on the basis that he would rejoin once he regained his health, but the band did not allow him to rejoin. King filed a lawsuit for breach of contract, which was settled out of court in 1999.
Jim: Along with Artimus Pyle, JoJo Billingsley, & Leslie Hawkins, you've been touring as the Saturday Night Special Band playing the music of the Ronnie Van Zant era Lynyrd Skynyrd. How did the SNS Band come about?
Ed: I was invited to come out and play a couple of gigs in Georgia and I really needed to get out of the house. I'm just about a total recluse and my callouses are fading. As it turned out, the band was really good...very faithful to the original recordings. All I had to do was plug in and play. I've done maybe 8 shows with the band with more to follow in '06.
Jim: Does Gary Rossington own the rights to the name Lynyrd Skynyrd?
Ed: I think he owns it along with the estates of Collins & Van Zant.
Jim: A lot of fans think you & Artimus got a raw deal.
Ed: I'm real happy with the way things turned out on my end. I got pretty sick back in '95 and the other guys kicked me out of the band. Sure, I was upset about it at the time. That was a decade ago and I'm feeling a lot better and I really like NOT being on the road. As for Artimus, he has gotten a raw deal here and there. At one point he made it very difficult for the band to keep him.
Jim: Was the original Lynyrd Skynyrd more than just a band, was it a brotherhood in the beginning?
Ed: Brotherhoods do exist in the South but I doubt very much it existed in Lynyrd Skynyrd. It was pretty much every man for himself. If there WAS a brotherhood within the band, the plane crash did away with it.
Jim: How was Al Kooper to work with? Could Skynyrd have made it as big had you used a different producer? How important was Al to Skynyrd's sound?
Ed: Al had it in his head how the band should sound. I doubt very much anyone else could've done the production with the enthusiasm Al did. The people at Muscle Shoals tried and couldn't land the band a record deal. Kooper had vision and he really saw the South as an untapped rock and roll mine field.
Jim: Let's go back a few years. You were 18 years old when you had a hit record with "Incense & Peppermints" with the Strawberry Alarm Clark. What's your fondest memory with Stawberry Alarm Clock?
Ed: My tours with the Beach Boys in '67 & '68 outshine any other period in my life. Carl Wilson coming over to my room to show me the chords to "God Only Knows" far outweigh any Skynyrd experience. It went by in a FLASH.
Jim: You co-wrote "Incense & Peppermints," with Mark Weitz, but neither of you got credit for it or received songwriter's royalties, is that true?
Ed: We wrote the music and presented a finished music track to our manager. He then took it to a publisher who had some lyricists put lyrics to it...and the sheet music came back without our names on it. We were told that was the price we had to pay to get started in the business.
Jim: Who's baby was "Incense & Peppermints," yours or Mark's, and what is the song about?
Ed: I don't know what the song's about! Mark wrote pretty much all of the music...my only contribution was the bridge and guitar solo section. Actually, only 3 guys played on that track. Mark and I played everything except the drums.
Jim: Which period of your career have you enjoyed the most, your time with Skynyrd, or Strawberry Alarm Clock?
Ed: They both have their highlights. Driving a lonely Georgia back road at 4 AM with a friend of mine in '74 and hearing "Sweet Home Alabama" for the first time was quite a kick. Touring with The Who was amazing. Any success anyone experiences in this business is amazing. I am the luckiest guitar player on earth. I had a little bit of talent and a whole lot of good timing.
