The King of Southern Rock

Ed King was one of the original members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, and when the group reunited at the 1987 Volunteer Jam, Ed once again joined forces with the surviving members of one of the South’s best-loved rock and roll bands.
In a recent interview, King expounds upon the legendary band, lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, the band reunion and much more

Ed, tell us a little about your pre-Lynyrd Skynyrd career, "Incense & Peppermints" and your other accomplishments.
I grew up in Southern California and the Strawberry Alarm Clock was my first real major band...I was 17. By November, 1967, we had a #1 song with "Incense and Peppermints" and our picture on the cover of Cash Box magazine (do they still print that? I don't think so). We never had another hit and the band went bankrupt in late 1968. But it was on one of our last tours that I met Ronnie Van Zant and the Lynyrd Skynyrd Band. They were our opening act for about 3 months of college dates we did in the South in 1970. Ronnie and I got along real well and I told him if he ever needed another guitar player or bass player he should call me. And he did in 1972 when Leon Wilkeson quit the band.
By the way, even though the music to "Incense" was written by myself and Mark Weitz, the keyboard player, we were not given credit and never paid a dime for it. We were ripped off by managers and publishers and the like. Oh well, we had a good time.

Sum up your days with the original Lynyrd Skynyrd band.
I played on the first three albums along with the "First and Last" album...which was actually the first album (that had been rejected by various record companies).
I was recruited to play bass on the first album Pronounced but, during rehearsals, Leon came out to the rehearsal cabin. While there, the band played "Simple Man" with Leon on bass. I had never heard the song before. After hearing Leon play bass, I decided HE should be the bass player. He's the best I've ever heard. To this day, I never write a bass part without asking myself "What would Leon play?"
As a matter of fact, the last two songs we recorded, "Free Bird" & "Simple Man" contain my bass parts that are very far removed from all of the other bass parts on that album. Mainly because I had caught the vision from Leon of HOW the bass should be played for this band.

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