The Story Of How Ronnie Van Zant Wrote His Songs From Skynyrd Guitarist Ed King-Phish's "Experiment With Sobriety" From Guitarist Mike Gordon

The similarity between Phish's "Possum" and Lynyrd Skyyrd's "Swamp Music". How Phish's version may have been completely coincidental. Lynyrd Skynyrd's Ed King tells the incredible story of how Ronnie Van Zant wrote the Lynyrd Skynyrd songs. Phish guitarist Mike Gordon leaks Phish's "experimenting with sobriety" and how that worked out. 

Blade rock show character Johnny in a flashback from his trailer in Johnston County NC getting ready for the weekend bo.

Transcript

Blade: 0:20

Play me some Skinner Bo Swamp, swamp, swamp, swamp music. Second, helping Ly Skinner incredible complex guitar that the guys play and just one of the greatest honky-tonk jams you can get. I remember going to a Phish concert in 2012. I mean, I always talk about Phish in 2012 because I saw three shows that year. I can't go to shows anymore. I just can't. And first of all, I can't stay up that late. It just happens.

Blade: 1:02

And there's other various reasons, one of them being there's a terrible music scene in Arizona. I mean it's awful. There's no good venues in Arizona to watch a concert. Most of the concerts here in Arizona, in the Phoenix area no less, are at the casinos and their sound systems and their sound quality is always terrible. You know they get all the acts here that come and play and still around and all, but the sound systems are awful and the sound quality is always terrible. You know they get all the acts here that come and play and still around and all but the sound systems are awful and the sound quality is just bad. So it's not even worth going to concerts really anymore.

Blade: 1:31

But I saw Phish in 2012 with a buddy of mine and it's a beautiful day in Raleigh in summertime it took off, you know, six o'clock and I'm a 93 Jeep Wrangler with a buddy and top down and just jamming ready, waiting for an incredible night. And we got it that night. We got it and they got off to a slow start. Fish did Sometimes they do some, most times they don't, it depends on the night and then about five then about five songs. n there it comes. Possum. he possum met his end in the road one day. It was a very sad day. Possum, possum, possum, your end is the road, and you know. But you play Swamp Music and then you play Possum from Phish and they're kind of the same song, you know, and I suppose Leonard Skinner did swamp music first and now Phish has the beat.

Blade: 2:49

But you can never accuse Phish of stealing someone else's rhythm or chords or melody or beat. I've never been one to do that. They didn't steal it, you know, if they made a big hit out of it and they made all kinds of money and didn't share. I, you know, I can see that. But really imitation is the greatest form of flattery and man, you cannot help it as a musician. What influenced you? You are what you grew up with musically and you can't help it when you go to do some jamming song about a possum who met his end in the road that day.

Blade: 3:26

When swamp music comes out, you can't help it and that's again. You can't ever blame Phish for stealing because they're based on every kind of music possible. You know every single type of R&B, rock, music, country music. It's all in Phish music and that's what makes them so great and I just can't think of anything better than taking a simple kind of beat guitar beat, like swamp music, Like you know they may or may not have I'm not saying they did, it just ends up sounding like it with possum and make it 12 minutes. I mean, that's where it's at, man, especially when you're watching it live. And you know I always mention 2012 because I just happened to see Fish three times that year and that year. A little later in the year I talked with the bass player, mike Gordon, and I remember thinking how great Fish was in 2012. And then in this interview he tells me that was the year pretty sure, that was the year that Fish was quote unquote experimenting with sobriety. And it was great, they said.

Phish's Mike Gordon: 4:58

And I was going to mention. I don't know if I'm supposed to, but here's an example of the Internet going crazy. A few gigs ago I made a comment on stage. I said I held up a drink and I said cheers before the, because fishes were having a sort of. We're all experimenting with sobriety these days and it's, it's so great and the jams are even deeper as a result. And you know, but that's crazy, I'm allowed to drink on fish tour and I was making a joke, and now on the Internet everyone's talking about how I'm evil and I hate my bandmates and you know, it's just crazy crazy so that's why I don't go on.

Blade: 5:44

I don't read the message boards and all that you know I always remember that for some reason, out of all the interviews, I think of fish and I think of experimenting with sobriety, a term I've never heard before. Possibly that was they were why they were so great. But you talk with the members of fish and they're just so bright and so fun and such nice cats really they are and you can't find a better person to talk to. When you talk about Ly skinnerd, somehow this is morphed. This podcast is morphed into a a Phish and a podcast. But you know, then you start to think about L s and their music and all that they've gone through, and you always think of Ed King, because he had so many great stories to tell and he told the story one time about how Saturday Night Special came about that Lynyrd Skynyrd wrote back in the day and how all of the Ly Skinner songs came about.

Lynyrd Skynyrd's Ed King: 6:40

Yeah, Matter of fact, I'll tell you one story right now. I had a song idea I brought to rehearsal one day and I'm running this groove down to the band playing the chords, kind of showing them how I wanted it, and Ronnie's sitting on the couch with his head in his hands, like he always did, meaning he was thinking. And about 15 minutes later he comes up to me and he cups my ear with his hand and he sings to me. Only I was the first one to hear it. He goes two feet. They come up creeping like a black cat do, and I, like it, Lost it.

Lynyrd Skynyrd's Ed King: 7:17

You know, I thought that was oh man he sang me the whole verse and immediately I went in and wrote the chorus. We wrote that and as soon as we had one verse and one chorus he went down to the pier and went fishing. He said you all finish writing the music, I'll write the lyrics. He always went down to the pier and wrote the lyrics down there because you hear the band playing the music carried down the water very cool vibe and scenery and words can't even describe it. But we just couldn't wait to get out to rehearsal every day to see what we were going to write that day.

Blade: 7:52

Wow.

Lynyrd Skynyrd's Ed King: 7:56

Woo doggie, we're getting ready for the weekend, folks.

Blade: 8:02

Oh yeah, woo, doggy, I got a buzz. Go ahead and crank it up. Play me some Skinner. Now Two feet say come a-preepin'.

Phish's Mike Gordon: 8:20

Like a black cat do, and two bodies layin' naked, we'll be right back as the man's reaching for his trousers, a shoe's in full of a 30. Hey, I miss the Saturday night.