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From The GRITZ Vaults: Happy Birthday to Richard Young, Kentucky Headhunters

Our buddy Richard Young, guitarist for The Kentucky Headhunters will have a birthday this Tuesday, January 27th, Richard is 54 years young. (Pun intended.) We had a really fun, Southern fried interview with Richard back in 2004, just talking about Southern Rock and reminicin.'. He told me how he almost became a part of the historic recording of Lynyrd Skynyrd's One More From The Road.

"In the mid-seventies, we moved to Atlanta. There was a guy down there that was an accountant for Phil Walden and them. They had gone to college together down at University of Georgia in Athens. He decided that he wanted to get him a band, and would get Phil to sign them up. They scoured the country and found us playing at a dirt race track somewhere and then moved us to Atlanta. While we were down there, Tom Long who eventually worked for ASCAP in Nashville, was the guy that drove up here to see us and got it all together. While we were down there,  I will never forget this,  we went to town to the Electric Ballroom and there was this sign over there that said ‘Fox Theatre, two nights live, Lynryd Skynyrd.’ Tom asked us if we wanted to go over there and see it. Angel (the metal band) was playing at the Electric Ballroom. We said no, there would be more women at the Ballroom. (laughs) We could have been at that recording, (One More From The Road)  but we wanted to be around the women."

At the time of our interview, Richard and the boys had just finished their Soul album, and he told me all about how he came to learn about the music of Eddie Hinton.

"Let me tell you about this Eddie Hinton thing. I went down to Bug Music and there is this little guy down there named Drew, and he has never had a song cut and has been there for 3-4 years. I had really been suffering. I was deer hunting all through November and December and trying to get out into the woods and trying to figure out my contribution to the game plan for the new album, see? I decided that I didn’t want to do the same old thing, and I was not wanting to tell everyone and have them feel like I was wigging out. I have been appreciative of all my success, but I have not ever been able to get to meet the people that we really wanted to meet, like the people you and I have been talking about. I got into the music business to meet John Lennon and he got killed before I could meet him. I wanted to meet Jimmy Page. God bless them, but I never set out to meet George Jones, even though I know him and we are pals. We are not into each others music necessarily. We don’t make any bones about it. This kid told me one day that he wanted to give me a copy of this song on this album, and he went and burned me a copy of this album called, Dear Ya’ll.  I don’t know how I had missed out on it, but that album did more to fire me up to do whatever it was that I brought to that band on this album than anything! I would not have been able to do it without Eddie Hinton. It was like his ghost was present.  It reinstated my faith that a white boy has got soul too. It just tore me up. Now, I might not be able to sing with the heart he’s got but I am sure gonna try."

I really had a ball with Richard, and I still listen to the Soul record every chance I get. Prior to our talk with Richard, we also sat down for an interview with Headhunter Greg Martin. Check it out here. See y'all back here tomorrow. Same Bat time. Same Bat channel.

Keep it Real. Keep it Southern.

Buffalo

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