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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There is no reason at all for readers to recognize the name Tom Dowdy. \u00a0Resplendent in his rhinestone encrusted shirt, he hosted an eponymously titled TV show in Jacksonville, Florida that featured a lot of the popular bluegrass and country artists of the day. \u00a0Roy Rogers even brought along his horse, Trigger. \u00a0Though his show ended in 1958, a seed Dowdy planted in 1953 is still bearing musical fruit today. \u00a0\u201cHow come this article isn\u2019t entitled \u2018Tom Dowdy?\u2019\u201d would be a logical question at this point, so stick with me for a bit and I will answer that very question.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Tom Dowdy\u2019s TV show had a house band that included one Shorty Medlocke. \u00a0Shorty played a variety of instruments including five-string banjo, dobro, guitar, fiddle, harmonica, and mandolin. \u00a0His position in the Dowdy house band put him on regional TV backing a bevy of legendary music artists. \u00a0One day, Shorty mentioned to Dowdy that his three year old grandson Rickey could pick the banjo and sing along with him. \u00a0Dowdy more or less said, \u2018Shorty, I would have to see it to believe it\u201d so Shorty worked up a song with Rickey, put him in a matching cowboy outfit and trotted him off to the studio. \u00a0Needless to say, they proved their point to Dowdy, the audience loved it, and the mail poured in over the next week. \u00a0No longer a doubting Thomas, Dowdy had Rickey back on his show . . . for the next five years. \u00a0Sixty years later, Rickey Medlocke is still at it and there can\u2019t be that many artists out there who can claim to have a sixty year music career at the age of sixty three.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Shorty Medlocke did more than just show Rickey his first three banjo chords. \u00a0Rickey was born to Shorty\u2019s sixteen year old daughter and Grandpa Shorty and his second wife Ruby were not about to let him end up in an orphanage. \u00a0Before he taught him the G, C, and D chords (and offering the suggestion that he could pick up the rest on his own), the Medlockes adopted Rickey and raised him as their own son. \u00a0Hanging around Shorty and his musical pals no doubt inspired Rickey\u2019s musical aspirations, but it was his occasional babysitter, May Axton (mother of famed singer, songwriter, and actor Hoyt Axton) who pushed his music button to turbo.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Axton and her songwriting partner Tommy Durden had arranged a meeting with Elvis Presley and his manager Col. Tom Parker. \u00a0In the end, \u00a0the Axton\/Durden team sold them their tune, <\/span>Heartbreak Hotel<\/span><\/i>, Elvis made it a hit, and Axton got four tickets to Presley\u2019s Jacksonville show. \u00a0Col. Parker also got a writing credit and half the publishing rights to the song, but that is a story for another day. \u00a0Axton knew Rickey would like the Elvis show so she gave Shorty three of the tickets. \u00a0After watching the future King from center stage, five rows back, little Rickey declared \u201cthat is what I want to do\u201d on the ride back home. \u00a0Within a year\u2019s time, Shorty\u2019s drummer left the band and he offered the seat to Rickey, a spot he held down for a decade.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The fertile musical ground in Jacksonville sprouted numerous bands and after his road work with Shorty, Rickey played in a bunch of them. \u00a0Upon graduation, he and his buddies put together a band that would eventually be called Fresh Garbage. \u00a0The guitar player in Medlocke took to Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, and (especially) Eric Clapton, but the first line up of this band had him playing drums and singing. \u00a0\u00a0A personnel shuffle brought in a new drummer, \u00a0Jakson Spires, which put Ricky the guitar player\/vocalist out front. \u00a0They made enough of a name that it was suggested that they take the band to New York to see if they could scare up a recording contract. \u00a0On the way north, their name changed to Blackfoot as a nod to Medlocke and his bandmates Native American heritage.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Moving to New York did not work out for the band so Medlocke called his old friend Alan Collins for some advice. \u00a0What he got from Collins was an invitation to take up the newly vacated drum throne of a very young band called Lynyrd Skynyrd. \u00a0Medlocke joined just before they booked their first session at the renowned Muscle Shoals studio in June of 1971. \u00a0These sessions didn\u2019t produce a Skynyrd album, but they did inspire Rickey to reform Blackfoot. \u00a0He departed Skynyrd just before their star began to rise. \u00a0The two albums Blackfoot released in 1975 and 1976 (<\/span>No Reservations <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>\u00a0Flyin\u2019 High<\/span><\/i>) went nowhere and the band was left in neutral. <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0During some off time in 1977, Ronnie Van Zant called and asked Medlocke to drop by and hear the latest Skynyrd album <\/span>Street Survivors.<\/span><\/i> \u00a0Van Zant said \u201cIf you aren\u2019t busy, why don\u2019t you come along on our next tour leg. \u00a0We have a plane,\u201d but Blackfoot had dates to play forcing Medlocke to decline. \u00a0They were on stage on October 20, 1977 when a stagehand hollered out to them that Skynyrd had been in a plane crash. \u00a0As Medlocke told <\/span>Classic Rock Magazine:<\/span><\/i> \u00a0\u201cSoon as we finished our show, I headed back to our hotel and dialed up my folks. \u00a0The phone didn\u2019t even ring once. \u00a0Shorty picked it up and I begged him to tell me it wasn\u2019t true. \u00a0He said, \u2018no son, it is true\u2019 and he told me that Ronnie had been killed in the crash.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Devastated by the news, \u00a0Blackfoot carried on in a fog into the next year but things were not going well. \u00a0They finally scored a hit with a Shorty Medlocke penned slide boogie fest <\/span>Train Train <\/span><\/i>after \u00a0Blackfoot signed on with Al Nally to be their manager, \u00a0\u00a0Nally was known for his work with Iggy Pop and Brownsville Station and it under his direction that Blackfoot were finally able to rise above the horde of southern rock bands that were competing for the public\u2019s attention. \u00a0He and Medlocke formed a partnership that still exists today. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Even in the face of relentless touring, Blackfoot never reached that level of success again. \u00a0They kept slinging over the next decade, but internal friction finally broke the original band apart. \u00a0Some in the band felt Medlocke had taken over the band completely, including the band\u2019s drummer Jakson Spires. \u00a0It was a shock to Medlocke when his brother-in-law\/drummer left the band, but he regrouped with a new cast of musicians and tried to keep the band alive. \u00a0It was a long hard road and by the mid 1990s, Medlocke was worn down.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A chance call from Ronnie Van Zant\u2019s widow Judy in 1996 opened a new door for Medlocke. \u00a0She invited him to the premier of the Skynyrd movie <\/span>Freebird<\/span><\/i> in Atlanta in. \u00a0The night before the premier, there was an all-star jam at the Fox Theater that sparked a call from Skynyrd\u2019s guitar player, Gary Rossington. \u00a0He didn\u2019t have to ask Rickey twice if he wanted to rejoin Skynyrd. \u00a0\u00a0Medlocke began his second chapter with Skynyrd, albeit this time as the guitar player covering the roll previously filled by his old friend, Allan Collins who had also died in the plane crash back in 1977. \u00a0As he told Rossington, \u201cI will ride with you until the end.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Interestingly enough, Blackfoot is still playing, but without Medlocke in the line up. \u00a0A group of Jacksonville musicians approached him about using the Blackfoot name. \u00a0He likens his role as the \u201cproud papa of a brand new baby\u201d and as long as he is writing and producing songs for the new unit, the band is still alive. \u00a0The new Blackfoot has also returned to its roots as a great southern rock band which is something they had drifted away from during their declining years.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Shorty Medlocke\u2019s grandson\/son has certainly paid him back in spades for teaching him those three banjo chords those many years ago. \u00a0I bet they both are glad Tom Dowdy had his doubts back in 1953.<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video – The ‘new’ Blackfoot with Rickey Medlocke making an appearance.