October 20 1977

The first interview I ever attempted was in 1973, when a shy skinny kid met another shy skinny kid. My high school radio station signed on in September of 1973. Before then, we wrote to all of the record companies and asked them to send us product. MCA responded with sending us "Pronounced Lynyrd Skynyrd" and Wishbone Ash. Later that year LS opened up for ZZ Top in Davenport. I called the MCA office and arranged an interview with Ronnie Van Zant. I was later told we were the only station that asked for an interview. I was never so frightened in my life and he wasn't very at ease either. He thought it was EXTREMELY cool that the high school had a radio station. It became a better interview after that. I was amazed at how young he looked. LS blew ZZ off the stage and that was hard to do back then. They became superstars with "Secong Helping" and the rest is history. On October 20 1977, I was living and working in Muscatine Iowa playing just about anything I wanted at 99+Stereo, KFMH. While on the air one morning, the AP and UPI teletype machines went crazy with the word that their plane had went down and there were fatalities. I really liked the band but the latest two releases "Nuthin Fancy" and "Gimme Back My Bullets" were unfocused and sloppy. They were in a rut. "Street Survivors" was ther rebirth. They sounded happy, reigned it and very very tight. I played it a lot on the air when we first got the LP. My favorite song was "I Never Dreamed" and next was "I Know A Little". All of us on staff were amazed at how good the band had become again. Then, they were gone. That was the first time I had ever interviewed anyone who had died. The music world is still effected by their influence. Look how big these guys are with rock and country listeners. They would have been superstars. October 20, 1977, I remember it very well.

RIP Ronnie, Steve and Cassie