They soon recorded a demo and sent it to Muscle Shoals producers David Hood and Jimmy Johnson, who had been involved in the Lynyrd Skynyrd sessions in 1971. The band invited Walker, who in the meantime had returned to Florida, to re-join the band in late 1973 and the classic Blackfoot line-up was complete. Soon they were playing bigger shows and support slots for Black Oak Arkansas and Johnny Winter, but the line-up did not last, as Stadler left to become a Methodist minister after a serious health problem. Medlocke reformed Blackfoot in North Carolina with Spires, Hargrett, and bass player Lenny Stadler. In November 1972, Medlocke and Walker left the band. This material wasn’t included on Skynyrd’s debut album, but was eventually released on the album First and Last (1978), and later on Skynyrd’s First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Album (1998). A few months later, Walker was also recruited to replace Larry Junstrom, the original bassist, and they recorded some tracks with the band at the Muscle Shoals studio. In 1971, Medlocke called his friend Allen Collins of Lynyrd Skynyrd to see if there was any work available, and he was invited to join as their drummer. The band then moved to Princeton, NJ, but work there was also intermittent and the band members grew disillusioned. The band soon lost their accommodation and moved to Mount Freedom, New Jersey, but the live music scene there was seasonal, and the gigs dried up in the summer when the student population returned home. Unfortunately, the British band of that name released their hit single “Alright Now” around that time, and Walker’s band quickly changed their name again to Blackfoot, acknowledging some of the members’ Native American heritage (although none are of Blackfoot ancestry).

During this period, they discovered that there was another band named Hammer, so they changed their name to Free. This led to an offer of work, and in March 1970, they moved into Nancy’s apartment in Manhattan, and soon began to play on the New York club circuit. While in Gainesville, the band became friends with Nancy O’Connor, who was working for a music publishing company in New York, and she encouraged the band to send her boss a demo. The band renamed themselves Hammer and then relocated to Gainesville to work at Dub’s Bar as the house band. Medlocke swapped to vocals, and they invited Jakson Spires to return and play drums, alongside keyboard player DeWitt Gibbs and guitarist Jerry Zambito. In the summer of 1969, they played at The Comic Book Club in Jacksonville seven nights a week, but when Sciabarasi was drafted to serve in Vietnam, the line-up changed. Walker had intended to play drums in the band but ended up playing bass as they didn’t have a bassist. When he was thirteen, he saw The Beatles at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, and this inspired him to pursue a musical career.Īfter he left high school, Walker formed Fresh Garbage with Ricky Medlocke on drums, guitarist Charlie Hargrett and keyboard player Ron Sciabarasi. This band played bowling alleys, school dances, and youth clubs around Jacksonville, but the band split up after a few months. Ricky’s grandfather also helped by showing Greg some simple guitar chords when he was starting out.īy the age of ten, he had formed his first band, the Rockin’ Aces, with Medlocke, Spires, and some other friends from their Junior High school. Walker attended kindergarten with Ricky Medlocke and Jakson Spires, and this friendship would develop into a musical collaboration that would later become Blackfoot. Soon, he was also taking piano lessons, then began to play guitar, and later played saxophone in his school band. When he was five, his mother bought him a ukulele, and he quickly learned to play simple melodies. Walker was born on the 8th July 1951 in Jacksonville, Florida, a hotbed of musical activity that spawned The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Molly Hatchet.

Take five tab bass