Every musical genre has a starting point. For metal, a genre with countless subgenres to its name, there’s no shortage of bands credited as pioneers and founders in the worlds of black metal, death metal, thrash metal, power metal, and so forth. But what about southern metal? This ultra-niche is usually used to describe acts like Down, Black Label Society, and the ’90s output of Corrosion of Conformity. However, to find the true origins of the genre, we must go back even further to the ’70s. The first band to be branded “southern metal” by the press was none other than Blackfoot. Straddling the line between the downhome southern rockin’ of their local scene and ferocious metal maneuvers of acts like Judas Priest and UFO, Blackfoot proved crucially influential on hard and heavy music, their impact still heard to this day. We sat down with founding bassist, Greg T. Walker, to reflect upon this legacy, being embraced by the NWOBHM crop, and his equally heavy new venture, Two Wolf.
Greetings Greg and welcome to Defenders of the Faith! How are you doing today?
Greg T. Walker: I’m doing fantastic! How about you?
I am doing fantastic myself. You have a lot to feel fantastic about, as you have a brand new endeavor, Two Wolf. When did Two Wolf come together and how long had you worked on the band’s eponymous debut album?
GTW: I formed the band in 2015 and had some people in and out. Lance Lopez was the first guitarist about two months, but he had a busy schedule already planned, so he left. We brought Chris Bell in, who I had known for some years. He had a busy schedule, so a few years went by and we remained a three piece without either of those guys. All the chords fell into place. We got them both back in the band at the same time. It’s been a blessing.
We started work on the Two Wolf album about a year and a half ago. We did not have a record deal. We simply decided to go in and do an album’s worth of material. I’d say it took four trips in and out of the studio. “Well, we have an album. What do we do with it?” I had had a prior relationship with Cleopatra Records, and Lance had as well. We contacted them, they listened to it. They said, “We love it.” Boom, done deal.
You mention you were in the studio about four time. I assume the band cut it together and live?
GTW: Yeah, we’re all in the same room, so pretty loud. Some of the amps were behind glass, but you could still hear it. It was like playing a live show.
That seems to be more and more like a lost art these days. I can’t tell you how many bands I interview who record remotely, sending parts to each other and whatnot.
GTW: Yeah, that would leave me out because I don’t know how to do any of that *laughs*. “Oh, it’s easy!” It’s easy for you to say! We got in the studio live and each time, we were all four in the same room. You just can’t replace that. You may have to go in and fix a part, one guy, but that’s a minute. You miss a note on a fretboard. You get a buzz or a squeak, but otherwise, start to finish, it’s all four of us going wide open. That’s the way to do it.
Especially for this type of music. In many ways, Two Wolf seems to pick up where Blackfoot left off. This album is raw, heavy, energetic, and unapologetically southern. How important is it for you to adhere to these musical traditions?
GTW: I’ve been a musician since I was 5. That’s when I got a ukulele. I would not know life without music. I started in the early days listening to my older siblings’ music of the day, and not really thinking a lot about it, but it got embedded. Then, you get older and I formed my first band at 10 with Jackson Spires and Rickey Medlocke. We had already been playing little teeny tine places. 8 years later, the three of us, with the addition of Charlie Hargrett, became Blackfoot. Its been a lifelong friendship.
We endured some of the changes when…we formed in 1969. We did an album in ’75 and an album in ’76. Then, we went three years without a label, and we did Strikes, which went through the roof. It went gold in 8 months. We became a 10 year overnight success, as I say *laughs*. We were touring the country, then Europe a lot. The biggest change for me was the end of ’82 into ’83, when hair bands, as we call them, hit the scene. That took over all the airwaves. We became dinosaurs to a lot of people. “That’s old.”
We never changed. We never wavered until the very last record, under pressure from the record company. They were suggesting songs. I think we recorded 62 tracks for that album, just to get 10 songs. “I like this one, but I don’t like the other 10.” You couldn’t please ’em. We finished it. That was the kiss of death. That was the Vertical Smiles record. We did not sound like the original Blackfoot. There are a few songs on it in your face, but it was a little bit more commercially oriented.
The record company puts you in a bad position. They say, “We know what you like, but we know what we like, and we’ve been in this business a long time.” I’m thinking, “So have we!” “We just think this song should take precedence over that song.” And if you refuse, they’ll drop you like a hot potato, which they wound up doing anyway. You can’t please ’em. Bad, bad! We were doing that record and Steve Morse lived in the Atlanta area where we were for that particular album. He would drop by.
So many people that lived in that area would come in and say hello, spend a couple of hours. We had a lot of support from our peers, as we call them. I’m trying to think who all did show up. A lot of people! That’s what became known as the very last record. We never recovered from that. We disbanded in 1986. It broke my heart, and always will, but you keep going. I got a brand new record out, and happily so!
On that note, would you say you have more creative freedom now with Two Wolf than you did with Blackfoot, if only because you don’t have a major label breathing down your neck?
GTW: Absolutely. That’s why when we turned the record in, we had already recorded it. We had graphics, artwork, credits, cover design, everything. All Cleopatra had to do was duplicate it. They never once even mentioned the idea of, “Before we get this thing in duplication, would you mind going back and removing this song? We have a song we would like you to do.” That never came up. They just went, “We love it!”, just like it is. Whether it succeeds or fails, it’s all on us 100% *laughs*. You can’t blame anybody. We all got to do what we wanted to do for the first time. Now we’re working on number two, and I hope one day I can say we’re working on number ten! There’s always gonna be one more album.
Did you have any hesitations or skepticism about starting a new band? Furthermore, in what ways does playing with Two Wolf compare or contrast to your time with Blackfoot?
GTW: Well, Blackfoot had such a long history, 24 years for me. It’s what I knew how to do best, that style of hard rock. We were always called a southern rock band, and yeah, we’re from the south. We knew a lot of these people. At the same time we were coming up, nobody had a record deal, so we were friends, but we were always a harder edged band. I loved what the other bands did too, but sometimes it was leaning a little bit towards country rock in a respect. It was not quite as hard rock, but they’re all great bands.
To your question, because I came out of a band that was together so many years and with two childhood friends, I never thought about having to change anything. This is what I do and what I do best. I don’t know how to do it any other way. We’re gonna see what happens. Fortunately, Chris and Lance love the Blackfoot catalog. We wound up, as you know, with three Blackfoot songs on this debut album. At first, I said, “One would be enough, maybe two. Three?” They go, “We love these songs so much. We wanna record ’em.” I said, “OK, majority rules!” So we did.
Yes, besides the original songs, there’s rerecords of “Diary of a Working Man”, “Fox Chase”, and “Too Hard to Handle”. What was it about these songs that made the band want to revisit them for this album?
GTW: Lance and Chris both in unison said, “We really wanna do these.”, so we did. “Too Hard to Handle”, that’s really in your face. That was the beauty of that. That was quickly done. The others? I’ve told the story before. We never played “Diary” live in Blackfoot, never did a live performance of that in the set, so for the first time, we’re doing it live. We’ve been doing it live for two, maybe three years now. If you’re lucky at some shows, they’ll have an acoustic mounted on a stand, so Lance can walk up and play like the original record. We redid it, the same thing. If not, he just does it on electric. When we do that song, I never thought about that in the earlier years…Blackfoot never performed that live. It’s one of my favorite songs. I think it was all of ours favorite song, in the band at that time.
Was there a reason you never played it live?
GTW: No, not that I remember any specific reason. It’s one of those things where we always had a lot of songs to record. There were always 6 to 8 leftover. You’d reach in a hat and pull out, “There’s track 1, track 2.” But I don’t know a real reason why we never did “Diary of a Working Man” live, other than we refused to ever do a ballad at that time. That was the kiss of death. Other people were doing it and they sold platinum records, but I guess we were more driven towards rock in your face. It was always one of my favorites in the catalog.
Actually, on the original version, I used a mellotron. It’s a keyboard. They don’t even make them anymore *laughs*. It’s just tapes for every key. If you hit the key, it lasted 7 second. Then, you had to let go and hit it again. I wanted a flute part, like a Native American flute, and I couldn’t get it. When we recorded it this time in Two Wolf, a friend of mine who lives in Nashville came in. I knew he played violin and he brought in a cello. It’s not a real prominent part, but you listen and you can hear a cello. He was bowing that thing like that and I got the chills. That’s what I wanted in the original version, because it’s an actual cello. I love orchestration, so I finally got my wish. It only took 100 years *laughs*, but I got it.
I’d like to go back in time to your musical beginnings. Growing up, what bands first caught your ear and got you interested in music? Was there any one band or artist above all who inspired you to pursue music?
GTW: The Beatles. I saw The Beatles at the Gator Bowl in 1965. I got a little plaque over here on the bookshelf. I never heard a note they played. It was just 50,000 screaming girls in a football stadium. The tickets were $5 a piece. I’m just sitting there mesmerized. At that time, they probably had their fourth or fifth album out. They did two or three a year. I’m sitting there enthralled in what’s going on. Pandemonium, just screams from girls! I took a girl with me and I pointed at the stage and said, “That’s what I wanna be when I grow up.” She said, “What?” I said, “That!” She said, “What is that?” “That! Them!” “I don’t get it.” “I wanna be in a band like that.” “You’ve been in a band since you were 10 years old.” I said, “I know, but I wanna be that. I wanna be big, global.” I got my wish!
Amidst various early incarnations of Blackfoot, yourself and Rickey Medlock spent roughly a year in Lynyrd Skynyrd, during the band’s demo era. What events led to your stint with the band, and are there any memories that immediately come to mind of the late Ronnie Van Zant?
GTW: Rickey actually joined them a few months before I did. Blackfoot was still living up north. We kind of oversaturated the market. It was harder to get gigs. Ronnie got the number where we lived from Rickey’s mother. Rickey happened to answer the phone. I could hear his end of the conversation. He said, “OK, I’ll do it. I’ll be there.” Then, he hung up. I said, “What was that all about?” He said, “Skynyrd lost their drummer and they want a drummer.” Rickey was a drummer. We’ve all been drummers. If you’re a musician, you’ve played drums for a minute, 99 out of 100.
He left and three months later, I got the call. The bass player got let go, who later wound up in 38 Special, had a great career. I came in on bass and we did a full album at Muscle Shoals. It didn’t come out until three years later. There was one track on Street Survivors, and five I believe on First and…Last, but we did 9 tracks start to finish. They came out over the years on different compilations. The last time I looked, my name’s on 18 Skynyrd records. It’s “Hits You Remember”, “Hits You Forgot”, “Hits You Don’t Like”, whatever title they came up with *laughs*.
It was a great time because we were already friends, same with the Allman Brothers when they were still The Second Coming. Ronnie and Gary (Rossington) and I would come here where I live today. This is my dad’s old hunting camp, just one room that I added onto since. We would come here and squirrel hunt. None of us had cars. Judy, Ronnie’s wife, would bring us over here, drop us off. We’d stop in town and get soda crackers and Vienna sausage, whatever we could make quickly to survive, and we would go out in the woods everyday and hunt. I’d clean the squirrel and we’d cook ’em for supper.
We did that several times. We didn’t even bring guitars with. This was our departure. This was our clear your head. I didn’t have a telephone, clock, radio, TV, or nothing. It was just a hunting camp. Pure heaven. Now I’ve got everything *laughs*. We remained friends, but to finish that story, in a little bit less than a year, I went to Rickey and I said, “We love these guys. We’ve been friends a long time, but I feel the urge to reform Blackfoot and finish what we started. We’re a harder edged band.” He said, “I agree.” So we both left at the same time, with their blessings. We remained friends ’til the plane crash.
Expanding upon the last question, when Skynyrd achieved commercial success, and I guess we can throw the Allmans into this conversation as well, how did the scene react? Was it a shock that one of your own made it, so to speak, amidst a sea of rock acts from the coasts?
GTW: Yeah, it absolutely was. First, the Allman Brothers. They gained success very early on in less than a year. Our first show as Blackfoot was with them. Actually, they were called The Second Coming and we were called Tangerine. I wasn’t in that band. Jackson was. We had two weeks. We made it to the semi-finals, so when we came back, I had formed Blackfoot with Rickey and I, Jackson and Charlie. The Allman Brothers, or Second Coming, had changed their name to the Allman Brothers. That was a different lineup. We were both disqualified, but were allowed to perform.
Within 6 months, the Allman Brothers were top of the charts. It was quick for them, but well deserved for any of us because we’d already been playing for 15 years as kids. That did pave the way. Of course, Marshall Tucker got known a little bit before Skynyrd. Outlaws, the same thing, but Skynyrd was right there in the thick of it. Blackfoot was a little bit detached because we were harder rock, even though they called us southern rock, but we got through all of that. We were all dear friends. The ones that live today, we still are, but we’re losing them everyday it seems.
When I think of the Floridian southern tock crop, whether it be Skynyrd, Hatchet, Outlaws, and so forth, all of these bands could rock out when they wanted to. For Blackfoot, however, the heavy riffs and energetic songs were at the forefront, so much so that many consider the band to be the godfathers of southern metal.
GTW: I agree.
What was it that pushed the band towards this more aggressive sound?
GTW: It was just a natural order of things. It did it itself. We didn’t set out to do it. It’s what we preferred to do. It really took the European audience to get that name out. It was them that started calling us southern metal. There was a particular guy that coined that phrase that I got to meet eventually. That’s why we did so well in Europe, because we were in your face. It wasn’t as bluesy and laidback as the other bands. All great bands, of course, but we were like that headbanging AC/DC vibe. That’s what they liked!
You’d look out in the theater and the balcony, and we’re playing and those guys are doing that *starts headbanging*. That’s why they became known as headbangers. That’s why. You’re like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah! Rock!” *pumps fist* It was them. I give them full credit. They embraced us from the first tour. We went over in September or October of ’79, and we came back. From ’80 through ’84, we would go to Europe sometimes three times a year.
I read across an old itinerary a few months ago. One tour, we did 45 dates in 51 days. That’s insane. That’s less than a day off a week. That’s one day off every few weeks, and we’re travelling everyday. We did Donington and Reading, Monsters of Rock. Here we are with Deep Purple and all the big bands of the era. We all became friends because of that. We wound up touring with them over here later. We did 45 dates with The Who and we did about 45 with Deep Purple, US and Canada. Those guys treated us just like their very own.
I’ll never put up with a smart-mouthed, snotty-nosed, little brat kid just because he learned to play guitar and has got a gold record, but he’s a jerk. I’ve worked with the best and they treated us as equals. They were friendly, and their crew was friendly to our crew. Everyday, it was like, “You guys have everything you need? Are you missing anything?” “No, no. We’re good!” Rush, that was another band, first class. Every single day, they’d come knock on the door, “Hey man, can we get a minute?” “Yeah, man! Come on in!” They thought they were disturbing us *laughs*. Not at all! What a nice bunch of guys.
Taking that relationship with the UK into consideration, Blackfoot was part of that small handful of American bands alongside Riot, Y&T, Twisted Sister, and so forth, who were almost honorary NWOBHM acts. That crowd welcomed you with open arms. When you first made it over there, and you’re being covered by Kerrang! and playing those big festivals, was there a bit of culture shock, or did it feel natural?
GTW: Very natural. We just happened to fit in, luckily. We always felt very fortunate that that happened. It could’ve gone either way. Hatchet went over there and they did OK. That was later on in the late ’70s, but of all the bands from the south, we turned out to be the most loved band over there because of the style of music. They don’t like ballads. They want everything four to the floor!
In the ’70s, it wasn’t uncommon for bands to release albums annually, or sometimes even multiple album in a single year. In the case of Blackfoot, there was a three year gap in between the band’s sophomore album, Flyin’ High, and the classic Strikes. What was the band up to in those three years leading up to the beginning of that iconic trilogy?
GTW: Flyin’ High and the one before it (No Reservations), they didn’t sell 30-40,000 copies. That was it. It came out and just went out to the bottom of the ocean, so we didn’t have a record label. We just kept writing and kept crisscrossing the country in a van, had a Ford van. Then, we got hooked up with a manager whose sister worked at Atco at Warner Bros. They sent somebody out to hear us in a club in New Jersey, and basically signed us on the spot. That erased that three year hiatus.
We never stopped. Of course, we were still playing a lot of dates every year, but we did Strikes and nobody could’ve planned that. It just came out and sold like hotcakes. It went gold in 8 months and it went platinum. I don’t know what it wound up. Last time I heard it was 1.8 (million). That was a long time ago. I do have a platinum record there *points to wall*, but that was just platinum. We never stopped between Flyin’ High and Strikes. When Strikes came out, we went through the roof. We were like, “Wow!” It was instant. We were shocked! We jumped up and down.
Then, we went out with Alvin Lee and Black Oak Arkansas. Halfway through the tour, we got moved up to the middle slot and Black Oak was the opening act. We were great friends. They hugged us and said, “We’ve had our day. You deserve it.” We’d been friends a long time. Next thing you know, it’s The Who and Deep Purple. Every band that was out at that time, we wound up touring with, and a lot of dates. Not two or three, but like 40 or 50. Ted Nugent took us out a lot. We’re still friends to this day…but we never talk about music *laughs*. It’s guns and bows!
He called me a little over a month ago now, out of the blue. “Are you ready for hunting season?” He never, ever talked about a song. Even back in the day, sitting out in the pool at 2 in the morning, all we ever talked about was hunting. I sent him a picture. I got a bow here that I made out of hickory years ago, the arrows and all. He said, “Spirit bow and spirit arrows.” I went, “I never thought about it that way.” I made them with my own two hands, with no power tools. It was a draw knife that was my granddaddy’s. I got a deer with it. The horns are right there. I told Ted, “Don’t pay any attention to the horns. It’s just a small six point.”, but I spent a year making that bow and practicing. I had full confidence. It was a good clean shot. He shoots those big racks like this *holds arms out*. We don’t have that in Florida.
He’s still a big supporter and a lifelong friend. That’s one of the bands that…he took us out a lot, and we always got along great. We watched his lineup changes. He was the constant. I should make a list one day of what became known as world class bands. We did shows with all of them. Uriah Heep! Our earlier influences were Uriah Heep, Wishbone Ash, and Deep Purple, before they ever broke in the US. They were import albums. People thought that was our music. We said, “No, no, no, that was a cover song!” “Where’d you find it?” “In a record shop in a cutout bin.” *laughs* Those bands had already had two or three albums out each!
Strikes, Tomcattin’, and Marauder is widely regarded as one of the finest trilogies of all time. When it came to those albums, were they all written separate from each other or had the band accumulated a backlog of songs that you then picked and chose from to build those records?
GTW: Rickey and Jackson were the primary songwriters, riding down the road in the back of a bus or in a hotel room without an amp, just acoustically playing riffs. We were always working on new music. Sometimes, we would work one up at a soundcheck if nobody else was in there except the crews. By the time we got ready to record, because there was one a year there for a long time, we might’ve taken one or two days to go over everything 10 times each. Then, we’d go in there and we’d knock all the basic tracks out in two days.
Then, it was overdubs after that: Vocals, additional guitar, something like that. I’d do a little piano part sometimes on a song. You don’t really hear it. If you listen to it now, you’ll hear single notes once in a while. It was not meant to be a featured part anyway. We weren’t a keyboard band. We were always writing and we always had 6 or 8 songs leftover after each record. I don’t know what happened to those tracks. There’s enough probably for 3 full albums. I have no idea who has them.
Would it be ATCO or whoever owns the right to the company now?
GTW: I don’t have a clue. I’ve thought about it many times. Somebody’s got the masters somewhere. They were finished tracks!
So those three albums are essentially the best songs out of a larger collection that was assembled for each record.
GTW: Right. Strikes, Tomcattin’, and Marauder, that’s the trilogy, you’re right. And then, this is another record company story. They were wanting us to change our hairstyle, our clothing, get with the new stuff, the hair bands. “We don’t wear fishnet stockings. We don’t wear makeup. Sorry guys, we draw the line.” But the pressure was on to get a little more commercial oriented because the hair bands always had that catchy hooked, and it worked with them.
By the time we got to Vertical Smiles, I don’t remember how many trips we made to the studio. It was a lot. We’d come. We’d play for a month and we’d come back in and be writing while we were out on the road. That album took a good year, off and on, to finish, maybe a little bit over a year. It’s not the strongest album we did. There’s a couple things that are real strong, but we did sixty something tracks. That’s a lot! Then, the record company said…and we had to at least demo it to make them happy. We couldn’t just say, “Oh no.”, because they’d drop you like a hot potato.
We kept going and we finished it. At the last minute, we left the studio to go home. Three days later, I get a call that said, “Are you sitting down?” “No.” “Sit down, I have something to tell you.” I thought somebody died. “What’s up?” “Remember three days ago we were in the studio with the top brass from Atco and they sat there and they listened to the full album and they said, “It’s a masterpiece. You guys reinvented yourselves. It’s gonna be a million seller out of the box.”?” “Yeah, I remember.” “They just turned down side B.” “In 72 hours, they went from raving about it to it sucks?!” That began going back and back and back and replacing song after song. It got out of control. We lost anyway in the very end. That was the last record.
Going back to the extra songs recorded during the trilogy era, at any point was a double album considered, or did that seem a little much for the band?
GTW: I never remember discussing a double album. Something else too, after the trilogy, that next album, Siogo, we added Ken Hensley. That was something else the record company wanted, keyboards. The first one we thought of was Jon Lord. We called Jon Lord and he said, “If you would’ve called me two weeks ago I’d have been on the next plane to America. I just signed with a new band called Whitesnake.” Our next choice was Ken Hensley, so he came into the fold, and Ken was a really talented guy.
He was a great keyboard player, played the hell out of the slide guitar, really, really did, and lead guitar. Great voice, great writer, a lot different from us. He used to say, “You guys take the Shakespeare out of me and I’ll correct your spelling.” *laughs* That was his famous quote. Of course, he’s passed away, but Kenny and I were really close, dear friends. We hit it off the first day we met. We just had a really strong bond. That hurt when he passed. I knew he was sick, but he reached out to me a couple months before.
I didn’t know it at the time, but that was his way of saying goodbye. Two months later, when he passed, I reread it and I said, “That’s what he was trying to tell me without saying the words.” That changed the sound of the band a lot. We didn’t want keyboards. We were a guitar-driven band, but that was that pressure from the record company. Parts of its were good, and other parts were cheesy. We gave it everything we had.
Funny enough, Siogo is one of my favorite Blackfoot albums. How do you feel about it in hindsight?
GTW: Of course, MTV was big at that time. We had to do the videos. Oh, that was horrible, my God. We’re musicians, not actors! I would prefer that record over Vertical Smiles, for sure. Siogo was still pretty strong. It had some good moments in it, and you could hear Ken’s influence because he co-wrote some things. I like that album too. It was the very last one (I liked) because of the record company changing and making us replace song after song. It got crazy and the material, to me, was weaker. We had plenty of material. They just didn’t want it. They wanted the lighter stuff. They said, “This will sell better. Then, when it does, you can go back to doing what you like.” I’ve heard that story before *laughs* “Just do it our way the first time. Then you can write your own ticket.” That’s a lie *laughs*. Siogo was a good time with Kenny. We toured a lot. That’s a great record.
What always struck me about that album was the way it still balanced the synths and the hooks with heaviness. “Send Me an Angel” might be my favorite Blackfoot song.
GTW: Yeah, I heard an English band cover that song about 10 years ago. They put a little bit of a metal edge to it. Man, it was killer! They didn’t change the arrangement. They just played with heavier guitars. That was a good song. The video was horrible, oh my God! MTV *laughs* doesn’t work for me. That was a fun song to play!
Which album of the Blackfoot catalog holds closes to your heart and why?
GTW: Well the first one, No Reservations, partly because it was the first. We were young and so full of energy. Our eyes were just wide open. We went in there and Muscle Shoals was an R&B studio. They were used to Aretha Franklin and Otis Redding. When Rick and I had been in there with Skynyrd, prior to that, that’s what led us to go back to Muscle Shoals. We sent them a demo of 5 or 6 songs. They liked it and they said, “Come on down. We’ll record you and we’ll try to shop you a deal.” And they did.
I think…I said this recently and I got nailed for it because the interviewer misinterpreted what I was saying, but I think out of the Blackfoot catalog, from No Reservations through Vertical Smiles, it would be Tomcattin’. Off the strength of Strikes, which got us out there and made us a household name for a minute, then we could go back and do what we liked to do, which was that hard edged rock. That album is my favorite as far as the strongest material. That’s really in your face. Some of Marauder too, but Tomcattin’, to me, that was Blackfoot. That was definitely Blackfoot. That’s what we were supposed to be.
It’s a tremendous album.
GTW: Yeah, the production was so much better. Strikes was done in a mobile unit. We were all in the same room, but the truck was outside with cables running to the building. I think there was a little monitor like that where you could see the guys in the control room, but that record to me was always thin sounding. It’s a shame, because it’s a good record, but it sounded like it was recorded in somebody’s garage. In a sense, it kind of was. It was a basement with a mobile unit in the parking lot *laughs*. It didn’t come out with the heavier tone that we had hoped for, but you live and learn. You can’t go back and undo it.
Tomcattin’ was my favorite, especially in Europe. Oh my God, they embraced that. That’s what we’re talking about! Then, we got adopted, for sure. That was 1980! It was a matter of luck and timing, and that put us on the map over there. We had already done a couple of shows with AC/DC, but that led to us doing a whole tour with them. We did a lot of festival dates over in Europe with them. We did several US tours here, even when Bon Scott was still alive. When he passed and Brian (Johnson) came in, we did I know one full tour and some one-offs here and there.
Brian’s a great guy too. He stepped right in. That’s hard to do, to replace Bon Scott. Here comes Brian. If you A-B it, you can hardly tell the difference. Other bands have faced the same problem and they found somebody good, but it’s not the same. I love the AC/DC guys. What a great bunch of guys, what’s left. Oh man.
Tomcattin’ turns 45 this year. Bringing this conversation all together, when you look back at Blackfoot’s catalog and its lasting impact and legacy, are you amazed? To this day, I think you’re the only band to be covered by Dolly Parton and Exodus!
GTW: I heard Dolly Parton on the Bob and Tom Show. They’re DJs. Now it’s the Bob and Sherry Show. I guess Tom passed away. I never met ’em, but I used to listen to that in the mornings and Dolly Parton was the guest. She did “Train Train” in bluegrass. When they said she was gonna do it, I said, “Oh my God.” It was brilliant! Then, she did “Free Bird”. Artimus Pyle and a couple of his bandmates were here. Artie told the guy, “Go get your laptop. I wanna play this for Greg T.”
Of course, it wasn’t out yet, but it was Dolly Parton doing “Free Bird”. I’m thinking, “This is gonna suck.” It was brilliant. I said, “What’s she really like in person?” They said, “Exactly the way she is on TV. She’s bubbly. She’s a jokester, prankster. She laughs at her own mistakes. She’s always bouncing off the walls with energy.” She did “Train Train” and she did another Blackfoot song too.
“Highway Song”?
GTW: No. I remember “Train Train” because she did that bluegrass. Maybe it wasn’t released, but I know she recorded another track. It blew me away, and I still want to meet her one day. I want to give her a hug and say, “You’re tops. You’re the real deal.”
In closing, what does the future have in store for you and Two Wolf? Can we expect a busy 2026 ahead?
GTW: Absolutely. I’m leaving Friday for the weekend show. I think we got a couple dates in South Florida in November. We’ve got one not far from here, I’m in north Florida, about 40 miles below Georgia, about halfway between here and there, in February. Then, we do the Rock Legends Cruise in February. It’ll be number 13 for me. It’s a blast, man. You gotta do it one of these days. 20 bands, every band plays 3 shows.
We’re already talking about the next record. In fact, we started that when we were finishing up the current one. We only had a couple of days left and it’s like, “Man, can’t wait to work on the next one.” Everyone was like, “Yeah!” There will be another album out I’m sure next year. If we can find the right talent buyer or booking agent, they’re a necessary evil that can get this band out on the road, we’re ready to go like the old days. Put us in a bus and say, “I’ll see you at Christmas.” I’m fine. I’d come home two or three times a year for three days and go right back out. That’s what I like.
The new Two Wolf album, Two Wolf, is available now on Cleopatra Records. For more information on Two Wolf and Greg T. Walker, click here.