Lynyrd Skynryd’s Artimus Pyle Coming to Grahamfest

Artimus Pyle wants to get back to work.
Free from a recent court trial in Florida, in which he was cleared of all charges stemming from an alleged driver’s license violation, the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame drummer now looks forward to playing a show at Grahamfest, just north of Wytheville, Va., on Sept. 5.
And what else?
The former drummer for Lynyrd Skynyrd is writing a book.
“I’m doing my book by chapters,” Pyle said during a telephone interview on Wednesday. “It’s writing itself.”
Pyle, 61, hopes to have his tell-all book completed within a year. And, in it, he will explore the stories of what it was like playing and touring with the original Lynyrd Skynyrd for three years in the mid-1970s and its reformation in the late 1980s, he said.
The drummer, who served in the U.S. Marines before recording Skynyrd hits like “Saturday Night Special,” is playing at Grahamfest with the Long Island Street Survivors, a tribute act.
“These are guys that truly love Lynyrd Skynyrd material. They work as hard as they can to recreate the parts and,” Pyle said, laughing, “they’re all from Long Island. They’re all Yankees.”
Pyle is a survivor of Skynyrd’s 1977 plane crash, in which he led a charge through the woods near McComb, Miss., looking for help.
Running in a swamp, Pyle said, two other men asked him to wait up, but Pyle looked back, saying, “I can’t wait. I gotta go. Every second is a drop of blood, and every drop of blood is somebody closer to death.”
The original group broke up after that deadly crash but reformed in 1987 with a few new members and has been touring and recording ever since. For almost five years, Pyle returned to the band but left soon after the release of a studio record, “1991.”
In more recent years, he’s released a solo album, “Artimus Venomous.”
He’s also made it a point to end feuds with Skynyrd bandmates.
Pyle hugged the late keyboard player Billy Powell backstage at the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in 2006, he said.
Then, earlier this year, Pyle said he approached Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington at Powell’s funeral and said, “If anything ever happened to you, I want you to know that I loved you.’”
Today, while Pyle does not play with Rossington’s version of Lynyrd Skynyrd, he stays busy on the road.
Two years ago, his band played for more than 3,000 people at the Labor Day Celebration of Saltville, Va.
“I’m going to play drums until I’m 100 years old,” Pyle promised. “Then I’m going to switch to standup comedy.”

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YOU SHOULD KNOW
Who: Artimus Pyle plays with Long Island Street Survivors
Where: Grahamfest, Grahams Forge, Va., off I-81 Exit 84
When: Sept. 5, 9 p.m.
Tickets: $40 for one-day pass (also features several other bands) or $50 for weekend pass. Children age 13 and younger admitted free with a paying adult.
Info: (276) 284-0006
Web: http://www.grahamfestusa.com