Is there a soul on Earth who hasn’t heard the famous “One, Two, Three…” count-off to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama”? Or the even more famous Strat-driven guitar intro to the same song? Sadly, the artist behind both of those etched-in-stone rock ‘n’ roll moments has left us; guitarist/songwriter Ed King passed away at his home in Nashville, Tennessee, on August 22, 2018.
King first rose to prominence as one of the founding members of Strawberry Alarm Clock in the mid-1960s. The LA-based psychedelic rock band hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967 with the song “Incense and Peppermints,” which King cowrote, though he was not credited for the song. He first met the members of Lynyrd Skynyrd when the band opened for Strawberry Alarm Clock in 1968. In 1972, Skynyrd tapped King as bassist to replace Leon Wilkeson, who had left the band. When Wilkeson returned, King moved to guitar, completing the famous three-guitar “classic” lineup that was responsible for much of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s distinctive sound.
King contributed guitar and songwriting to the first three Lynyrd Skynyrd albums: Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd, Second Helping, and Nuthin’ Fancy. He cowrote “Sweet Home Alabama,” “Saturday Night Special,” “Whiskey Rock-a-roller,” “Workin’ for MCA,” and several other Skynyrd hits. He left the band during the Torture Tour in 1975.
In 1987, King, along with other surviving members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, reunited for a tribute tour that resulted in the band launching a new chapter in their career. He remained with the group until 1996, when health issues forced him to leave again.
Ed King and the “pre-crash” members of Lynyrd Skynyrd were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. He continued to make music until his passing, appearing in 2014 on Skinny Molly’s Here for a Good Time.
The impact of the music of Lynyrd Skynyrd and Ed King’s contributions to it — catchy songs, harmony guitars, southern boogie, honky-tonk and country influences combined with crunchy rock, and the big guitar tones — continue to influence musicians nearly 50 years later and were a defining factor in the popular rise of the southern rock genre. From all of us at Sweetwater, we’d like to express our appreciation for Ed King’s contributions to rock music, and our condolences to his family, friends, and fans.