SplatterTribe: So let's start from the beginning.

 

Richard Young: What happened is about in the mid 70's, of course we started in '68, but in about the mid 70's, they found out about us up here in Kentucky. They brought us down to Georgia and we were hanging around were Capricorn (Records) was and all of that stuff. That was Macon, but they had us in Atlanta. The high hope was that Phil Walden would sign us to Capricorn Records and we worked and worked and worked, you know. We played a lot of clubs around Atlanta. There was a lot of guys who had bands back in those days. I remember the Georgia Satellites, which they weren't called that back then, but they were playing. There were several great bands that come out of Georgia that were playing at that period of time. It was a good time to be in Atlanta, man. You know, .....The Electric Ballroom was goin' strong. If you ever look on the back of Ted Nugent's album, the one that says Ballroom in neon on it, That IS the Electric Ballroom.

 

The Capricorn people became very interested, obviously in getting Jimmy Carter elected and any kind of "music" things was starting to way at that point. You know Duane (Allman) was dead. You know, had passed away, he and Berry Oakley. So it was kind of a dark time for those guys, cause Phil had been through, you know, losing Otis Redding many years before that and then to have a band like The Allman Brothers and have those guys......die a tragic death, you know.

 

So we were down there, and it was a good time to be in Georgia, you know, cause Jimmy Carter was about to get elected.........Then when Ronnie (Van Zant) and those guys had the plane crash in (Lynyrd) Skynyrd, we just kind of looked at ourselves and said, "No one is going to sign no Southern Rock Band now", you know. As popular as Skynyrd was, you know, it was kind of like a black cloud.

 

We actually packed up the old potato chip truck and came home. Then in 1978 we were playing in Louisville (KY) at a place called Soundstage and we met a fellow.....Well, actually what happened was, we were setting down at home with my parents one day and it came a big snow and we couldn't do anything else. So we decided it was about time to look for another label and try to get a record deal. We started thinking about it and we pulled out a Led Zeppelin album and looked at the Swan Song label, which is kind of ridiculous being from Kentucky, I guess, in some peoples eyes. I got on the phone.

 

You gotta almost had gone to Swan Song Records and seen how it was set up to really appreciate this. When you went up on Rockefeller Center in New York and you go up to this floor and the door opens up. Led Zeppelin had the whole floor to themselves. There was this lady named Helen. This German lady. She kind of reminded you of one of those German girls on Hogan's Hero's, you know, like an army officer or sumthin'. So after we met her, we saw how weird it was.

 

Mitchell Fox (a Swan Song Records assistant) was one of those guys who couldn't miss taking a phone call. On his way out of his office one night, I think we called at like 7:00 at night in New York City, to the record company to see who was there. He was there and answered the phone. I don't know what I said to him, but whatever it was created an interest and he came down to Louisville and saw us play at the Soundstage and loved the band. As a matter a fact, he was only gonna stay for our set and fly back and he actually wound up staying three days. We became great friends. Mitchell got us in the studio. We recorded some stuff. He played it for Peter Grant (Executive for Swan Song Records) and Peter liked it. He played it for Jimmy Page. It was like, I don't know how hot Jimmy was on it, but I know Peter was and he was part of the label. So we would have probably been the first American band signed to Swan Song Records. Then John Bonham dies prematurely, of course, and they had to dissolve the label because the owners of the label were Led Zeppelin.

 

That was like a great shock to us, I got to tell you, because we thought we really had something goin' on there. Then we got to talking to Atlantic Records in New York. Right there it was a weird time. It was coming off the Disco spin and they were signing bands like, if you remember, Quarterflash. Just kind of, all those bands that came off a spin off of the Disco era and there were several of them. Blondie was one of them, but she was very, very successful at it, of course. She came through playing clubs hard and that sort of thing. (But) it was just that period of time and, I guess, major labels wasn't interested in signing a bunch of long-haired guys with holes in their jeans and t-shirts and so we kind of lost our calling.

 

Mitchell Fox was a smart enough guy. He had went to Nashville, Tennessee and there was a company down there called Acuff-Rose, which was actually owned by Wesley Rose and Roy Acuff. Wesley Rose's dad Fred was the guy who managed to put Hank Williams together....and made all of that stuff happen. But also what Acuff-Rose was known for was being the only company in Nashville, Tennessee that dabbled in Pop and Rock N Roll. They had Tom Jones. They had The Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, just numerous acts.

 

Mr. Rose took a liking to us and we hung out there for a couple of years. You know, Mitchell went back to New York. There was just a 5 year period there. I was driving back and forth to Nashville a couple of days a week....and meeting people. During that period of time, some of the other guys in the band took back-up jobs. We still convened as Itchy Brother, which was that name of the band back then. You know, we'd do a couple to three shows a year there for a couple of years. Greg (Martin, guitar) and Fred (Young, drums) were out playing instruments for Country artists, which was ridiculous when I look back on it.