Pyle, Artimus (15th July 1948-Present)

He is a drummer, percussionist and singer-songwriter born Thomas Delmar Pyle in Louisville, Kentucky. His father was an architect, but also an occasional singer and conductor of swing bands and he was always surrounded by music, although says his interest in drums came from the sound of the hooves of the horses. His mother bought him bongos when he was 9 years old and by the time he was entering his teens, his father had got him a set of drums.

His family moved to Columbus, Ohio, when he was a teenager and he joined his first band, The Thom Thumbs, but this would all stop after graduation when he became the best honor recruit in the Marines in 1968. He left service on compassionate grounds after a plane his father was in was brought down by a B-57 in New Mexico.

Deciding to take further studies in music he entered Tennessee Technical College and this is where he was first called “Artimus” because he looked so young for his age.

Moving to South Carolina he became friends with the members of the Marshall Tucker Band through his then wife and this association resulted in him being hired by Charlie Daniels as a percussionist in his band. He also became a session drummer for the Marshall Tucker Band, but after he and Charlie Daniels had recommended him to Ronnie Van Zant he became a member of Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1974.

With them he would see success with songs such as “Saturday Night Special” and “Sweet Home Alabama”. In 1977 he was a victim in the plane crash that killed three of the band co-members. He apparently pulled himself out of the wreckage, suffering from a broken sternum, and made his way to get help from a farmhouse a short distance away but through swampland. There have been several accounts that say that the people living at the farm were unaware of the crash and met him with a gun, shooting him in the shoulder, although the son of the farmer has denied this.

In 1979, after a couple of years of recovery from the crash, he joined some other surviving members from Lynyrd Skynyrd in the band Alias.

1981 saw him forming his Artimus Pyle Band aka A.P.B. or All Points Bulletin and they would appear on tour and record several albums. Having moved to Jerusalem in Israel, he re-joined Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1987 after he was contacted that they were reforming and performed on their Skynyrd Tribute Tour and the album Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991.

Leaving them following this recording he began working as a solo artist and also appearing with other acts in the studio and on the road.

In 1993 he was given eight years probation for “sexual battery” of his two children and arrested twice 14 years later for not registering as a sexual offender.

He went on to co-found The Fenwicks with his two sons and then formed the trio The Truth before re-forming his band APB.

Artists he has worked with during the course of his career include the Atlanta Rhythm Section, Jo Jo Billingsley, Charlie Daniels, Paul Davis. Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Maria Muldaur and Carlos Santana to name a few.

Featuring on many albums, a few include his own Artimus Venomus as well as Contraband by Alias, Nightcaller by APB, Champagne Jam by the Atlanta Rhythm Section and Nuthin’ Fancy, One More for the Road, Street Survivors and Gimme Back My Bullets by Lynyrd Skynyrd.

The 2000s have seen him performing as Artimus Pyle & The Saturday Night Special Band in 2004, be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006 as a member of Lynyrd Skynyrd and appear as a touring member of Deep South in 2007.

The Atlanta Rhythm Section recordings
I’m Not Going to Let It Bother Me Tonight (Buddy Buie/Robert Nix/Dean Daughtry)
The Ballad of Lois Malone (Buddy Buie/Robert Nix/Dean Daughtry/Barry Bailey)
Champagne Jam (Buddy Buie/Robert Nix/J.R. Cobb)
The Great Escape (Buddy Buie/Robert Nix/Barry Bailey)

https://youtu.be/NYacMuOuoAc

Sources:

Pyle, Artimus (15th July 1948-Present)

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