Derek Hess plays drums with the Rossington Collins Band, a group made up of Lynyrd Skynyrd band members plus some new faces. Derek is one of those new faces, and we first met at a Rossington Collins concert in Holmdel, New Jersey on July 16, 1981. I’d arrived a few hours before showtime and began reading the concert program. “We’ve always been very determined people,” Gary Rossington says. “The word ‘defeat’ is not in our dictionary. We never learned how to quit. We’ve got some great musicians, people who care as much as we do, and we’re excited and proud of what we’ve put together.” To which Allen Collins added, “We have a goal to be the best band in the world and we will not be defeated.” My first impression of Skynyrd was from a carpenter who used to blast “Free Bird” on a cassette machine while he hammered […]

May 1982 Issue