DeWitt Gibbs

DeWITT GIBBS

The Southern hard rock band Blackfoot also has strong Native American roots and chose the band name to highlight this, though they are not so well known for their heritage as Redbone. The band is from Jacksonville, Florida, with two of the bandmembers – drummer and vocalist Rickey Medlocke (Sioux) and bass guitarist Greg T. Walker (Eastern Creek) – performing in a band called Fresh Garbage in the spring of 1969 with New York City native Charlie Hargrett (lead guitar) and Ron Sciabarasi (keyboards).

After Sciabarasi moved on by the fall, three members of a band called Tangerine – Jakson Spires (Cherokee) on drums and backing vocals, DeWitt Gibbs on keyboards and backing vocals, and Jerry Zambito on lead guitar – joined Rickey Medlocke (who by then had switched to playing guitar), Greg T. Walker and Charlie Hargrett in a new band called Hammer. When they learned that a West Coast band already had this name, the band changed its name to Blackfoot.

(August 2013)