Blackfoot (band)

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Blackfoot
Origin	Jacksonville, Florida
Genre(s)	Southern rock, hard rock
Years active	1972-1996 2004-present
Associated acts	Lynyrd Skynyrd, Uriah Heep
Members
Bobby Barth Greg T. Walker Charlie Hargrett Michael Sollars
Former members
Rickey Medlocke Jakson Spires Ken Hensley Christoph Ullmann Jerry James

Blackfoot is a Southern rock band from Jacksonville, Florida. They were formed in 1972 and were contemporaries of Lynyrd Skynyrd, and tried for years to make it as a Southern rock band, although they were more popular as a hard rock outfit.^[1] They had a number of hit albums in the 1970s and early 1980s (including Strikes (1979), Tomcattin' (1980), and Marauder (1981)) before their popularity started to wane. They had broken up by 1984, though not before former Uriah Heep keyboardist/songwriter Ken Hensley had joined the group during their last couple of years together.

Frontman Rickey Medlocke revived the name in 1987 with a new backing group and released two additional albums ("Medicine Man" and "After The Reign"). "Medicine Man" was not a commercial success but is generally considered the finest Blackfoot album.

In 1996, Medlocke disbanded the group, and rejoined Lynyrd Skynyrd this time as a guitarist.

In 2004 a second resurrection of Blackfoot took place with founding members Jakson Spires, Greg T. Walker and Charlie Hargrett. Medlocke was not available, however, and the frontman role was given to Bobby Barth. Tragedy struck in March 2005 when Spires died suddenly of an aneurysm, but the band decided to persevere for the time being^{[citation needed]}. Following the will of Spires, Austrian drummer Christoph Ullmann was hired as permanent drummer. In 2006, the band toured and was backed up by Jay Johnson on guitar and vocals. A live DVD was released in 2007. In 2007, the band is touring and consists of bassist Greg T. Walker, guitarist Charlie Hargrett, guitarist and lead vocalist Bobby Barth, and drummer Michael Sollars. In April of 2007, Blackfoot released Johnson.