Whiskey River: America’s Number One Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Band.
For over 40 years now Whiskey River has been playing the music of Lynyrd Skynyrd and in the process earned themselves the title of “America’s Number One Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Band”. Who better to put our questions to than long time Whiskey River band member and manager – Mr. Bill Majkut.
Q – Bill, who do you portray in Whiskey River? It doesn’t say on your website?
A – Oh, Leon Wilkeson, the bass player.
Q – That might be something you want to add to your website.
A – Good point.
Q – Before Whiskey River this group was known as Whiskey Creek.
A – That’s true.
Q – Then your drummer of 28 years leaves in September of 2010 and you change the name to Whiskey River. Why would that be?
A – Well actually he moved to lead vocals the last few years. It gets into drama but basically when I joined in 2002 they were playing salad bar gigs. They were playing Friday, Saturday nights, 4 hours a night for $300 a night. You push the salad bar out of the corner and you set up and play. It was grueling. When I came in I had my own band ‘Smokin’ Gun’ which I had built to regional headline status. It was an original Blues Rock band. We had a number of CD’s. We won Original CD of the Year from the Washington Blues Society.
The leader who started the whole thing back in 1982 called me and said’ Hey, once again another of my musicians walked out on me a week before a gig.’ Could you fill in for us? This happened a lot to him. I had 5 days to learn 22 Skynyrd songs for this big Biker event. I learned all the songs in a week and with no rehearsals, I came in and played the show. Then I started playing with them more and more. I thought that this had some great commercial potential if it was marketed right. They needed to rehearse, they needed girl singers, they needed three guitars, they needed vision & management. So, I started working with the leader trying to get it to some type of professional level. I booked them in to all the casinos, fairs, festivals, the municipalities and the city parks. All that type of stuff. I quadrupled the amount of money the band made. I always tried to get better musicians in the band than the ones he liked to hire.
It got the band to a much better place and then some heated personality things began to happen. The straw that broke the camels back was that we had a gig scheduled that the leader/singer agreed to play. Then two weeks before the show he emailed the band and said that he wasn’t going to be there. He’s got a 50th birthday party that he wanted to go to. I didn’t book that gig. Scott, one of the guitar players booked it. So we had to call another guy who hadn’t been in the band for over a decade to come in and sing for us. He did a fantastic job!
At that point (May 2010) I had my name on about $15,000 worth of contracts which in today’s dollars would be like $30,000. My name, my reputation and social security number were on all the contracts along with the 1099’s and the W-2’s for those gigs and every gig since I joined. I also did all the taxes for the band. I booked & signed all the contracts, advanced all the production, booked all the rooms etc. I opened the Business bank account. I owned the website because he let it lapse and I didn’t want somebody else to buy it. So, I bought it.
Anyway…, after this gig where the last founding member left us hanging after a long history of less than professional behavior; everybody in the band said, ‘We’re going to go with this other lead singer that bailed us out. We’re not gonna do these things with the old lead singer anymore. So, I kind of had a gun to my head. Darren Wichers is the singer that bailed us and he is an incredible talent. So, we started rehearsals. At this point I felt sorry for the guy because he couldn’t hold the band together. His musicians had a turnover like the U.S. Army. But, I said out of respect I’ll just change the name to Whiskey River which I did. But, I own both names Whiskey Creek & Whiskey River. I’ve got the audio recordings, e-mails when he turned over the name and everything else to verify the truth of what I’m telling you. I own the names & websites of both Whiskey Creek and Whiskey River. I own the registered trademarks of both names with Washington State Secretary of State that goes back to 1982. It’s all in my name. I’m the one who kept the whole thing going. So that’s what happened there.
With Darren on lead vocals plus Tara Kelly and Dalina Viveros as the female backup vocalists we reorganized and built the band into what it is today. So, we are the band has been going non-stop since 1982 under both names. There was no down time. We just kept going. We’ve never taken any off time. You can still go to whiskeycreek.net and it will drive you to the Whiskey River website.
Then about a year or so ago that same singer who’s entire band walked out on him, decided that after 15 years of not doing a single musical thing was going to start a Skynyrd Tribute again and call it Whiskey Creek. Remember, he does not own the name. I do. Here’s the part that’s been a distraction at times for me; he went around and implied to all these venues & talent buyers that his Skynyrd Tribute was was the same band that’s been going non stop and built all the marquee value. The name Whiskey Creek is kind of a synonymous with Whiskey River. When you go to whiskeycreek.net it redirects to our Whiskey River website.
I’ve been doing this since 1969. I’m 71 in another month (November 2025). I know everybody. Everybody knows me. So, I called these venues and they’d say, ‘Oh, we thought they were you’. I’d assure them that they’re not us. This happened too many times to count. Every single time I experienced this the venue buyer told me that they were lead to believe that they were us! The venue would then cancel their shows. After every cancellation they’d immediately start posting numerous angry, libelous, emotionally unbalanced lying screeds about me using my full name. After awhile Facebook’s AI monitoring would notice the rule violations and take them down. I’ve got all the screen shots. I come from a family of attorneys. I could sue them and win but, I’m not a litigating type of guy. I’ve got all of this documented plus numerous other evidence, voice mails etc; to sue for libel, slander and tortious interference if I ever decided to do that. They actually called me ‘Lower than whale shit’ on their FB Page plus numerous other ugly, vile and violent names. All just flat out lies. Really ugly personal attack stuff. What a distraction for just wanting to stay true to the bands history of Skynyrd’s music!
Up until now and only because you asked the direct question, have I ever said anything publicly about it. I just kept it to myself. This is actually the first time I’ve shared the full history of the band with anyone outside of us that were in the band under both names and lived it.
Presently, his group has been together not even two years. In that time he’s changed musicians a few dozen times. About six months ago they changed the spelling of their name to try and get around the trademark infringement. They changed one vowel in the name! In the Summer of 2024 we were playing multiple 5,000-6,000 person shows down in Oregon. A woman in the audience comes up after one of them to ask us about playing her festivals. She has three venues. We talked and came to an agreement. Then 7-8 months later I look at her website and she hired this guy’s band to play our gigs. I texted her. We talked. She admitted she hired the wrong band, but she too embarrassed to go back and explain her mistake to the board members so she hired them anyway. What a bunch of crap!
Q – Can I print what you just told me? I think people should know it.
A – I guess, sure. I think our loyal fans that are confused have a right to know the full truth. So, you can print it if you want. I certainly don’t go to our buyers and air the dirty laundry. I don’t want to do that. But, I think it’s something people should know. I think it’s probably getting to the point where I have to let people know. We’ve got almost 5,000 followers on Facebook and it’s very inter-active. I have agent & venue relationships that go back decades. I’ve always been honest & up front with everybody. We’ve had our Facebook message board blow up at times from our fans that went to see them & were pissed! I certainly don’t trash ‘em. I’m not gonna do that. People can see them if what they want to. We just don’t want the public to think they’re seeing us. That’s all.
Q – Bill, if you ever get tired of the performing end of the business you could go into the management or booking end of it. You certainly have the skill set.
A – Yeah, I do. I did own a backline company. I’ve been a production manager for major festivals. I’ve done all the promotion for this band & others. I know almost every side of this industry from both the musician and the production perspective. I’ve been a stage manager and road manager. I’ve booked the hotels. I’ve advanced all the shows. I set up the load in, staging, sound check, production, etc. There’s a lot there but I’ll be 71 in a month and I don’t want to go do that. I just enjoy playing the music. I only play the music I love.
About four years ago our lead singer Darren Wichers left. He had been with us for over ten years plus another five years when we were called Whiskey Creek. Our singer now is Rob ‘Rockfish’ Oxford. Rob had been a DJ in the Puget Sound rock radio market for decades. He is fantastic vocalist. We have two phenomenal background singers (Mary Marchese and Dee Lawless). Those two have been singing together for decades. Right now the band sounds the best it’s ever sounded in its 43 year history. The other five of us: Johnny Cat Passarelli (guitars). Tommy Steinley (guitars), Joe Turnbull (keyboards), Marc Montagnino (drums) and myself have known and played music together for 20-25 years under both names and in other bands. Whiskey River does not have a turnover. We love to rehearse, breaking everything down note for note. We’ve all got good ears and a strong work ethic. We only play the Ronnie VanZandt era stuff. A frequent comment from Skynyrd fans is we play the music better than the band out there touring as Lynyrd Skynyrd. I always laugh and say, ‘Yeah, and we have just as many original members too! I’m not sure that’s true but it’s nice to hear. God bless those guys, Johnny Van Zandt and Ricky Medlocke and the rest of them for carrying on the Skynyrd legacy.
Q – The Lynyrd Skynyrd band out there now could almost be considered a tribute band because there are no original members.
A – I’ll tell you there are a lot of Ronnie Van Zandt fans that say that – they’re just a tribute band. The only two people that are alive from back in Ronnie’s time is Artimus Pyle and Leslie Hawkins, the drummer and one background singer. But, neither of them were there in the Hell House years when so much of their great music was written. That band was Alan Collins , Ronnie Van Zandt, Gary Rossington, Ed King, Leon Wilkeson, Bob Burns and Billy Powell. Sadly, all of them are dead now. RIP. So, yeah I hear that argument, but to me as someone who loves the music, I’m glad they’re out there doing it. They are all fantastic musicians who have written killer music to keep the legend alive. Their albums ‘1991’, ‘Viscous Cycle’ & ‘Viscous Cycle Live’ are all outstanding records! We could say all that stuff about Molly Hatchet, The Little River Band and numerous others too. Who cares? (Laughs).
Q – One Skynyrd tribute band member told me the audience watches to see if the guy portraying Ronnie come onstage barefoot or wearing shoes. If he’s wearing shoes, they turn around and walk away. Does that kind of thing happen to Whiskey River?
A – Well, that’s a hardcore fan. I mean we’re old now. We’re 40 years older than they were when they wrote all that classic music. So, we don’t look like we’re in our 20’s. But our singer does sing barefooted! What we do is we just nail the music and play the music from our souls! We’re all about the music. Our fans in particular just love that the music is played with so much passion. The fans know every single lick in the ‘Free Bird’ solos and nearly every other song. Our fan base just keeps growing and growing. It’s never slowed down. So, we must be doing something right. We’re just going to keep delivering the music.
Q – How much work is there for Whiskey River?
A – As much as we want. I like to book 2 gigs a month. Some years we work 30 plus. That has to do with a few people still have their day jobs, but if we wanted to go and do the van tour and just go from city to city we could work as much as we want because of the marquee value and the quality of our product. The marquee value has been around for 43 years. We’ve kept it going. The guy who started it didn’t keep it going. Everybody left him, he quit, or was replaced however you want to interpret it! People know who we are so they just keep coming out because we play Ronnie Van Zandt era Skynyrd like it’s supposed to be played. We nail the music.
Q – You’re known as “ The Number One Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Band”. Who gave you that title? Is it based on the fact that you’ve been around so long?
A – Yeah. The only tribute band that’s been around longer than us is Randy Hansen, the Jimi Hendrix guy. He started in 1979. This band started in 1982 before the band out there touring as Skynyrd got back together in 1988. So, we’re Number One because we were the only ones for decades (laughs). Occasionally, we all check out other Skynyrd tributes that post on YouTube. Maybe we’re biased, but we haven’t seen one yet that’s put in any where’s near the work we have into nailing the music like we do.
Q – You mentioned you played in an original band “ Smokin’ Gun” for a while. That being the case how can you be happy playing in a tribute band?
A – Well, I did that before I came into Whiskey River/Creek. I did all that in my band ‘Smokin’ Gun’ from 1992 to 2004. It was an original Blues Rock band. We did original music. Duel guitar with an original sound reminiscent of some Allman Brothers, Z.Z.Top and Stevie Ray Vaughan styles mixed in it. We played from our roots and wrote a lot of great music. When we did covers we did them in our own way. Personally, as a bassist, I enjoy practicing as much as I do performing. My thing is to transcribe music, to get into playing the styles of different bassists. I’ve transcribed Tower Of Power, Roscoe Beck from Robben Ford, Pat Travers, Foreigner, Three Dog Night, SRV and lots of others. I’ve even learned the Level 42 stuff. That guy Mark King – what a monster bass player! I learn that stuff because that’s what keeps me intellectually stimulated. But, that’s just me. So, the fact that I’m not writing or playing original music, at my age it doesn’t matter anymore. I just like the music. Whiskey River is so squeaky tight that other musicians just come out to watch, listen and enjoy. We’ve been playing together for so long that we go into a transcendental type zone where we just play the music from our hearts. It’s all muscle, memory played from our souls when we perform. We experience a visceral reaction from the audience at the end of our shows. They come up afterwards almost shell-shocked by the musicianship in this line-up. I’ve told many new buyers who have heard the name and reputation but want to haggle about the price. I just say, ‘Go look at our live videos, check out our four decades of previous performances and come watch the band. If you hire us and when we’re done with Free Bird and at least 80% of the audience isn’t standing on their feet screaming, yelling, applauding at the top of their lungs – then don’t pay us! Well…, we’ve got paid every time! We nail the music!
Q – What song gets the most applause? Is it “ Free Bird”?
A – Well, the last four songs of the show are ‘Gimme Three Steps’, ‘ Call Me The Breeze’, ‘Sweet Home Alabama’, and ‘Free Bird’. Yeah, I’d say ‘Free Bird’ gets the biggest one but ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ is right up there too. One that we do really, really well is ‘Tuesdays Gone With the Wind’. We’ve got these fantastic female vocalists Mary Marchese and Dee Lawless and they are angelic. It’s like the angels are opening up the gates of Heaven and singing in the background. I mean these girls take you to church! People will stand there for eight and a half minutes and just stare. When we’re done, the audience explodes almost like at the end of ‘Sweet Home Alabama’. So, that’s a big one for us too. To do a rock ballad like ‘Tuesdays Gone’ at 60 beats per minute is hard for most bands to do. 60 BPM is slow! The song ‘That Smell’ gets a thunderous applause also. Ronnie Van Zandt was such a phenomenal lyricist, the poetry of his lyrics are just incredible. Get this mind picture here from RVZ’s lyrics in That Smell’: ‘Whiskey bottle, brand new car, oak tree you’re in my way.’ Doesn’t that just paint the most perfectly powerful mind picture for not drinking and driving? What a life lesson! It’s beautiful and says it all. Yep, Lynyrd Skynyrd definitely Lives!
©Gary James
Official Website: whiskeyriv.com
