{"id":1285,"date":"2012-01-06T23:48:23","date_gmt":"2012-01-06T23:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skylight.gr\/administrator_wordpress\/index.php\/2012\/01\/06\/new-book-celebrates-last-place-played-by-original-lynyrd-skynyrd-band\/"},"modified":"2012-01-06T23:48:23","modified_gmt":"2012-01-06T23:48:23","slug":"new-book-celebrates-last-place-played-by-original-lynyrd-skynyrd-band","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/2012\/01\/06\/new-book-celebrates-last-place-played-by-original-lynyrd-skynyrd-band\/","title":{"rendered":"New Book Celebrates Last Place Played By Original Lynyrd Skynyrd Band"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/static.lulu.com\/product\/paperback\/the-brown-box\/18497705\/thumbnail\/320\" border=\"0\" width=\"155\" height=\"157\" \/><br \/>Upstate South Carolina author and entertainer Michael Buffalo Smith announced  today that his latest book, The Brown Box: Remembering Greenville Memorial  Auditorium is now available from lulu.com.  <!--more-->  This is the history of  Greenville, South Carolina&#8217;s Memorial Auditorium, a venue that, although it was  closed and imploded in the early &#8217;90&#8217;s, still holds a lot of happy memories for  many people. It was the home of Monday night wrestling and the site of many  outstanding concerts including the final performance by the original Lynyrd  Skynyrd band. Smith spoke to the fans, the stars and the employees of the venue  to create this little labor of love.<\/p>\n<p>The book was actually started some  twelve years ago when Smith decided to write a book about his own happy memories  of the old Auditorium. Speaking with local celebrity Johnny Batson about his  1960\u2019s Hi-Fi club, over burgers at Northgate Soda Shop, the seed was planted.  When Smith experienced health problems in 1998, the book was shelved, only to be  brought back to the table and completed in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Former Greenville  resident Paul Surratt was a huge help with the project, as was media personality  Scooter Lesley. The book includes an exclusive interview with drummer Artimus  Pyle regarding the final Lynyrd Skynyrd concert in the auditorium prior to the  fatal plane crash in 1977. Thanks to Scooter, there are some vintage wrestling  photos, and the book also features a complete record of all wrestling matches in  the Brown Box between 1975-78. There are fond remembrances of folk music in the  auditorium from Surratt and of early rock and roll shows from Johnny Batson.  Both men recount an appearance by Gram Parsons that led to his joining Surratt\u2019s  band The Shilos. Many of the artists that we interviewed for the book are no  longer with us, but their love for the old venue lives on in the pages of this  book. People like George McCorkle of The Marshall Tucker Band, Danny Joe Brown  of Molly Hatchet, Jakson Spires of Blackfoot and Chuck Ruff of The Edgar Winter  Group. <\/p>\n<p>The Brown Box is loaded with vintage photos and memories from  fans, artists and auditorium staff, and there\u2019s a whole chapter dedicated to the  many appearances of the rock band KISS, including rare photos.<\/p>\n<p>The book  is available exclusively through the publisher,  Lulu&#8230;<br \/>http:\/\/www.lulu.com\/spotlight\/gritzpublishing<\/p>\n<p>The author is  available for interviews or speaking engagements. E-mail  michaelbuffalosmith@gmail.com<\/p>\n<p>Source: http:\/\/www.lulu.com\/spotlight\/gritzpublishing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Upstate South Carolina author and entertainer Michael Buffalo Smith announced today that his latest book,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}