North Florida Music Hall of Fame

Westside Jacksonville band formerly known as Sweet Rooster, later as Alice Marr. Led by Donnie Van Zant, younger sibling of Skynyrd vocalist, Ronnie. Signed to A&M, .38 had no less than 10 hits in the 1980s, including “Hold On Loosely” and “Second Chance,” and remains one of the area’s all-time biggest-selling acts. Replacement bassist Larry [...]

Short-lived Gainesville rock band signed to Island Records in late 1980s. Featured actor River Phoenix; the group disbanded after his untimely death in 1993. Two other members, Josh Greenbaum and Tim Hankins, went on to form Gainesville band Seraphim.

Legendary rock-blues-jazz-country sextet formed in Jacksonville in 1969, featured Daytona natives Duane and Gregg Allman, also included members of Jacksonville-based bands The Second Coming (Dickey Betts and Berry Oakley) and The 31st of February (Jacksonville native Butch Trucks). The ABB was the first act signed to Macon-based Capricorn Records; it broke up in late 1970s; [...]

Jacksonville-based rock band led by former Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer Artimus Pyle; issued two albums on MCA; has at various times included bassist Allen Woody (later with Allman Brothers Band, now deceased), former Lynyrd Skynyrd and Rossington Collins bassist Tim Lindsey (now with Molly Hatchet), and bluesmeister axe-man Greg Baril. Pyle independently released an album of [...]

Originally from Atlanta, Armstrong came to Jacksonville with his family as a toddler. At Bishop Kenny High School, he got his first taste of the music business hiring local bands for teen dances. After earning a law degree at Mercer University in Macon, he became partners in a booking and talent-management agency with Alan Walden, [...]

Jacksonville new-wave band, signed to Capricorn by A&R man Robert Nix (see Nix, Robert) in early 1980s; the label went under, and the album was never released. Guitarist Frank Phillips later joined punk godfathers Stevie Stiletto. Guitarist Danny Esposito committed suicide in February, 2008. Also see Stiletto, Stevie.

Born in Duncan, Oklahoma 1938, singer-songwriter son of Mae Axton; father a Navy officer stationed in Jacksonville; family settled there in 1949. Axton graduated from Jacksonville’s Lee High in 1956 and left town amidst a furor after burning down—as a prank — Knauer’s Hardware on graduation night. He briefly attended Oklahoma State before joining the [...]

Hotshot guitarist in the style of Stevie Ray Vaughan, originally from Connecticut; moved to Jacksonville in late 1980s. Baril’s band has included former Lynyrd Skynyrd and Rossington Collins members Tim Lindsay (bass, now with Molly Hatchet) and Derek Hess (drums), former Skynyrd drummer Artimus Pyle, and Allman Brothers Band guitarist Derek Trucks. Occasionally appears as [...]

A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Beckett honed his craft as a keyboardist in Pensacola’s fertile club scene in the 1960s. Later recruited to replace keyboardist Spooner Oldham in the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. Performed as a session musician on scores of hits for acts like Mel & Tim, The Staples Singers, Delbert McClinton, Traffic, Paul [...]

Jacksonville new-wave band, formed in 1986 by guitarists Scott Leuthold and Adam Watson and drummer Alan Cowart. After performing in Athens, Ga., REM’s Michael Stipe took an interest in the band and produced some tracks, which were released on an independent EP.

Forrest Richard “Dickey” Betts – Vocalist-guitarist and founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. Born in West Palm, raised in Bradenton, where he formed The Jokers with guitarist Joe Dan Petty (later of Grinderswitch); he later formed The Blues Messengers in Sarasota with bassist Berry Oakley (see Oakley, Berry), drummer John Meeks, guitarist Larry Reinhardt [...]

Born Gary Anderson in Jacksonville in 1939, son of a Florida State University professor. After his parents divorced, his mother married a Navy man; the family relocated to Norfolk, Va., while Anderson was a child. He was discovered in the early 1960s as a teenager, singing on a Norfolk street corner, by Frank Guida of [...]