During the spring of 1969, Rickey Medlocke and Greg T. Walker met New York City natives Ron Sciabarasi and Charlie Hargrett in Jacksonville and organized the band "Fresh Garbage" (named after the like titled song from California psychedelic rock act Spirit), featuring Medlocke on drums and vocals, Walker on bass, Hargrett on guitar and Sciabarasi on keyboards.

However, Medlocke, Walker and Hargrett regrouped and formed the band "Hammer", with Medlocke switching to vocalist/guitarist and with new recruits Jakson Spires (drums; born on April 12, 1951, died on March 16, 2005),[2] DeWitt Gibbs (keyboards) and Jerry Zambito (guitars, who only stayed briefly) joining the band.

They soon relocated to Gainesville, Florida to be the house band of Dub's Steer Room, a well-known topless bar on the outskirts of town.

During the early spring of the same year, the band, after learning of another band on the West Coast named Hammer, decided to change their name to Blackfoot to represent the American Indian heritage of its members:[3] Jakson Spires (from Oklahoma) had a Cheyenne/French father and a Cherokee mother;[4] Rickey Medlocke's father was Lakota Sioux[5] and Blackfoot Indian, and his mother's side is Creek/Cherokee, Scottish and Irish; Greg "Two Wolf" Walker is part Eastern (Muskogee) Creek, a tribe recognized by the state of Florida, but not federally.

There was a brief attempt to regroup as Blackfoot during 1972, but Medlocke bowed out again and Walker and Gibbs got together with others in a new band named Rainbow to do some demos in Atlanta.

But when this didn't lead anywhere, Rainbow splintered and Walker relocated to New York to join the band Cross Country for a short period.

During August 1972, Blackfoot's old friend and roadie, John Vassiliou, visited Hargrett with Reidsville, North Carolina bassist Leonard Stadler[7] from the band Blackberry Hill.

Hargrett decided to relocate to North Carolina and invited Medlocke, who had left Lynyrd Skynyrd by this time, to reform Blackfoot with Stadler on bass guitar and Spires returning as drummer.

By 1974, the band had returned their base of operations to the Northeast (Northern New Jersey) and Medlocke developed nodes on his vocal cords and temporarily lost his voice.

After the stint with Ruby ended during 1978, they met Brownsville Station manager Al Nalli and his partner Jay Frey, who got them a contract with Atco Records.

The group toured frequently during 1979; at the end of that year, on December 7th, they opened for the band The Who at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, while developing their next album, Tomcattin, which was released in June 1980.

They went on to release the album Marauder in July 1981 and Highway Song Live (taken from a show the band played in Zurich, Switzerland on 3/26/82) in June 1982.

[3] During the early 1980s, the "Southern rock" genre was considered passe by the pop music press, so the band began attempting to change their style somewhat.

Organist Ken Hensley (ex-Uriah Heep) was contacted and agreed to join during 1982 in time for their next record album, Siogo (May 1983).

Ken Hensley, no longer accustomed to Blackfoot's intense tour schedule, quit by late 1984 and was replaced by former Axe band's singer/guitarist Bobby Barth.

During 1988, Wizzard and Seay quit and Gunner Ross (drums, percussion, ex-Ted Nugent), bassist Mark Mendoza (formerly of The Dictators) and Neal Casal (guitar) were employed.

[3] By 1992, Medlocke had revamped the team yet again and hired three other players: guitarist Mark Woerpel (former front man for the band Warp Drive out of Milwaukee, who had also done some studio work for Medlocke for earlier albums), Benny Rappa (drums, percussion, a former Whiteface player) and Tim Stunson on bass guitar.

Medlocke continued to perform with Lynyrd Skynyrd and Walker eventually formed a new band called Two Wolf by the end of the decade.