The Sky Kings was an American country music supergroup formed in 1991 as Four Wheel Drive.Bill Lloyd Music
Originally consisting of

John Cowan John Cowan (born August 24, 1953) is an American progressive bluegrass vocalist and bass guitar player. He was the lead vocalist and bass player for the New Grass Revival. Cowan became the band's bassist in 1972 after the departure of original ...

, Bill Lloyd,

Patrick Simmons Patrick Simmons (born October 19, 1948) is an American musician best known as a founding member of the rock band The Doobie Brothers, with whom he was inducted as into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020. Born in Aberdeen, Washington, he h ...

, and Rusty Young, Simmons left the group in 1993.

History

The supergroup, consisting of John Cowan ( New Grass Revival), Bill Lloyd (

Foster & Lloyd Foster & Lloyd was an American country music duo consisting of singer-songwriters Radney Foster and Bill Lloyd. After pairing up in 1986, the duo recorded three albums for RCA Records, charting nine singles on the ''Billboard'' country charts. Th ...

), Patrick Simmons (

The Doobie Brothers The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band formed in San Jose, California in 1970. Known for their flexibility in performing across numerous genres and their vocal harmonies, the band has been active for over five decades, with their greate ...

), and Rusty Young (

Poco In software engineering, a plain old CLR object, or plain old class object (POCO) is a simple object created in the .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR) that is unencumbered by inheritance or attributes. This is often used in opposition to the comp ...

) formed in 1991 as Four Wheel Drive. They were signed to a recording deal with

RCA Nashville RCA Nashville is an American country music record label based in Nashville, Tennessee. It is distributed by Sony Music Nashville which is part of Sony Music. Artists Current artists *Kane Brown * Corey Kent * Nate Smith * Morgan Wade Former art ...

and recorded an album for the label which was never released.

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...

signed the group in 1993. Threatened with lawsuits from bands who had copyrighted the name Four Wheel Drive, they secured the rights to the name The Sky Kings. After opening for

on their 1993 tour, Simmons left The Sky Kings rejoining The Doobie Brothers. Now a trio, The Sky Kings released three singles on Warner Bros.: "Picture Perfect," "Fooled Around and Fell in Love" (a cover of the

Elvin Bishop Elvin Richard Bishop (born October 21, 1942) is an American blues and rock music singer, guitarist, bandleader, and songwriter. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band in 2015, and in ...

hit) and "That Just About Says It All." allmusic ((( The Sky Kings > Overview )))/ref> "Picture Perfect" was the only single to chart, peaking at No. 52 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Hot Country Singles & Tracks Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data along with digital sales and streaming. ...

chart. allmusic ((( The Sky Kings > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles )))/ref> An eponymous album was scheduled to be released in 1997, but eventually shelved. allmusic ((( From Out of the Blue > Overview )))/ref> In 2000,

Rhino Handmade Rhino Entertainment Company (formerly Rhino Records Inc.) is an American specialty record label and production company founded in 1978. It is currently the catalog division for Warner Music Group. Its current CEO is Mark Pinkus. History Founded ...

released ''From Out of the Blue'', an album which included the band's entire unreleased 1997 Warner Bros. album, non-album Warner Bros. singles, and recordings and demos made for a second unreleased Warner Bros. album.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Music videos

References

External links

* allmusic ((( The Sky Kings > Overview ))) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sky Kings American country music groups Warner Records artists American musical trios Musical groups established in 1991 Musical groups disestablished in 1997 Country music supergroups 1991 establishments in the United States American supergroups