It’s like the movie Rock Star meets the song “Jukebox Hero”

By STU CLAMPITT
news@readthereporter.com

On Friday, Aug. 7, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Foreigner hit the stage with their Double Trouble Double Vision tour at Ruoff Music Center, 12880 E. 146th St., Noblesville. The opening act on this tour is the Pittsburgh-based band Six Gun Sally.

The Reporter spoke with lead singer Aimee Jane Williams and lead guitarist Jeff Yeckel about the tour, Six Gun Sally’s new album, and the probability-defying paths they each took to be on stage together with Skynyrd and Foreigner.

If you are not familiar with Six Gun Sally, The Reporter can fix that for you. The video for their latest single, “Sittin’ Pretty,” is available at tinyurl.com/SGS-SittinPretty. Feel free to take two minutes and 20 seconds to give it a listen before you finish this article if you like.

The semi-autobiographical lyrics reflect Williams’ own journey to becoming the front woman for this Southern-rock-esque band. She joined the band in 2024 when the original singer left.

“I was a fan before I joined the band,” Williams told The Reporter. “It was kind of like that movie Rock Star with Mark Wahlberg was my story. I really wanted to be in the band, but they had a singer. When her time was up and I got to join, it was like a dream come true because I wanted to be a part of something with a good sound that would back me up and would sound that great and polished. I get to write with Dave Barbe and our other co-writer Ford Thurston, and it’s not just like hired guns. We all contribute to make the sound what it is today.”

Meanwhile, guitarist Jeff Yeckel is also living the dream.

“When I was a youngster, probably third or fourth grade, I was at my cousin’s house,” Yeckel said. “My cousins, who were a little bit older than me, had all these records from Molly Hatchet, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Foreigner. I would pick up these records when I would go over to visit them and I’d listen to these records. One of them was Foreigner’s 4. ‘And that one guitar string way down low.’ That sound of that guitar – I can remember hitting me, and I thought to myself, ‘This is what I’m going to do with my life.’ I can remember vividly it was literally the sound of that guitar on ‘Jukebox Hero’ that pushed me into wanting to get an electric guitar.”

On this tour, Yeckel is the Jukebox Hero and Willaims is living her personal version of Rock Star.

“It’s a dream come true,” Yeckel said. “It took a bit of time, but we’re living in a dream world right now. We’re so very grateful and thankful and they [Skynyrd and Foreigner] have been so wonderful to us. The band and the crew have treated us just like peers.”

It is not often that you hear a story from the music industry about rising performers getting to tour with their idols and being treated like equals.

“I think everyone probably realizes how happy and lucky we are to be doing this on this level,” Yeckel said. “Everyone’s happy and friendly.”

Williams told The Reporter she has music in her DNA. Her father is a songwriter who was in a band before she was born.

“When I was born he became a full-time dad, but he still plays with me locally,” Williams said. “We do acoustic shows together. I’ve always been raised with music and started writing songs ever since I can remember about my goldfish and stuff. I love to write music.”

Williams has a long professional history in the music industry, but calls Six Gun Sally the best thing she’s been involved with.

“I’ve been in pop cover bands, corporate cover bands, and I had a country band where we opened for Colt Ford, Cassadee Pope, and Pure Prairie League,” Williams said. “I’ve been used to this kind of lifestyle. I was a dancer before. I had an agent that had me on stage with Kid Rock and Mötley Crüe as a cage dancer when I was in my 20s. I’ve been a part of the caravan life forever, but as much as I’ve done, this is by far the best thing I’ve been a part of.”

Willams counts among her musical influences Stevie Nicks, Led Zeppelin, Reba McIntyre, Pink, Joss Stone, Melissa Etheridge, and, of course, Janis Joplin.

That last one is important because the new Six Gun Sally album, which will drop in a few weeks, will contain a cover of Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart.” While The Reporter cannot confirm exactly what you may hear at Ruoff when Six Gun Sally opens for Skynyrd and Foreigner, this newspaper is confident you will hear echoes of Joplin in Williams’ performance.

This tour is taking Six Gun Sally across the country and even into Canada for one show. When asked if they have ever accidentally misidentified the city to an audience on tour, Yeckel gave The Reporter a bit of information this newspaper had never heard before.

“I have a little insider information,” Yeckel said. “So I don’t even know if I should be sharing this piece of information, but I will. On the monitor on stage, for whatever town we’re in there’s a big piece of duct tape with the name of the town. The singer can look at the monitor so they don’t in fact say the wrong name.”

Thus, we can guarantee when they get to Noblesville on Aug. 7, they will get the name right!

You can learn more about Six Gun Sally on Instagram @SixGunSallyMusic, on Facebook @SixGunSally and on their website, sixgunsallyband.com.