Ask Rickey Medlocke if the band playing the Mellon Arena Saturday night can be a real Lynyrd Skynyrd with only two original members and he'll quickly ask you to redo the math.

"You gotta look back in history," he says. "I was one of the original drummers. What everyone likes to do is think of Lynyrd Skynyrd as the band that picked up again in '73. But I was one of the original members, and I was a big part of that. You can't say there's only two members of it. When they were inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame they had the original surviving members, and they bypassed me, 'cause I wasn't an 'integral part of their success.' If they want to think that, let them go ahead. But that's not the way it was."

Medlocke grew up in Jacksonville, Fla., with the members of Skynyrd, and in 1970 he joined them as a drummer who also contributed to the songwriting and vocals. But Medlocke had only one lung and didn't think he could hold up night after night as the drummer, so he left to front the Southern rock band Blackfoot as a guitarist and singer.

"With my stamina as far as being a drummer, I didn't think I could be the guy to take the band where it needed to go," he says. "For me, I felt like I wasn't adequate for them. It was a very hard decision. I knew those guys were going to do great things, and I was really happy for them. And I got to go on and do my own thing."

Skynyrd, of course, went on to become rock legends and one of the biggest-selling bands of all time. Blackfoot had more modest success, peaking with "Strikes," which spawned the hits "Highway Song" and "Train, Train," but Medlocke says he didn't regret his move.

"I never was jealous what they did," he says. "I hate the way it all turned out. They worked so hard for what they did. And it was tragic to see what happened."

He refers, of course, to the plane crash in October 1977, which he learned of while on stage with Blackfoot. It killed singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines and singer Cassie Gaines and severely injured several other members. Ten years later, Ronnie's brother Johnny took over the reins for a reunion tour that became the spark for reforming the band.

Medlocke joined Skynyrd in 1996 and now works alongside Van Zant, original members guitarist Gary Rossington and Billy Powell, newer members guitarist Mark Matejka (formerly of the Charlie Daniels Band), bassist Ean Evans (formerly of the Outlaws) and drummer Michael Cartellone (Damn Yankees), and backup singers Dale Krantz Rossington (Gary's wife) and Carol Chase.

Are they out there to reproduce the sound of the original band or put their own stamp on classics like "Free Bird," "Gimme Three Steps" and "Saturday Night Special"? Medlocke says his role in the band is to cover the parts of guitarist Allen Collins, who died of pneumonia in 1990.

"Allen's style and my style are very similar, so it's a natural thing for me. I try to give honor and pay tribute to Allen every night."

The post-crash version of the band has now made as many studio albums as the vintage-era Skynyrd, and a new one is in the works. The new record may include a bonus cut of a recently unearthed outtake from the "Street Survivors" sessions called "Cottonmouth Country," but, Medlocke says, "it's a little to early to say if that's even going to happen."

In the meantime, Skynyrd is taking time out from recording for a Rowdy Frynds tour with Hank Williams Jr. that should live up to the billing, both on and off the stage.

"Any time you're out with Hank," Medlocke says, "people are going to have a good time. We have a lot of history with Hank, and the tour's been going great and the crowds are great."

And what's it like to get up every night and play that Skynyrd anthem everyone wants to hear.

"I play it every night and I enjoy it every night," he says. "It's pretty special to play these songs that have had such a great influence in music history. These are songs that will be around long after I'm gone."