Atlanta Rhythm Section performs Saturday at the Robins Theatre in Warren as part of its 100th anniversary weekend. (Submitted photo)

Rodney Justo called himself the caretaker of the Atlanta Rhythm Section.

“I keep the band alive, keep the songs alive, the records alive,” Justo said during a telephone interview. “If you don’t come see the band, you’re making a mistake. I tell people we don’t have a light show, but as far as playing the songs with integrity and having a good time on stage, you don’t see it (like this) very often.”

Atlanta Rhythm Section, Firefall and Pure Prairie League will perform Saturday at the Robins Theatre as part of its 100th anniversary weekend.

Justo was the original lead singer of Atlanta Rhythm Section, but there was a nearly 40-year gap in his tenure with the band.

The original lineup started out as the house band at Studio One in Doraville, Ga., outside of Atlanta. A demo landed the group a record deal of its own with Decca, and it’s self-titled debut was released in 1972.

Justo said the band’s first U.S. tour date was in Youngstown.

“We signed up for a tour with Deep Purple and I think it was Buddy Miles,” he said. “Our first date was in Quebec City, and we never saw Deep Purple again. Somehow or another it fell apart.

“The next day, they put something together with Buddy Miles, Savoy Brown and us in Youngstown at a high school. Buddy was the headliner and I remember thinking, ‘Is this song ever gonna end?’ He did like three songs in an hour.”

The rest of the tour didn’t go much better. The band was in California, when manager Buddy Buie tells him he landed the band a huge gig. Justo is imagining a big tour with an act like the Rolling Stones.

Instead, it was a job recording songs for a new Hanna-Barbera cartoon called “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids.”

“I asked him, ‘Where does old Rodney fit in?’ He said, ‘I’ll put you down as a background singer on some of the sessions’ … I left because I wasn’t making any money. My daughter had some medical issues, and I had to find a way to make more money.”

He had some contacts in New York, so he moved there and did studio work, but he wanted to do right by his family. He quit music and got a $150-per-week, bottom-of-the-ladder job with a liquor distributor.

“I had the worst job in the company, but I decided no one is going to outwork me,” Justo said. “I got a sales position, and by the time I retired, I was a sales manager.

While the rest of the band wasn’t happy that he quit, they remained friends, and Justo would go see ARS whenever it played near Tampa, Fla.

“After I retired, I got a call from Buddy Buie — ‘Why don’t you come back? The band was built around you and Barry Bailey initially.’ I was retired, money wasn’t an issue, so I said I’ll do it.”

While Justo is an original member, he wasn’t part of the band when it achieved commercial success in the ’70s with a string of hits that included “So in to You,” “Champagne Jam,” “I’m Not Gonna Let It Bother Me Tonight,” “Imaginary Lover,” “Do It or Die” and “Spooky.”

Nearly all of the members of the original ARS have died, leaving Justo as the sole original member.

“I was the first one out and am the last one in.”

He’s joined in the current lineup by Steve Stone, harmonica and backing vocals; Justin Senker, bass; David Anderson, guitar and vocals; Rodger Stephan, drums and backing vocals; and Lee Shealy, keyboards and backing vocals.

The current lineup stays true to the original recordings.

“I remember Roy Orbison told me once, ‘People don’t pay to see me experiment with my songs.’ I always remembered that. They want to hear the hits like they heard them. They want to hear it like it’s supposed to be.”

Before Atlanta Rhythm Section started, Justo spent several years playing in Orbison’s backing band. He didn’t make much money, but in 1965 at age 20 he was touring Europe.

“I lived in Tampa, Fla. People didn’t go to Europe. Unless you were in the military or the boss’ daughter, that just didn’t happen,” Justo said.

Orbison didn’t influence Justo as a singer, but he affected him in other ways.

“What I did notice is he might have been the nicest guy you could ever meet. The way he greeted people, I don’t care how tired he was, if someone wanted to speak to him, no problem … How he treated people definitely made an impact on me. He was cheap, but he was sweet.”

Back in the ’70s, ARS often was referred to as a “Southern rock” band, mainly because of Atlanta being in its name. These days, some of its songs can be found on yacht rock playlists,

“We’re in categories we belong and don’t belong in at the same time,” Justo said. “When we started, there was no Southern rock. There was the Allman Brothers, but I never thought of the Allman Brothers as Southern rock. They were more of a blues band. We were always a rock band that was from the South.

“We thought the band was built on good and good performances. We don’t sing about tailgating and Solo cups and Willie (Nelson) and all those country guys. That’s not us. I tend to think, and I don’t mean it in a condescending way, but if you listen to our catalog, you’ll notice our chord progressions, melodies and certain lyrics are more evolved than most Southern rock bands. Sometimes we play with these acts and I think, ‘Didn’t I just hear that?’ They all start to sound alike, and we don’t have that.”

Justo is hoping for a busy 2023. After being home for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he considered scaling back the number of shows he did this year.

That changed following the death of his wife last summer, just a few months before their 48th anniversary.

“My wife didn’t sign up for this at this point in my life, me being gone and working on weekends. It’s a little bit too much. I wanted to spend more time around the house. Now I feel the opposite. I want to work. I’m glad I never made that call. I want to stay preoccupied, stay busy. My goal will be at least 50 shows this year.”