Lynyrd Skynyrd Dixie
Freebirds of Southern Rock

Archive for April, 2010

Lynyrd Skynyrd – Behind The Street Survivors Album Cover

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Photo of Lynyrd Skynyrd “Street Survivors” Album Cover

I remember what a hard time the band had trying to get the picture for the front cover of the “Street Survivors” album. The set up at Universal Studios was a metal trough set up in front of the band, one in each of the windows located on both sides of the band, and an explosion that would go off behind the band. The explosion would go off, setting the troughs on fire, just as the picture was being taken, giving the effect of Lynyrd Skynyrd coming into town and setting it on fire -which was what they always did. The problem was that the flames in the trough in front of them would rise up too high causing the band members to jump back.

On a couple of occasions, the gas that was being used to start the fires would burn too long causing the wood in the town setting to catch on fire. The studio firemen would come in and put the fires out and then they’d have to start all over. Finally, after about a hundred fires and a half a day of shooting they got it right. The picture was almost perfect except Gary was jumping back a little.

After the plane crash and the death of Ronnie, Steve, Cassie, and Dean, the survivors decided that the fire scene wasn’t very appropriate and they took the picture that was originally supposed to go on the back cover of the album and put it on the front. The fire scene ended up on the back cover.

Thanks,
Gene

LYNYRD SKYNYRD DOCUMENTARY

Lynyrd Skynyrd – Fishing With Ronnie Van Zant

Monday, April 26, 2010

 

One night, we were fishing out at Ronnie Van Zant’s house. When we were finished, we started walking up to the house. Ronnie went to the back of the house and I went around to the front to put the fishing poles in the garage. Just as I reached the garage, I heard Ronnie yell, “Judy, get me the gun.” I ran around to the back and Ronnie said, “Gene, stay back. I just stepped on a snake.” Judy came to the back door and asked, “Why do you want the gun?”  Boy, Ronnie was mad, scared, and shaking at the same time and he screamed some censored words and said, “I stepped on a snake.” Judy ran and got the gun. “Now turn the outside light on,” he said. We didn’t see the snake anywhere. I don’t blame the snake because I would have hauled tail too with all the racket that was going on. We looked for the snake and finally found him up against the steps leading onto the porch. Ronnie blew up half the porch and the steps shooting at the snake. I said, “Damn, if that snake knew he had that coming tonight, he wouldn’t have gotten up this morning.” I don’t think Ronnie was in a laughing mood because he was still shaking all over. It had scared him so bad he didn’t even know if he was wearing shoes or not.

We pulled the snake out from the hole Ronnie had blown him in to see what kind of a snake it was and I almost fainted. It was a cottonmouth water moccasin which is one of the top five “Most Poisonous” snakes in Florida. Boy, Ronnie was sure lucky that night. There were about as many snakes on his property as there were fans he had and that goes way up into the millions.

Gene

LYNYRD SKYNYRD DOCUMENTARY

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