Lynyrd Skynyrd – Blow Out With Gene Odom And Ronnie Van Zant

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Ronnie Van Zant In His 1954 White Mercedes

In 1968 and 1969, Ronnie and I worked for his brother-in-law, who owned an auto parts business. Ronnie was the manager and I delivered parts. Ronnie had all the parts numbers memorized and could tell me the number of a part without even looking in the parts book. He had a mind like a computer. He could tell you all there was to know about a baseball player, a football player, or any game. We worked there until I was drafted into the Army in 1969. The delivery truck I used for delivering the parts was supposed to have bucket seats, but the right seat had been taken out so it would hold more parts. I used to drive the truck home at night and I would pick Ronnie up in the morning.

One particular morning after I had picked Ronnie up for work, the left rear tire blew out. We were on the expressway and almost to our exit. Ronnie was asleep as usual. He used to practice all night and would get some sleep whenever he could. Well, anyway, the tire blew out and the truck went over on two wheels. Ronnie woke up in shock. I ran onto the median and the truck was spinning around and knocking over reflector poles. We came down on all four wheels and then slid down the side of the expressway. We pulled into a gas station and Ronnie was still in shock. I was laughing at the time because I was too scared to say anything and I was shaking all over from fright. Finally, Ronnie said, “That’s the best driving I’ve ever seen. LeeRoy Yarbrough couldn’t have done any better.”

Gene

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