LYNYRD SKYNYRD - Asbury Park, New Jersey July 13, 1977
LYNYRD SKYNYRD
Asbury Park, NJ
July 13, 1977
By JAMES SIMON
Associated Press writer
ASBURY PARK, N.J. -
The rebellious, hell-raising image of rock groups is frequently just that — an image, say members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, a Florida band which does its best to uphold the rough and tumble ideal. “Nobody wants to read about ‘Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm ‘ , bassist Leon Wilkeson said with a smile after the band ended a year’s tour with a concert at Convention Hall here. “I’d love to read an article when an interviewer says, ‘Well, I went down to interview the notorious rebels of rock ‘n’ roll, expecting to get a black eye in the process.’ I’d like him to write the truth — they don’t get as drunk as you think, they really don’t get as high and they really don’t fight as much as they’re built up to.” Wilkeson said.
Despite the disclaimer, Lynyrd Skynyrd (pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd ) cultivated the image carefully for four years as the band criss-crossed the country, giving 200 or more concerts a year of rowdy, guitar dominated rock and blues songs and working its way up to headline status. Stories of wild parties, drunken brawls and smashed television sets followed lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and the rest of the band wherever they went.
“The band went on tour with the Who first, so I guess some of their insanity rubbed off,” said guitarist Steve Gaines, adding he hasn’t seen any “real violence” in his year with the band. Gaines replaced guitarist Ed King last summer in one of the band’s several personnel changes. He is one of three lead guitarists in the group who give Skynard a full, powerful sound on songs like the show closing “Free Bird,” one of the best extended songs to come out of the 1970s.
But even on the 11-minute “Free Bird,” which fans start calling for as soon as the band walks on stage, the band’s loose and ragged image hides the fact the song is as rigid as any three-minute AM radio hit.
“The song’s got a structure. And it’s always the same way, at least since I’ve played with the band anyway,” Gaines said. “That’s the song they used to play in clubs and Ronnie jokes that they used to throw it in in clubs because it’s a good time waster.” The band’s lineup includes singer Van Zant, bassist Wilkeson, guitarists Gaines. Gary Rossington and Allen Collins, drummer Artimus Pyle, keyboard player Billy Powell and several female backup singers. Most of the attention is on the guitarists, who trade off lead passages easily although their sound is so thick that Powell’s keyboards rarely can be heard.
The One Percent Band Would Later Become Lynyrd Skynyrd
Lynyrd and Me
(Retrospective: A Lynyrd Skynyrd Story)
By Jere Beery
The main reason I’m sharing this story now is because I just turned 60 years old in March and I have been reflecting on my life. This story relates a very unique relationship I had with one of America’s greatest Rock & Roll bands.
In 1969, I was discharged from the Navy after spending a year and a half hospitalized from severe wounds I received in Vietnam. I was only 21 years old and medically retired from the U.S. Navy. My wounds were so bad that I was not really expected to accomplish much in my life.
At that time, the one thing I truly found comfort and inspiration in was music. While I was in the Navy I played bass guitar in a four piece rock band, and my 6 string acoustic guitar was my best friend during times of depression while in the hospital. So, when I got out of the Navy in 1969 I decided to explore the world of music. I started hanging out at a bottle club located on Forsyth Street in Jacksonville Florida, ‘The Comic Book Club’. I discovered that not only did I enjoy the live music, but dancing was great physical therapy for my many injuries. And the waitresses wore really hot skimpy outfits consisting of white short shorts, and a white navy-type top that showed off their midsections. Good music, booze, and good looking gals, what more could a young man ask for?
The Comic Book Club was really two clubs in one. From 7pm until midnight the club was a teen club, catering to kids under 21 years of age. At midnight the club would run everyone out and reopen at 1am as a bottle club for adults only. The club only served ice, cups and setups, and people would pay a cover charge to bring in their own booze. It was the only club in Jacksonville at that time to do business both as a teen club and a bottle club. The local bars in town were required to close at 2am, so after they closed everyone would head uptown to party until dawn at the Comic Book. It was a very popular place to be, and as it turns out, a historic place for music.
Within a very short period of time I made friends with the club manager, Jimmy Provost, and the house band, ‘Kijafa’ (aka Sunshine). Before long, I was doing odd and end jobs around the club for a few bucks a week and all the live music and dancing I could ever wish for. I became good friends with the bottle club band; guitarist; Charles ‘Smitty’ Smith, bass guitarist; Carl Crawford, and drummer; Donnie Sharbino. I started doing special lighting for the band and running their sound board. I was damn near living at the Comic Book Club, putting in many hours designing and building new effects and lighting for the group, while simultaneously doing jobs around the club for Jimmy Provost.
During this period of time I also made friends with the band that played the teen club. Ronnie VanZant, Gary Rossington, Allen Collins, Larry Junstrom, and Bob Burns were the members of a rock band called ‘The 1%’. They were extremely popular with the young crowd in the Jacksonville area.
Ronnie and I were about the same age, but the other members of The 1% were a few years younger and still in high school. Allen, Gary, and Bob attended Robert E, Lee High School on the west side of Jacksonville. I don’t remember if Larry Junstrom was still in school or not. I seem to remember he was a little older. Larry and I didn’t talk much. I was closer to Ronnie, Allen, Gary, and Bob.
Since we all worked at The Comic Book Club, we spent a lot of time in each other’s company and we all became good friends – and we often partied together. On several occasions, when Ronnie wasn’t around, Gary and Allen would come to me and talk me into buying them some booze. Somehow, we managed to keep that secret from Ronnie for months before he found out it was me that was getting them liquor. That led to a brief confrontation between me and Ronnie. I remember Ronnie reading me the riot act and I promised him I would never buy them booze again. Ronnie was not a very large individual, in fact I was a couple of inches taller than he was. But, he was raised on the rough side of Jacksonville with a bad-ass reputation, and I didn’t dare cross him. I wasn’t necessarily scared of him, but Ronnie’s presents had a way of demanding respect, and I saw no reason to test him or his resolve. You had to know Ronnie to know what I’m talking about. Besides, I wasn’t in any physical condition to be fighting any one. After that encounter, Ronnie and I became even better friends. We had an ‘understanding’.
The Comic Book Club had the reputation of the place to go for great music and impromptu jam sessions. Bands from all over North Florida and South Georgia would show up at the Comic Book on the weekends. And local bands would drop by after the bars they played at closed. Therefore, there was never a shortage of musicians wanting to sit in and jam. During the two years that I worked there I heard some of the greatest music anyone could possibly imagine. Sometimes, after a concert had taken place at the Jacksonville Coliseum, well-known groups and musicians would come in and jam until dawn. This included band members from Three Dog Night, Allman Joy (Allman Brothers), Wayne Cochrane and the CC Riders, Joe Savage, and Led Zeppelin, just to name a few.
Jimmy Provost was the manager of the Comic Book Club, but the club was owned by a guy named Art Isner (spelling might be incorrect). Isner owned several topless bars in the Jax downtown area. Jimmy Provost was a very large man weighing around 400 pounds. He was a French Canadian with a thick French accent. It was no secret that Provost had ties with organized crime both in Canada and Florida. During a brief time in early 1970, Jimmy Provost acted as booking agent for Ronnie and the 1% band. Provost would line up gigs for the band and they would go play other small clubs in the Jacksonville area. On several occasions I was given the task of going to these local clubs (like the Little Brown Jug) and collect the band’s money. Provost would take his cut and give Ronnie the rest. This arrangement only lasted a few months.
There are virtually no photographs of the inside of the original Comic Book Club. There was a very good reason for this. Jimmy Provost prohibited anyone from taking pictures in the club. His reasoning was simple. Among average Joes that went to the Comic Book – there were also drug dealers, pimps, bookies, prostitutes, pool hustlers and ex-cons. The Comic Book was a very rough place at times, and these people did not want their picture taken. This is the reasons that very few pictures (if any) of Ronnie and the band inside the Comic Book Club exist.
Sometimes, Jimmy would have some gangster-type friends drop by from out of town and he would close the club down to everyone but him, his friends, selected girls, and me and the band. Jimmy would put a sign on the door ‘Closed For Inventory’. He would make jokes about counting the ice cubes and cups. The Comic Book became a private party place for Jimmy and his friends. I won’t go into details, but whatever Jimmy’s friends wanted, Jimmy provided, money was no object. Jimmy had ‘connections’ on the JPD as well. So, no one ever interrupted one of Jimmy’s private parties.
One local band the frequented the Comic Book was ‘The King James Version’, a three piece rock group. The bass player for the group was a guy named Leon Wilkeson. Leon’s nickname was ‘Thumper’, from Thumper the fictional rabbit character from Disney’s animated movie Bambi. He got that nickname for the consistent way he played bass.
Around the end of 1970, the teen club band, Ronnie and ‘The 1%’, were starting to get the attention of promoters in the Jacksonville area. One afternoon while ‘Kijafa’ was practicing at the club, Allen and Gary dropped by and asked our collective opinion of a new name they were considering, ‘Lynyrd Skynyrd’. As much as I hate to admit it now, we all thought it was a dumb name. Little did we know how wrong we were.
When I wasn’t at the club, or hanging out with Smitty, Carl, and Donnie, I spent a lot of time at a small recording studio off of Philips Highway. The studio was called ‘Counter-Point’, and was owned and operated by a good friend of mine, Wally Eaton. Wally was the original bass player for ‘Dennis Yost and the Classic Four’. Wally had been in an auto accident which caused him to quit the band, but not before he had acquired four gold records for; ‘Spooky’, ‘Stormy’, ‘Traces’, and ‘Every Day with You Girl’. Wally was trying to get back into the music business by opening up his own multi-track studio. One very attractive girl that worked as a session backup singer for Wally was Leslie Hawkins. Leslie wasn’t with any one particular band at that time, but she had a very good voice and hung out at Counter Point picking up a few bucks and experience singing backup on whatever project Wally would be working on. Leslie would later join the Skynyrd group as a backup singer. I used the time I spent at Counter Point to learn everything I could from Wally about multi-track recording.
I don’t remember the exact date, but one night at the Comic Book things got really hot. Without notice Leon Wilkeson quit ‘The King James Version’ and joined the newly formed ‘Lynyrd Skynyrd’ band. All of a sudden Larry Junstrom found himself without a job, and lead guitarist for the King James Version (Bill something) found himself without a bass player. Bill was furious! In one brief moment the King James Version went from a working three piece band to a two piece out of work band. After Bill shoved his guitar through the front of his Marshal amp, he stormed out of the club looking for Ronnie. Fortunately for Bill, he never found Ronnie that night. Ronnie was no wussy and would have taken Bill apart in a Westside second. I personally witnessed Ronnie knock a guy out cold in the parking lot of the R&R Bar for talking trash about Ronnie’s girl friend. The R&R was another popular Jax night spot off Main Street. The loud mouth never knew what hit him.
Leon Wilkeson was not Ronnie’s first choice to replace bass player Larry Junstrom. Carl Crawford was by far the best bass man in the Jacksonville area at that time. Anyone that remembers Carl will support this statement. Not only was he one hell-of-a bass player, but Carl had a great voice that was ideal for hard-driving rock & roll. Ronnie, Allen, and Gary made several unsuccessful attempts to recruit Carl into the newly formed Lynyrd Skynyrd band before approaching Leon. Carl declined their offer and continued to play with Kijafa.
Some time later, while hanging out at Counter Point, Wally received a call from a sound engineer from another recording studio in Jacksonville. After Wally got off the phone he asked me if I wanted to go with him to hear Lynyrd Skynyrd’s new demo over at ‘Shade Tree’ studio just off Beach Boulevard. When we got there we listened to the very first demo of ‘Free Bird’ ever recorded and another song titled; ‘Need All My Friends’. I had heard Ronnie and the band play Free Bird many times at the Comic Book. In fact, I heard Free Bird before it even had words. But this new version was very different. When they played Free Bird at the teen club it was a slow song from start to ending. This new demo of the very same song started out just like I remembered it, but half way through the song it went into a driving double-time jam all the way out. What an improvement! Quite frankly, as much as I hate to admit it, I always thought their original version of Free Bird was somewhat boring. But this new version changed the entire feel of the song and my opinion. It was definitely an attention getter. Little did I know at the time I was listening to Rock and Roll history in the making.
For the next few weeks it was obvious that the boys of Lynyrd Skynyrd had found backing for their blossoming career. On several occasions I was approached by Ronnie, Gary, and Allen to join the group as their roadie. I turned down the offer each time and continued to work for three more years with Kijafa. I heard later that Billy Powell was hired in my place as roadie. Billy would later become the group’s keyboard player. Larry Junstrom found a new home playing bass with Ronnie VanZant’s brother Donnie and his band, ‘38 Special.’
By mid-1972, Kijafa and me had moved to Atlanta and were playing at a popular club in Underground Atlanta, ‘The Palace’. We changed the name of the group to ‘Sunshine’ and gained a loyal Atlanta following of fans.
The last time I saw the Skynyrd band together was on December 4, 1972. They were playing at another popular Atlanta music hall called, Funocchio’s. It just happened to be Gary Rossington’s birthday and he invited me, Smitty, Donnie, and Carl to party with the band after the gig. They were staying at a mission-style apartment complex in Buckhead. I don’t even remember how we got home that night. But, I do know we had a ball! No one partied harder than the Skynyrd boys! Their partying would become legendary over the years, and for good reason. A Lynyrd Skynyrd party usually ended up with a large bill for damages.
In 1973, Smitty was murdered in Atlanta. The band ‘Sunshine’ was no more. We all went our separate ways. I don’t know what happened to Donnie Sharbino, but I did run in to Carl in 1998 in Newnan, Georgia. Decades of drug and alcohol abuse had reduced Carl to a mere shell of the man I had known in the 70’s. He was in a bad way and failing health. Carl told me he gave up music shortly after Smitty was killed in Atlanta. That was very sad for me to hear because Carl was so talented and he could have gone a long way in the music industry.
Gary Rossington, Bob Burns, Larry Junstrom are the only three surviving members of the original ‘1% band’. Ronnie was killed in the 1977 plane crash and Allen died in 1990 from complications connected to being paralyzed from a 1986 car crash. I ran into Bob and his wife Marsha in 2003 in Atlanta. But, I have lost track of him now.
Looking back on it now, I can draw some conclusions and observations. Ronnie VanZant was a very unique individual. Ronnie was a very talented poet and writer who drew on his observations of the street and experiences in everyday life to create one-of-a-kind lyrics. Ronnie never claimed to be a front man or entertainer and he never pretended to be a great singer. He would be the first to admit this fact. His gift was a pure and profound earthy southern writing style which resonated from the bare soles of his feet as he stood center stage. Ronnie wrote about life and death. He painted vivid portraits of life with his lyrics, and he touched people with his raw sincerity and honesty in every song. Even his humorous songs had a gritty reality to them, like ‘Gimme Three Steps’.
I can’t remember ever seeing Ronnie write anything down. I’m certain he probably did at some point, but I don’t remember that. I can only remember him with both hands draped over the microphone, his head down, standing as if the microphone and stand were apart of his very being, trying different phrases and wording until he found something he liked. Once he locked in to something, it became stone and he moved on to the next phrase. I spent many hours at the Comic Book listening to Skynyrd practice and arrange their material. At the time, I had no idea how special that opportunity was. They were just a band, and I was just a guy that worked at the club.
Ronnie ruled as leader of the Skynyrd band. Whatever Ronnie said was law, and no one dared challenge him. Ronnie demanded loyalty and commitment from Allen, Gary, Bob, and Leon – and they all fed off Ronnie’s passionate drive for perfection. It was all for one, and one for all. In my opinion, that was the real key to their success. Sure, they had their fights and arguments. And sometimes a busted lip or bloody nose was incurred. But in some strange way these spats only made them tighter as a group. Ronnie always won, no one was ever seriously injured, and all was forgiven in a very short period of time.
When Skynyrd played a song, it was performed in total unity, as if one person were producing all of the individual parts simultaneously. Each note played to complement the next. Allen and Gary would spend countless hours, day after day honing their guitar skills. Eating and sleeping came second to their quest for musical perfection. They fed off of one another and challenged each other to create sounds and playing techniques that were totally original and unique. Nine times out of ten, if you saw Allen, Gary was with him. They went everywhere together.
Bob Burns was born to play drums. His high-strung personality and hair-trigger attitude added an edgy driving force to the group and their music. Bob had a rough childhood and abusive father. Beating the hell out of the drums was a way for Bob to release his build-up inner anger and pain. I’m not telling you anything Bob wouldn’t tell you himself. Bob was always on the edge, and eventually he would quit the group because of emotional instability. Bob would be permanently replaced by drummer Artimus Pyle in 1974. That fact does nothing to dampen or taint Bob Burns’s contributions to Lynyrd Skynyrd and Rock & Roll history.
After the 1977 plane crash, surviving members struggled with what to do next. In or about 1979, Allen, Gary, Leon and Billy started their own group, the Rossington Collins Band. They cut two albums that were moderately successful and received high reviews. However, in 1986 tragedy struck yet again. Allen was involved in a car crash which paralyzed him and killed his girlfriend.
From what I have heard, after months of soul searching, and at the request of family and friends, Gary Rossington, Billy Powell and Leon Wilkeson agreed to revive the Lynyrd Skynyrd band in the form of a tribute group. Ronnie’s younger brother, Johnny VanZant took his brother’s place as front man and lead singer for the Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute band. In 2001, death visited the group yet once more. Leon Wilkeson died from liver failure. The current Tribute band continues to tour today playing sold out venues and performing all of Skynyrd’s hits. However, the song Free Bird is now performed as an instrumental without vocals in honor of Ronnie VanZant.
Over the years since the death of Ronnie and other key members of Skynyrd, Johnny VanZant has matured into a very confident performer and representative for Ronnie and the VanZant family. Most recently, Johnny teamed up with younger brother Donnie and recorded under the name ‘VanZant’. All in all, the VanZant family tradition of producing great music continues, and I’m certain Ronnie would be very proud of his younger brothers and the legacy he left them.
In the forty years since my days at the Comic Book Club, I have met many, many talented musicians, and I have listened to just as many tight and polished bands. However, I have never witnessed a group with the internal drive, raw talent, and undeniable passion, commitment, and fortitude for music that Ronnie VanZant and the Skynyrd boys had. Good bands are a dime a dozen, and great bands are born everyday. But, bands that leave an indelible mark on music and American history are extremely rare. The simple fact that Lynyrd Skynyrd songs continue to be featured in movies, television commercials, and ad campaigns on a regular basis provides credence to their historical influence. The artistic fiber of their music is permanently woven into the fabric we call ‘Americano’…
Well, that’s my story about Lynyrd and me. I am fairly confident that my recollection of dates is accurate. Although the many years that have passed have blurred some of my memories, my time at the Comic Book Club still remain crystal clear. I was witness to Rock & Roll history and for that I will always be humbly grateful.
As for me, I went on to do some fairly incredible things considering I’m a disabled veteran. During the 80’s I enjoyed a brief career in the motion picture business. However, my disabilities caused me to quit the movie biz. For the past 25 years I have been a veteran’s advocate fighting for improved healthcare for our men and women in uniform. Most recently, I have had the privilege of writing several public service announcements for Mr. Willie Nelson and Mr. Charlie Daniels. Both Willie and Charlie are big supporters of our veterans. I guess it would be fair to say, in a small way, I am one of the very few people on the face of this earth that has written anything for Willie Nelson and Charlie Daniels.
Sometimes, when I think back, I wonder ‘if’ I had accepted the offer to join Ronnie and the group as their roadie, would I have been on that airplane in 1977? That is a question that I will never know the answer to. One thing is for certain though, I am, and always will be an original member of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Family, and their biggest number one fan. And I am so grateful to have been a friend to Ronnie, Bob, Gary, and Allen.
There is no telling how far Ronnie and Skynyrd could have gone in the music World if they had not been torn apart by tragedy. Lynyrd Skynyrd was a one-of-a-kind band that will never be matched for the amount and quality of music they produced in their brief career. Their contributions to Rock & Roll defined an entire category of music, ‘Southern Rock’. Their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2006 was more than earned and well deserved. An interesting side note, Lynyrd Skynyrd was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on March 13, 2006, my birthday…
What happened to the Comic Book Club? The entire city block where the club was located was eventually torn down to make way for new development in the downtown area. I have no idea what happened to Jimmy Provost, but he was not in good health when I knew him. So, I assume he has probably passed away also. The only thing that remains of the Comic Book Club and the Rock & Roll history that was made there – are the memories that those of us who were there still have…
Salina Journal, Salina, Kansas
June 29th 1975
By ERNEST LEOGRANDE
One of the strongest new sounds in rock music is something that’s been labeled Southern rock, and Lynryd Skynyrd is one of its representative names. Maybe not an easy one to pronounce, but a big one.
Try it this way, the way the band says to do it: Lehnerd Skinnerd. “It was made as a joke,” the band’s leader Ronnie Van Zant, said, “and we’re still gettin’ trouble with it.”
The name goes back to high school days when the band being formed by schoolmates Ronnie Van Zant vocalist, Allen Collins and Gary Rossington, guitarists and Bob Burns, drummer.
They had a gym teacher who used to tell them their hair was too long. They thought it would be a good joke to use his name (changed a little for safety’s sake) for their group. It stuck and now covers a band expanded to take in bassman Leon Wilkeson and keyboard man Billy Powell. Burns just dropped out, to be replaced by drummer Artimis Pyle, “Like in Gomer,” Ronnie said.
What the group used to do a lot was drive the 300 miles from Jacksonville, Fla. where they lived, to play dates in Atlanta, Ga., where Al Kooper discovered them and signed them to a record contract with his new label, Sounds of the South.
“The Allman Brothers were definitely the group that opened up the door for the Southern groups,” Ronnie said. “There are some young musicians down there that are very good. “The Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead had their scene. There was a scene in New York. Now the South has theirs. How long it will last I don’t know. I’m just glad we have it.”
The song which made them famous, “Free Bird”, is an excuberant excercise with sweeping, runaway guitar riffs , dedicated to Duane Allman. “All Southern groups associate with one another, ” Ronnie said.
The song, written by Ronnie and Allen, is a statement of the need to be free, on the road, and not bound by romantic entanglements. The group and road crew are not crazy about flying to gigs, so they’ve done what so many traditional country and western singers have done: bought and outfitted a bus for traveling.
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s bus sleeps 12, has a living room with color TV and individual rooms for sleeping. It’s on the truckers’ radio band, a network linking commercial drivers so they can pass information back and forth. Drivers on this band take code names for their vehicles. So if you happen to tune into that band and you hear a message from Free Bird, you’ll know who it is.
Another of their songs, “Sweet Home Alabama”, also proved extremely popular. It was an answer to Neil Young’s “Southern Man”, which had had some hard things to say about life in the South. Ronnie said Al Kooper and Neil Young had bumped into each other and discussed “Sweet Home Alabama”, and there were no hard feelings.
“He was real happy about the song,” Ronnie said, which is hard to believe since at one point the song remarks, “Well, I hope Neil Young will remember/A Southern man don’t need him around anyhow!”
Also, later that night, with Lynyrd Skynyrd headlining a sold-out concert at New York City’s famed Academy of Music, Ronnie responded to the sight of some kids in the front seats waving a Confederate flag and stated, in blunt terms, as the song struck its opening chords, that he didn’t care what Neil Young thought.
At one point in our conversation that afternoon Ronnie had been talking about how much emphasis he put on his arrangements for the group, especially since it has 3 lead guitars. “We put our music together, piece by piece, like a jigsaw puzzle,” he said. “Times we all play together, other times 2 of us play harmony and one rhythm and then at times one will just play the chinks, fillin’ in.”
He said his inspiration for arranging had been the way the Buffalo Springfield worked, which is a bit ironic when you know that Neil Young was one of the key men in the Buffalo Springfield. But then there’s a theory that true art exists on its own, separate from political or sociological feelings.
Anyway, if Ronnie is representative of Southern men, he’s a good representative — genial, accommodating and with a sense of humor. He did lapse into some criticism of New York City as representative of the North. “It’s ridiculous,” he said, “to come from places in the South where you can get all you can eat for $2.50 and pay $12 here and not get filled up.”
LYNYRD SKYNYRD at Funocchio's in Atlanta, Georgia 1972
In 1972, I was searching for a great three-chord band to produce. The radio was logjammed with progressive rock like you wouldn’t believe: Yes; Pink Floyd; Emerson, Lake and Palmer; Genesis; King Crimson. As a student of rock history, I knew it wouldn’t be long before basic rock returned like the cavalry, and I wanted to be leading the charge, albeit behind the scenes.
And so, in 1972, I heard Lynyrd Skynyrd making their Atlanta debut at a very dangerous club on Peachtree Street called Funocchio’s. They were playing a weeklong engagement, and each night I’d hear another great original song from them and knew I’d found the band I was searching for.
As I got to know them, I marveled at their work ethic. They had a shack on the swamp in their native Jacksonville, Florida, where they rehearsed constantly, honing their original material into polished, shining steel. They may have had three guitar players, but they understood restraint. Of all the bands I’d come across in my life, they were the finest arrangers. “Sweet Home Alabama” sounds like seasoned studio musicians twice their age.
Ronnie Van Zant was Lynyrd Skynyrd. I don’t mean to demean the roles the others played in the group’s success, but it never would have happened without him. His lyrics were a big part of it — like Woody Guthrie and Merle Haggard before him, Ronnie knew how to cut to the chase. And Ronnie ran that band with an iron hand. I have never seen such internal discipline in a band. One example: These guys composed all of their guitar solos. Most bands improvised solos each time they performed or recorded. Not them. Ronnie’s dream was that they would sound exactly the same every time they took the stage.
After three or four albums, Lynyrd Skynyrd transcended the Southern-rock tag. They became one of the greatest rock & roll bands in history. They feared no one. On their very first national tour, they opened for the Who. And got encores!
When Ronnie went down in that terrible 1977 plane crash, the forward progress of the band ended. After the survivors all healed, they miraculously reassembled. Ronnie’s kid brother Johnnie took over, and you had to rub your eyes to make sure it wasn’t Ronnie. But while the band could duplicate the majesty of past live shows (and still can), the heart and soul of the band was gone forever. LYNYRD SKYNYRD DOCUMENTARY
Lynyrd Skynyrd Dixie
LYNYRD SKYNYRD: Hell On Wheels Puts On The Brakes
Los Angeles Times, Sunday, October 24, 1976
By Cameron Crowe
When Lynyrd Skynyrd finally broke into the top 10 last month with it’s fifth album, “One More From The Road,” singer-founder Ronnie Van Zant could hardly wait to celebrate by canceling all future interviews. “This band doesn’t owe anything to anybody,” he declared happily. “Most of the media people, especially the press, have consistently portrayed us as either children or a bunch of rowdy drunks. That may or may not be true, but I know I’d much rather deal with the audiences that really put us there.”
After 10 grueling years of almost constant touring, Dixie’s Lynyrd Skynyrd are anything but children. Their notoriously long record of pillage and arrest however, does prove one thing. To the absolute delight of it’s hell-raising following, the band has boozed and brawled it’s way to the top. But now, bolstered by the confidence that only long-sought success can bring, 27 year old Van Zant is talking about changing that too.
“We like to have a good time and we will raise hell, but I assure you there won’t be as much skull-busting going on anymore.” Nursing a whisky in the hotel bar before Skynyrd’s recent apperance at the sold-out Starlight Amphitheater, Van Zant spoke in almost scholarly tones. “There was a point when it looked like everyone was going to be a (Keith) Moon in this band. That doesn’t work. Televisions out the window, fistfights over mistakes in the show… now, instead of people punching each other out, we just levy a fine. The best way to hit a man is in his pocket. Hitting him does no good. Breaking up a hotel room doesn’t change anything.”
“Our manager hit me with a bill the other day for $29,000 worth of damages. Some people work a long time for $29,000 and I tore up that much without even thinking about it. I can’t believe it… and it won’t happen again. Before the success of the live album, (“One More From The Road”), there was a lot of heavy pressure on us, which is no real excuse, I know. But we’ve been trying very hard to become a little bit more professional in our business. Just in our business though. We’d be crazy to start dressing up our stage. And the playing will always be as rough-house as always. I promise you that.”
Formed while the members were still attending high school in Jacksonville, Florida, Skynyrd was the master plan of Van Zant and guitarists Gary Rossington and Allen Collins. The name of the group comes from their gym coach, Leonard Skinner, who expelled them for long hair. Now a real estate salesman, Skinner introduced the band at a recent show in their hometown.
“The whole idea of the group,” recalls Van Zant, “was decided in the very beginning. We’ve stuck with it ever since.” It was, basically, to hone their hard rock cum country-blues material into a dense three guitar attack. Adding former Strawberry Alarm Clock guitarist Ed King, keyboard man Billy Powell, bassist Leon Wilkeson and drummer Bob Burns, the band was complete. Their goal? Van Zant: “To have fun, what else?”
It was a good thing. During their six years on the Southern bar grind, there was little else to be had. “Talk about dues, we paid a damn ton of ‘em,” cracks Van Zant. “So many that if things ever went too smoothly, it would ruin the group.”
Eventually, the huge breakthrough success of the Allman Brothers Band, another guitar oriented outfit from the South, paved the way for Skynyrd’s signing with MCA Records in the summer of ’73. Today, Gregg Allman’s recent bitter revelations that his band broke up this year with only $100,000 to split six ways have left Van Zant quieted by the ironic turn of events. “When Skynyrd is through, we will have probably quadrupled that per person,” he somberly reflects. “But if it hadn’t been for them, (Allman Brothers Band), we wouldn’t have gotten one penny.”
Van Zant also refuses to gloat over or publicize the fact that Skynyrd – with three gold and two platinum albums to it’s credit – is now easily the South’s biggest band. “If you ask me,” he says, “we’re closer to the classic British rock groups like Free then anything else.”
Van Zant even brashly dismisses the hit single “Sweet Home Alabama”, Skynyrd’s chest pounding reply to Neil Young’s “Southern Man” as “more of a joke than anything else.” He takes a gulp of of Jack Daniels, “Hey, I love Neil Young. My wife plays his records around the house all the time. He even dug the song himself. He understood that we weren’t serious. You gotta write about something. It’s tough.”
In the two years since “Sweet Home Alabama” though, writing has been the least of Skynyrd’s problems. Drummer Bob Burns – swiftly replaced by Artimus Pyle – was the first to bail out of the group’s never ending tour schedule. Integral writer and instrumentalist Ed King was next to leave in mid-’75, this time out of “total exhaustion”. Initially, the group attempted to restructure it’s sound around the remaining two guitars. Veteran producer Tom Dowd, (who has worked with everyone from Otis Redding to Eric Clapton), was called in to replace their original mentor, Al Kooper. The result was last year’s “Gimme Back My Bullets”.
While Dowd has made enthusiastic believers of the group, (“He taught us more then we ever thought we’d want to learn,” claims Allen Collins), “Bullets” remains the least successful of Skynyrd’s albums.
“Tom is still the best and only producer for this group,” Van Zant states flatly. “We were going for a completely different sound… and it didn’t work. We had always been so heavy and muddy, we decided to make a clean Lynyrd Skynyrd album. The material was good, it was just too… refined.”
The band learned a quick lesson about it’s fans. “We decided immediately to do an honest live album with three guitarists,” he continues, “and get back into the thing that had always worked so well. We had always been saving a Skynyrd live album as our trump. An intact recording of the band in concert. No overdubbing… no ‘Lynyrd Skynyrd Comes Alive’ for us. All we had to do was find a third guitarist.
After auditioning such luminaries as Leslie West and Muscle Shoals session whiz Wayne Perkins, the band finally settled on Steve Gaines, the unknown guitarist brother of one of Skynyrd’s backup girls. “I expect we’ll all be in Steve’s shadow one day,” Van Zant boasts. “This kid is a writing and playing fool. Just wait and see. He’s already scared everybody else into playing their best in years.”
As for maturation of his fellow band mates, Van Zant is decidedly less sure. “We were babies when we started this band,” he states, “and, to me, the other guys still are. There was a time when I’d get really drunk in this bar and say, ‘Who is the meanest mother here?’ You got a date with me outside.’ For the hell of it. The other guys are mostly still at that point. They’ll learn.”
Gary Rossington and Allen Collins, both car crash victims last Labor Day weekend, were slapped with hefty fines. “It’s a terrible thing when you get behind the wheel and you’re so drunk that you can’t drive a car to begin with. Those boys will pay for it. Allen hit a parked Volkswagen and knocked it across an empty parking lot. That was just a fender-bender compared to Gary’s.”
Rossington’s well publicized accident forced Skynyrd off the bill with Aerosmith at it’s recent Anaheim Stadium show. “I can’t tell you how mad I got at him for that,” fumes Van Zant. “We’re glad he’s gonna make it, he’s tremendously lucky to be alive… but it was his fault. He passed out at the wheel of his brand new Ford Torino, with his foot on the gas. He knocked down a telephone pole, split an oak tree and did $7,000 worth of damage to a house. That’s being just plain stupid. I told him that on his hospital bed.”
Van Zant shrugs, “You know, the biggest change in myself that I’ve noticed is that for the first time I’m really thinking about the future. I’m 27 now and I’ve got a baby girl and I plan to stick around and watch her grow up. I also plan to collect for the last 10 years of self abuse.”
With “One More From The Road” only accelerating up the charts, there is still no end in sight. Future plans include a television special, the group’s promotion of a Toyota automobile named ‘Freebird’, (after their in concert tour de force), a country album from Van Zant, another Lynyrd Skynyrd studio album and, of course, a worldwide tour. Just how does a man keep his sanity throughout?
Ronnie Van Zant smiles softly to himself and calls over a cocktail waitress. “Bring me another drink,” he says.
LYNYRD SKYNYRD Gimme Back My Bullets - www.lynyrdskynyrddixie.com
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Gimme Back My Bullets
Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 31 January 1976
FOR SUCH A great continent, America has given the outside world very few real rock and roll bands.
Many have watered down the true essence of rock to the point where it lacks attack. Lynyrd Skynyrd are one of the few exceptions.
Not many bands around play with such an earthy passion. The music is from the roots and gives the band a distinctive deep South sound, a sound that has, for the first time been captured effectively on record on this, their fourth album.
None of the three previous albums have come anywhere near capturing the potential of this wild bunch. Al Kooper, who produced them, didn’t show too much sympathy. Tom Dowd, who produced this LP, has managed commendably to discipline them and harness the talent. Dowd has cleaned the sound considerably, but not too much. The grittiness that sets Skynyrd apart is still very evident. He’s put instruments in the proper perspective – lead guitars are heard only when necessary, the rhythm section is given a body that it previously lacked. It’s the first album Skynyrd have done without third guitarist Ed King, who quit during last year, and they’ve tailored their work so well that he is not missed. Gary Rossington and Allen Collins deal effectively with guitars, creating a beautiful marriage.
The band sound as a whole is more distinct than on any other album, due to the excellent vocals of Ronnie Van Zant. His unique offhand style must earn him a place with other great rock vocalists of today. Those vocals, combined with guitars that play mostly lead, set Skynyrd up as an outstanding rock band. The album’s failings are on side one. I’m left on occasions with the impression that Skynyrd are strangely trying to manufacture an anthem, bidding to record another ‘Freebird’ or ‘Sweet Home Alabama’. ‘Every Mother’s Son’ and ‘Trust’ are the tracks which offend. But the last track on that side ‘(I Got The) Same Old Blues’ by J. J. Cale could reach such status. The number is given a tremendous treatment – slide guitar on top of an infectious riff, a sluggish drum beat, a stop, and then Van Zant enters on vocals. The best track on the album.
Lynyrd Skynyrd – Original Roadie Dean Kilpatrick July 1977
Jacksonville Journal, Friday August 30, 1974
THE MEN BEHIND SKYNYRD
Report On Rocking Roadies
by Doreen Dube-Staff Writer
The entire exciting world of rock music seems to fascinate today’s youth. The first of the musical caravan to hit a town is the t-shirted, blue-jeaned roadie, one of the most fascinating, yet unresearched species of that world. The roadie can be seen laboring about the stage long before the stars are to appear, arranging and rearranging equipment. Confidant, friend, mother and employee of the celebrated musicians, the roadie holds an enviable position, with status plus, with the young audience.
Sitting in the apartment of Dean Kilpatrick, roadie for Jacksonville’s Lynyrd Skynyrd, he and his co-workers, Kevin Elson, Chuck Flowers and Craig Reed, discussed their jobs as roadmen for the popular rock group.
Elson, the unofficial spokesman for the group explained the basics of the job. “There’s six of us plus our road manager, Russ Emerick. Dean and John Butler stay with the group to make sure the guys are on time for the shows and take care of the dressing rooms. Craig takes care of the drums. Chuck manages the side of the stage that Allen (guitarist) and Billy (keyboard) play on, while Joe Barnes takes care of the other side where Ed, Gary (guitarists) and Leon (bass) play. I take care of mixing the sound and the piano”
A former musician, Elson expressed satisfaction with his present position at the sound controls, “If I was just doing roadwork, y’know, I’d definitely want to play again, but I’m really into mixing. That’s what I’d like to do in the future. In the past two years I’ve learned so much that now I just want to do that and eventually get into studio work.”
What would the roadies do if something happened causing Lynyrd Skynyrd to split up? Reed was the first to answer, “It won’t happen. They won’t break up.” Elson smiled slowly, “Well…. I’d take a long vacation. Seriously, I’d probably see what the rest of the guys were doing and stick with the ones who were staying in music or otherwise I’d go work for a sound studio.” And Kilpatrick, the comedian of the roadies piped in with, “I’d be a go-go girl! NO, really, we’ve been together for so long. We’re going to stay together for a long while yet!”
The schedule of touring is grinding, especially for the roadie who is the first to arrive in each city, the last one to leave the hall after each concert, yet the first the first to leave each town. Elson explained, “We get early flights when we fly – like six in the morning so we can get to the halls to set up by noon. Our day starts at noon and ends at twelve that night. We have to coordinate all the lighting systems, and the sound and make sure the show goes off on time. We do sound checks every day so it’s really like doing two shows a day.”
Usually the roadies drive the equipment from gig to gig. Skynyrd carries 4,000 pounds of equipment, which fills four cases, packed into three trucks. With shows set on a nightly schedule, it’s not uncommon for the road crew to go four or five days without sleep, or drive 1400 miles in two days.
Reed enjoys the gruelling schedule though, “I’ve only been in town now for three weeks and I’m absolutely going crazy. I don’t mean because of this town, it’s any town – staying anywhere for that long now is a drag. What other job can you do that you could be in a different city every day? It beats an 8 to 5 job.”
The problems for the road crew have diminished somewhat with the rise in popularity of Lynyrd Skynyrd. “There’s not as many problems now,” Elson said. “Like before, it was just me and Dean, (agonizing groan from Dean Kilpatrick), taking care of all the equipment. It was ridiculous. Now there’s specific people to do specific things. And now if we need a new piece of equipment, we can get it. Before we had to use whatever we had until we could afford something new. I’d say as far as my part goes it’s a lot easier now.”
Elson went on to tell how their popularity has made it easier for them to work with the roadies of other rock groups. “We don’t have much trouble with other groups now either like we did when we first went on the road. There was only two of us then. Skynyrd had to open all the shows and had to use whatever stage space the headliner would give up. Like bits of stage here and there. With seven men in a group, we need a lot of space. But, it’s easier now because we headline most of our shows, so we set up and the group playing with us sets up in front of us and if they give us any trouble…..” But this statement was cut short by Kilpatrick who piped in laughing, “THEY have to get back now.” Elson shook his head and went on, “No, we’re real easy to work with. We try to help everyone like the Who helped us when we first were getting rolling.”
There’s a lighter side to roadwork though. The travelling from city to city, meeting all types of people from all walks of life is interesting for the road crew. There are the parties after a good performance that help to relieve anxieties and there is always the practical joke that helps lift any tensions that might be in the air.
It’s a tiring job sometimes, but it is a way of life that the Lynyrd Skynyrd roadies would not easily give up. Maybe it’s the close relationship they have with the musicians, or that burning ambition to work for the number one group in the country, or maybe it’s just that these six fellows are a bit daft calling the 24 hour a day job fun.
They don’t seem to know themselves why they enjoy their lifestyle, but as Kevin Elson simply put it, “It’s a lot better then sitting around no matter how tired you get.”
Lynyrd Skynyrd Keeps It Alive
they’ve recently released their fifth album, the first live, “One More
From The Road,” record in Atlanta. (AP Photo)
Is Southern Rock Dying Away?
November 21, 1976
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) —
With the breakup of the Allman Brothers band, Lynyrd Skynyrd would seem to be the Number One exponent of rock’s Southern Sound. Skynyrd’s aggressive, guitar-dominated music may be as close to the very un-Southern British rockers as it is to the Allman’s more lyrical blues-rock hybrid, but its most famous single, “Sweet Home Alabama,” defends Dixie’s honor.
And “One More From The Road,” the band’s new two record album, has won a gold record, although it was released only in September. That’s five consecutive golds, more than the total for Marshall Tucker, Charlie Daniels and the Outlaws combined. Nevertheless, just before a fall show at the 8,000-seat Pavilion, Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington remarked that the Southern Sound is just a fad. “Southern rock is dying away,” Rossington explained. “A while ago, David Bowie and Alice Cooper were doing their crazy thing and music was secondary to what the show was. Then the Southern thing came out and it was all music. Nobody did a show or got dressed up. “Now it doesn’t matter where you’re from. It’s how good you are.” Skynyrd has folded its Confederate flag backdrop in favor of the winding rod on the cover of its latest album.
But the group still salutes its roots by encoring with “Free Bird,” its tribute to the founder of the Allman Brothers, Duane Allman. “They were the Beatles of the South,” Rossington said of the Allmans, adding that it was the release “At Fillmore East” in 1971 that made the country take notice of Southern music. “They came out and everybody noticed ‘em.” Actually, it was strange to talk with Rossington about the Allmans. After all, Gregg Allman, the last of the Allman brothers, is in disfavor in the world of rock for testifying against his former road manager, Scooter Herring,
in a cocaine case. Herring was sentenced to 75 years’ imprisonment for a narcotics conviction, and angry Allman band members decided that they no longer wanted to play with Gregg. So the band broke up this past summer. “It’s weird. It’s chaos,” was all Rossington had to say about the situation.
The band’s “From The Road” was recorded over three nights in early July at the Fox Theater in Atlanta. The album plays like a Skynyrd show, containing songs like “Saturday Night Special” and “Free Bird.” “From The Road” also marked the first time in three albums that the band has had the seven-man, three-guitar lineup it enjoyed before Ed King quit in mid-1974. “We used a session guitarist named Barry Harwood on ‘Nuthin’ Fancy’ and ‘Gimmie Back My Bullets,’” noted Leon Wilkeson. “When we were in Europe last fall, he sat in with us. That’s when the search for a third
guitarist began.” Skynyrd eventually chose Steve Gaines. whose sister Cassie is one of the group’s three backup singers.
“Skynyrd came to Kansas City for a concert,” said Gaines, an amiable Oklahoman whose claim to fame at the time was his role in a local band called Crawdaddy. “I sat in for a number and they liked it. They flew me down to Jacksonville, and Allen and Gary and I would sit in Leon’s living room all night and rehearse. Two weeks after I joined the band, we recorded the album.” Rossington was candid about Gaines’ role on the album. “We just played all the songs we could teach him. There’s a couple of songs he didn’t play on — Tuesday’s Gone’ and ‘Gimmie Three Steps.’” He also admitted that “From The Road” was not exactly a great creative leap forward. “We only did three songs we’d never recorded: ‘T For Texas.’ ‘Travelin’ Man’ and ‘Crossroads.’ It’s just us live.” Rossington’s remark about Skynyrd “live” brought to mind the band’s rowdy reputation.
On its early recognition-building “torture tours” (250 concerts during 300 days on the road), the Skynyrd players let off steam with such niceties as throwing a table out of a London hotel window. Once a guitar launched into a New York theater audience cut the face of a girl seated in the first row. LYNYRD SKYNYRD DOCUMENTARY
LYNYRD SKYNYRD - Allen Collins, Leon Wilkeson, Gary Rossington, Artimus Pyle, Ronnie Van Zant & Billy Powell
ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL Sunday. March 21,1976
Lynyrd Skynyrd Shapes Long Show
By CHARLES ANDREWS
“We’ve got an extra-long show for you.” said Leon Wilkeson bass player for Lynyrd Skynyrd , the popular rock band scheduled for a Tuesday night appearance with Montrose at the Civic, Auditorium.
It’s a long show, “he repeated later in the telephone call to the Journal from Los Angeles, “the longest set we’ve ever done.” !t was stated matter-of-factly, with no hint in his voice of hype or feigned enthusiasm. No enthusiasm at all, for that matter. But he explained later that the whole band was wrestling with the flu.
“We’ve had it remarked to us that people thought we didn’t play long enough. Maybe it was true. But even so, we still get that haunting fear about playing too long, and boring people.” Lynyrd Skynyrd’s show has been beefed up with the addition of female vocalists and lengthened for their “America ’76″ tour, but Wilkeson’s remark about an “extra-long show” was meant specifically for Albuqerque.
“I definitely want to express our apologies that we had to postpone the concert there,” he said, referring to the band’s originally-scheduled March 2 date at the Civic. The first explanation passed around locally was that the band had been snowed in Denver where the tour had begun the night before, but Wilkeson said it was the equipment trucks, which were to come from Santa Monica, that couldn’t make it through the snow-covered roads.
Wilkeson said the band is also anxious to put on a good, long show because their other attempt to play Albuquerque also went down the rubes. That was in May 1974 when Lynyrd Skynyrd was one of five groups scheduled to play an outdoor concert at UNM’s football stadium. Tear gas thrown by an unknown party disrupted that event and was the major factor in canceling future shows at the facility , but Wilkeson blamed Skynyrd’s no-show on an extended jam by members of the Steve Miller Band and Box Scagg’s group. “They played so long we were told there was no time for us to play, even though we were ready to go. I think the Marshall Tucker Band had to cut their set short too, because of that.”
This time around the flu as well as the weather is playing havoc with their schedule; Wilkeson said their Fresno date three nights before had to be canceled because of illness. But he said he was certain that would not be a factor by the time they hit Albuquerque.
“We’ll have serveral days off before our show there, and I’m sure we’ll be all over the flu . We’ll have gotten plenty of rest during that break. Everybody in the group is pretty health-conscious now. We don’t rock and roll all night and party every day, like some people might think. We were pretty loose at first, when touring nationwide and making big money was all new to us. But we take pretty good care of ourselves now.”
Then, as an afterthought, he (admitted), “Well, some of us do still drink a bit, now and then.”
The three women singers the group is including on this tour are jokingly called the Skynettes, Wilkeson said. A black female trio called the Honnicutts sang on two songs on the latest Lynyrd Skynyrd album, “Gimme Back My Bullets,” but Leon said they were not available for touring at this time.
These are three white girls,” Wilkeson said, “—Leslie Hawkins, who used to sing with Wet Willie, Debbie Jo Billingsley, and Cassie Gaines. They do only four songs with us right now —’Cry’ For The Bad Man’ and ‘Double Trouble’ from the new album, ‘Sweet Home Alabama and a new song called ‘Tuesday’s Gone.’
“That’s a great one,” he said in reference to the new number. “It’s been getting almost as much response as ‘Freebird,’ which has always been our big finish.”
But Wilkeson declined to reveal any details about the show planned for here Tuesday night. “We don’t like to give away any surprises,” Leon said. “But I promise it’s gonna be a good one.”
(Charles Andrews is a freelance popular music writer)
FRIDAY, APRIL 16,1976 BUCKS COUNTY COURIER TIMES PENNSYLVANIA
Lynyrd Skynyrd is a name to remember not pronounce
By JOHN FISHER
If you are looking in the phone directory for Lynyrd Skynyrd, forget it he isn’t listed. Actually he isn’t a he, Lynyrd Skynyrd is — a talented band of Southern rockers composed of Ronnie Van Zant, Allen Collins, Gary Rossington, Billy Powell, Leon Wilkeson and Artimus Pyle. But Lynyrd Skynyrd is a name most people-versed in the rock world are familiar with for it has become one of the most popular groups in the country during the past three years. Selling out Tonight the group is scheduled to play at the Spectrum to near, if been selling out concerts weeks in advance for most of their concerts. Contacted in New York, after a successful two-night stand, members of Lynyrd Skynyrd were excited by their most recent journey North. ‘~- – “It’s better this time,” said Allen Collins one of the dual lead guitars for the group. He joins forces during recordings and in concert with Gary Rossington for one of the most powerful guitar attacks since the early Allman Brothers days. Together they play some of the tightest guitar leads in the music business. “It’s got to be after 10 years together,” Collins explained. The group started out in the Jacksonville, Florida area as high schoolers playing together. Collins said because of the time they have spent together, in most instances, they can predict where the other members of the band are heading musically when they play even a new song.
Breaking mark
But despite the precision and tightness of the group, breaking the Northern market hasn’t been easy for Lynyrd Skyriyrd. “It’s really taken some time,” Collins said. “This is our fifth time up North. The last time we cracked the market and this time The reason for the slow acceptance according to Collins is “Music down South is more simple. Instead of doing a lot of time changes, like a lot of groups, we keep the song where you can pat your foot to it.” While Gary was talking in his lulling Southern drawl, it sounded as if there was a party going on in the background.
The various members of the group were passing away a day in the hotel room, laughing carrying on and showing the close bonds which have developed over years of playing together. “Just a second, Gary would like to talk to you,” was the brief introduction given to the other lead guitar player in the band.
Breaks finger
Gary Rossington, like Allen, is enjoying the current Northern tour. “It’s alright,” Rossington said. “I just broke my finger and Ronnie (Van Zant) has the flu: Broken fingers and torn up throats but we’re still doing alright.” Rossington said although they have been together as a group, a long-time, there are few major tensions. “We get on each others’ nerves a lot but we’re so used to each other it makes playing on stage easier. He said one new feature which immediately will be noticeable is the addition of three female backup singers to the group. “We’re playing a lot longer set now too. It’s about 90 minutes but the other night (in New York) we played for two hours,” Rossington said. Then it was time to give some telephone time to Van Zant, the groups unofficial leader and lead vocalist driving the powerful yet simple lyrics. “The people are treating us good,” Van Zant said. He said he felt this would be the year for total acceptance of the group.
Together for 11 years.
“At the end of this year we will have been together for 11 years. married for 11 years you would fight to.” Van Zant said part of the secret to the group’s longevity is the fact they don’t hold anything in. If something disturbs a member of the group, they argue it out and go on the next day as if nothing happened. But,the time together also shows on stage. “When we are playing on stage,” Van Zant said, “We even know how to walk around each other’s cords without tripping on it.” Van Zant said he hoped the momentum of the group would be aided with the addition of a new guitar player they are considering. “I hope this will give us a little initiative to go a little further—new blood.” Van Zant said Lynyrd Skynyrd will be maintaining their recorded format, of a boogie-based, country-flavored sound, through their next album which will be a live offering. He said that will be followed by an album the group recorded in 1969. “Then we will take a couple of months to see what we want to do. It seems regardless of what new material we try, it always comes out Lynyrd Skynyrd and that’s good.” Aside from his bout with the flu, Van Zant was complaining about a run-in with a thief. “One of the guys left the door open and someone came in an took my suitcase.” He said this was compiled with other small problems such as amplifiers blowing out. But such is the price of fame. Van Zant and the group have found they can’t move as freely as they used to due to fan recognition. Also they have to live down a reputation of being hotel destroyers in the various towns and cities’ that they visit. Van. Zant concluded, “Gonna, have to be a little more careful, I reckon.” . LYNYRD SKYNYRD DOCUMENTARY
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