Lynyrd Skynyrd

Lynyrd Skynyrd (pronounced 'lh-'nérd 'skin-'nérd) is a U.S. Southern rock band, described by All Music Guide's Stephen Thomas Erlewine as "the definitive Southern rock band, fusing the overdriven power of blues-rock with a rebellious southern image and a hard rock swagger."

The band reached prominence during the 1970s under the leadership of vocalist and primary songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, until he died, along with several other members of the band, in a plane crash in 1977.

Lynyrd Skynyrd was one of the most critically acclaimed Southern Rock groups of the 1970's and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as of March 13, 2006. Their distinctive triple-lead guitar sound made their songs "Free Bird" and "Sweet Home Alabama" American anthems and staples of FM radio. Members inducted include: singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarists Rickey Medlocke, Gary Rossington, Allen Collins, Ed King, and Steve Gaines, bassist Leon Wilkeson, keyboard player Billy Powell, and drummers Bob Burns and Artimus Pyle.

Background

The band, originally called My Backyard, was formed in Jacksonville, Florida in the summer of 1964 by teenage friends Ronnie Van Zant (vocals), Allen Collins (guitar), Gary Rossington (guitar), Larry Junstrom (bass) and Bob Burns (drums). Their early influences included British Invasion bands such as Free, The Yardbirds, and The Beatles, as well as Southern blues and country & western music.

During the 1960s, the band changed names several times (most notable among their names was "The Noble Five" and "One Percent") while playing local dances and clubs in Jacksonville. In 1968 they won a local Battle of the Bands contest, using the prize money to record the songs "Need All My Friends" and "Michelle", the former released as their debut single on Jacksonville based Shade Tree Records. They also won the opening slot on several Southeast shows for California-based psychedelic rock band, Strawberry Alarm Clock.

The Early years: 1970-1972

In 1970, the band began rehearsing at the "Hell House", an isolated farm in Green Cove Springs, a small city in Clay County on the outskirts of Jacksonville. Roadie Billy Powell joined as keyboardist around this time. The original name of the band was to be "One Percent". The final band name also made its first appearance, a mocking tribute to Gary Rossington and Bob Burns’ gym coach at Robert E. Lee High School, Leonard Skinner. Skinner would strictly enforce the school's dress code, which did not allow boys to have long hair touching the collar or sideburns below the ears.

Lynyrd Skynyrd continued to perform throughout the South in the early 1970s, further developing their hard-driving, blues-rock sound and image. In 1972, Leon Wilkeson replaced Larry Junstrom on bass. But Wilkeson surprised his band mates and left just before they were to record the first album, Wilkeson rejoined the band shortly thereafter at Ronnie Van Zant's invitation. Strawberry Alarm Clock guitarist Ed King was asked to fill in as bass player. After the album was completed, Ronnie Van Zant informed Ed King that he was "the worst bass player he'd ever played with". He suggested King move to guitar so they could reproduce the studio albums three-guitar mix. Ronnie Van Zant married girlfriend Judy Seymour in 1972.

Peak years: 1973-1977

Musician, songwriter, and producer Al Kooper of Blood, Sweat, and Tears was impressed with the band during a performance at an Atlanta club called Funocchio's in 1972, and signed them to MCA Records. He produced their first album, 1973's (pronounced 'lh-'nérd 'skin-'nérd), which featured the song "Free Bird". "Free Bird" began to receive national airplay, eventually reaching #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. The song has also become the subject of a Rock and Roll cliché, which is the shouting of a request to hear the song at almost any live concert, regardless of the performer. This practice has become so common place at live concerts it has largely evolved into a parody of itself.

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s fan base continued to grow rapidly during 1973, due in large part to their opening slot on The Who's Quadrophenia tour in the U.S. Their second album 1974's, Second Helping, was the bands breakthrough hit. It featured their most popular single "Sweet Home Alabama" (#8 on the charts in August 1974), an answer song to Neil Young's "Alabama" and "Southern Man". Today, Neil Young claims that he and Ronnie Van Zant were not rivals, that they were actually fans of each others music, and that they had talked of collaborations together. It is often assumed that Young's song "Powderfinger" was given to Lynyrd Skynyrd to perform, speculation Young does not deny. Unfortunately, the plane crash happened just months after that song was penned, leading Neil Young to perform the song himself on his 1978 album Rust Never Sleeps. Furthering the rumors of friendship, Young has occasionally included the chorus from "Sweet Home Alabama" at his own live concerts, including his first live performance following Ronnie Van Zant's tragic death. Finally, one of the last photos of Ronnie Van Zant prior to his passing features the front man wearing a Neil Young t-shirt.

Second Helping reached #12 in 1974, eventually going multi-platinum. In July 1974, Lynyrd Skynyrd was one of the headline acts at The Ozark Music Festival, at the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia, Missouri. Some estimates have put the crowd count at 350,000 people which would make this one of the largest music events in history. The band also toured the UK in 1975 with Golden Earring and in 1976 with The Rolling Stones.

In 1975, Bob Burns left the band and was replaced by North Carolina drummer Artimus Pyle. The new lineup's first album, Nuthin' Fancy was released, becoming their first Top Ten album. It features the hit song "Saturday Night Special" (#27 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart). Guitarist Ed King left the band midway through the Nuthin' Fancy tour. The band decided to continue on as a 6-piece, with only two guitarists.

Gimme Back My Bullets followed in 1976, but didn't reach the same success as the previous two albums. In December 1975, backup singers Leslie Hawkins, Cassie Gaines and JoJo Billingsley (collectively known as the Honkettes) were added to the band. Guitarist Steve Gaines, brother of backup singer Cassie Gaines, replaced King in 1976, just in time to record the double-live album One More from the Road, the bands second Top Ten hit. At its peak, the band's unique triple guitar style included one slide and a rocking Gibson Explorer. Adding to the wall of sound was the melodic bass playing, the wild yet rhythmic percussion section, Ronnie Van Zant’s strong vocals, and the furious keyboard/piano playing of Billy Powell.

Lynyrd Skynyrd's sixth album, Street Survivors was released in October of 1977. It would be the final album released by the original line-up.

The Plane Crash: 1977

Lynyrd Skynyrd's legend is grounded in a plane crash that occurred on October 20, 1977, three days after the release of Street Survivors. A chartered Convair 240 N55VM, carrying the band between shows from Greenville, South Carolina to LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, crashed near a forest in McComb, Mississippi, killing singer/songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, vocalist Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray. Other band members were injured, some very seriously. Drummer Artimus Pyle crawled out of the plane wreckage with several broken ribs, but was ambulatory, as were road crew members Kenneth Peden Jr. and Mark Frank. The three injured men hiked some distance from the crash site, through swampy woods, and finally flagged down farmer Johnny Mote, who had come to investigate. Varying accounts have Johnny Mote either firing a warning shot into the air or actually shooting Artimus Pyle in the shoulder (reports are unreliable). Pyle claimed, in a February 2007 appearance on Howard Stern's radio program that Mote had shot him; Mote has always denied shooting the drummer. Video of a bare-chested Artimus Pyle, at the 1979 Volunteer Jam, does not show evidence of a gunshot wound. Medical personnel arrived and began to ferry out the injured and the dead. Allen Collins suffered two cracked vertebrae in his neck, and both Collins and Leon Wilkeson nearly had arms amputated as a result of crash injuries. Leon Wilkeson suffered severe internal injuries, including a punctured lung, and had most of his teeth knocked out. Gary Rossington broke both of his arms and both of his legs in the crash, and took many months to recuperate. Leslie Hawkins sustained a concussion, broke her neck in three places and had severe facial lacerations. Mysteriously, security manager Gene Odom was seriously burned on his arm and face in the crash, which involved no explosion or fire since the plane was out of gas. Victims were taken to the hospital in McComb, Mississippi by ambulances or any available vehicles. Road crew member Steve Lawler, who suffered severe contusions and facial lacerations, was taken to the hospital in a pickup with a camper top. Pianist Billy Powell’s nose was nearly torn off and he suffered facial lacerations.

Notably, the third member of The Honkettes, JoJo Billingsley was not on the plane but at home tending to a family member's illness. She was planning to join the tour in Little Rock on October 23. According to an interview in the book Freebirds, Billingsley had dreamed of the plane crash and begged Allen Collins by telephone not to continue using the Convair. On hearing of the accident, Billingsley was so shaken that some of her hair fell out.

The Convair 240 itself had been inspected by members of Aerosmith's flight crew for possible use in the early summer of 1977, but was rejected because it was felt that neither the plane nor the crew were up to standards. In an interview in the book Walk This Way, Aerosmith's assistant chief of flight operations Zunk Buker tells of seeing pilots Walter McCreary and William Gray trading a bottle of Jack Daniels back and forth, while Buker and his father were inspecting the plane. When Aerosmith's crew heard of the Lynyrd Skynyrd misfortune, they were shocked, but not necessarily surprised. Aerosmith's touring family was also relieved because the band, specifically Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, had been trying to pressure their management into renting that specific plane.

The official NTSB accident report reads, "The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of this accident was fuel exhaustion and total loss of power from both engines due to crew inattention to fuel supply. Contributing to the fuel exhaustion were inadequate flight planning and an engine malfunction of undetermined nature in the right engine which resulted in higher-than-normal fuel consumption." It was known that the right engine's magneto, a small power generator that provides spark and timing for the engine, had been malfunctioning. Billy Powell, among others, spoke of seeing flames shooting out of the right engine on a trip just prior to the accident, and that pilots Walter McCreary and William Gray had intended to repair the damaged part when the travelling party arrived in Baton Rouge. It is possible that the damaged magneto fooled the pilots into creating an exceptionally rich fuel mixture, causing the Convair to literally run out of gas. It was suggested on the VH-1 Behind The Music profile of Lynyrd Skynyrd, that this was the case, or that the pilots, panicking when the right engine failed, accidentally dumping the remaining fuel. Artimus Pyle maintains, in the Howard Stern interview, that the gas gauge in the older model plane malfunctioned and the pilots had failed to manually check the tanks before taking off.

Street Survivors became the bands second platinum album, and was the #5 top selling album on the U.S. album chart. The single "What's Your Name" reached #13 on the single air play charts in January of 1978. Lynyrd Skynyrd disbanded after the airplane tragedy. On the original pressing of the cover of Street Survivors was a photograph of the band engulfed in flames. MCA Records, out of courtesy, withdrew the sleeve and replaced it with a cover of the band striking a similar pose against a plain black background.

Hiatus: 1977-1987

Gary Rossington and Allen Collins formed The Rossington-Collins Band between 1980 and 1982, releasing two albums. Artimus Pyle formed The Artimus Pyle Band in 1982. Collins formed The Allen Collins Band in 1983. Tragedy again struck the band in 1986 when Allen Collins crashed his car while driving drunk near his home in Jacksonville, killing his girlfriend and leaving him permanently paralyzed from the waist down.

Reunion years: 1987-present

In 1987, Lynyrd Skynyrd reunited for a full-scale tour with crash survivors Gary Rossington, Billy Powell, Leon Wilkeson and Artimus Pyle and former guitarist Ed King. Ronnie Van Zant's younger brother, Johnny, took over as the new lead singer and primary songwriter. Due to Allen Collins' paralysis, he was only able to participate as the musical director, choosing Randall Hall, his former bandmate in the Allen Collins Band, as his stand-in. Collins became stricken with Pneumonia in 1989 and died on January 23, 1990.

The reunited band was meant to be a one-time tribute to the original lineup, captured on the double-live album Southern By The Grace Of God/Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Tour - 1987, but because of an overwhelmingly positive reaction by fans, the band decided to stay together and record new material. The reunited Lynyrd Skynyrd has gone through several lineup changes and continues to record and tour today. Leon Wilkeson, Lynyrd Skynyrd bassist since 1972, died of lung and liver failure on July 27, 2001. Ronnie Van Zant's widow, Judy Van Zant, currently owns and operates Freebird Live, one of Jacksonville's premier live music venues, located just 1 block from the ocean in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.

They released a double album called Thyrty, which had songs from the original line up to the present. Lynyrd Skynyrd also released a live DVD of their Vicious Cycle Tour and on June 22, 2004, Lynyrd Skynyrd released the album Lyve: The Vicious Cycle Tour. On December 10, 2004 Lynyrd Skynyrd did a show for CMT called Crossroads, which is a concert featuring Country Artists and others genre's of music. Lynyrd Skynyrd did that show with Country Duo, Montgomery Gentry. In the beginning of 2005, Hughie Thomasson left the band to pursue other musical opportunites. On February 5, 2005 Lynyrd Skynyrd did a Super Bowl party with special guests, 3 Doors Down, Jo Dee Messina, Charlie Daniels and, Ronnie and Johnny Van Zant's brother Donnie Van Zant of .38 Special. On February 13 Lynyrd Skynyrd did a tribute to Southern Rock with Gretchen Wilson, Tim McGraw and Keith Urban on the grammy awards. On May 10, 2005, Johnny and his brother Donnie Van Zant released an album called Get Right With The Man, which featured the hit single Help Somebody. In the summer of 2005, lead singer Johnny Van Zant had to have surgery on his vocal chord to have a polyp removed. He was told not to sing for 3 months. September 10, 2005 Lynyrd Skynyrd peformed without Johnny Van Zant, at the Music Relief Concert for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, Kid Rock took Johnny Van Zant’s place. In December of 2005, Johnny Van Zant returned to sing for Lynyrd Skynyrd.

In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked the group #95 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

On November 28, 2005, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced that Lynyrd Skynyrd would be inducted. They were inducted an the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan on March 13, 2006.

Presently in 2007, Lynyrd Skynyrd Lives and Rocks On!!!