Musician Spotlight: Lynyrd Skynyrd

In the 1970s, there was a huge explosion in the rock genre, and it was the Southern American rock that really paved the path for everything that was to come.

With its reliance on country music roots combined with the timely preoccupation for impressive guitar-led tunes, and a need to tell a working-class story, Southern rock was something very different, very special, and very popular.

Lynyrd Skynyrd encapsulated all of this into one heady, loud, inescapable group that garnered a reputation around the world for stellar music and big personalities.

Lynyrd Skynyrd – spelled differently, but apparently named after a PE teacher who had a particular issue with long hair – consisted of vocalist Ronnie Van Zant (15th January 1949 – 20th October 1977), guitarist Gary Rossington (born 4th December 1951), guitarist Allen Collins (19th July 1952 – 23rd January 1990), vocalist and guitarist Steve Gaines (14th September 1949 – 20th October 1977), keyboard player Billy Powell (3rd June 1952 – 28th January 2009), bass player Leon Wilkeson (2nd April 1952 – 27th July 2001), drummer Bob Burns (24th November 1950 – 3rd April 2015), and drummer Artimus Pyle (born 15th July 1948).

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s first album, the helpfully titled Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd, was released in 1973, and the single ‘Free Bird’ (written as a tribute to Duane Allman, a fellow musician whom the band admired), was an instant hit. It was different, it was new, and it was the three lead guitars that really made it special.

It was ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ (this time a love letter to the South after Neil Young’s more problematic ‘Southern Man’) from the next album, Second Helping (released in 1974), that really made the name Lynyrd Skynyrd one to conjure with, however, and for many people, it is this song alone that made them choose to learn more about the group. Even those who don’t like the rest of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s output too much will admit to enjoying ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ when they hear it. You can hear the song here:

It would seem, then, that Lynyrd Skynyrd’s star was in the ascendance, and they were astonishingly successful during the early to mid-1970s, and probably would have continued in that way for potentially decades to come but for a tragedy that struck on 20th October 1977.

It was on this date that the band was involved in a plane crash in Gillsburg, Mississippi, and lead vocalist Ronnie Van Zant along with guitarist Steve Gaines were killed. Although other bands have chosen to bring in new blood after a death or a departure, this was not the case for Lynyrd Skynyrd; losing these two iconic parts of the band was just too much, and Lynyrd Skynyrd broke up.

A decade later in 1987, things changed, however. The surviving members of the group joined forces with Johnny Van Zant, Ronnie’s little brother, who took on the role of lead singer, and once again they began to make music that had those memorable riffs and emotional lyrics they had been so well known for in the past.

Although the world had moved onto other music by that time which meant that Lynyrd Skynyrd never quite reached the heady heights of 10 years previously, the fanbase was enough to allow them to produce music in the way they wanted to.

In 2006, Lynyrd Skynyrd was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Read more about the band on their website.