By Jeff Maisey
“Sorry for the delay getting to the phone, I have a new, little beach house and was doing stuff around here. I’ve already been to the hardware store.”
I called Lynyrd Skynyrd singer Johnny Van Zant at his home on a July morning to discuss the band’s return to the road with touring mates ZZ Top and Tom Waits of The Babies. They’ll perform September 7 in Virginia Beach at Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater.
Johnny Van Zant is the youngest of three musical brothers raised in Jacksonville, Florida. His older brother, Ronnie, started a band that would become known as Lynyrd Skynyrd. He recalls those early memories growing up.
“There was always something going on musically,” he said, “whether it was Donnie (38 Special) or Ronnie. I was younger than them so I was in the background going, wow, this looks pretty fun, I think I want to do it.”
And what an impression it must have been.
“Skynyrd rehearsed in my parents’ living room,” recalled Johnny.
Music was a way of both expressing and entertaining themselves in the Van Zant household of the1960s.
“We had a circle drive way in the front yard,” Johnny said. “My dad put a swing set in the center and we would spend time out there singing. Back then, we had four channels on the TV, and we had to move the rabbit ears around to get them.
“We didn’t come from a rich family,” he continued, “but we were rich in family. My mom and dad struggled to raise six kids with all of us hungry and wanting things. It must have been hard for them, but we stuck together like glue.”
In 1970, Lynyrd Skynyrd was a popular local band in the Jacksonville area. They were “discovered” in 1972 by Al Kooper of Blood, Sweat & Tears, who got them a record contract.
The band’s 1972 debut album, referred to by fans as “Pronounced,” contains some of the most beloved songs of the Skynyrd repertoire — “Free Bird,” “Simple Man,” “Tuesday’s Gone” — but it wasn’t until their followup record, “Second Helping,” that the Southern rock group firmly established themselves. That was 1974 — 50 years ago.
“Skynyrd didn’t take off until that album, really,” said Johnny Van Zant.
The first song released as a single from “Second Helping” was “Sweet Home Alabama.” Even today, hearing it on the radio as you drive down the highway, those opening guitar notes remain so crisp and clear it’s as if the Gary Rossington is sitting in the passenger seat next you plucking the strings.
“When that song hit, people who liked ‘Sweet Home Alabama,’ went back a discovered they had another album,” Van Zant said.
(“Second Helping” turned 50 years old in 2024)
The popularity of “Sweet Home Alabama” made it possible for “Free Bird,” to get a second listen, resulting in a pop radio hit (with an shortened version) that became an FM classic rock staple in its unedited, full-length version, and ultimately one of the greatest anthems in rock music history.
After the success of their first two albums expectations were high for Lynyrd Skynyrd’s next set of albums to follow.
“With ‘Nuthin’ Fancy,’ they had a lot of pressure on them. Then came ‘Gimme Back My Bullets,’ which was their last popular album and probably my favorite one,” said Van Zant.
Lynyrd Skynyrd were known as a great live band and the group toured seemingly non-stop. They released “One More from the Road,” a double live album, in part to release a record of doing what they did best, but also as a break from the pressure of writing and recording for new studio albums.
“In between touring, they were always writing for another record,” said Van Zant, “and that was a lot of pressure on those guys, who were very young.”
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s live album includes an essential 11:30 version of “Free Bird,” the one you’re most like to hear on FM classic rock stations like 106.9 The Fox here in Hampton Roads.
“Free Bird” was written as a love song. The extended instrumental section at the end of the tune was an effort to give Ronnie Van Zant’s voice a break in a live concert. That trio of raging six-strings continues — more than a half century later — to be considered one of the top three best guitar solos of all time.
“Around that same time, Duane Allman had died,” recalled Johnny, noting the band dedicated the song to the legendary Allman Brothers guitarist. “What better way to honor Duane than to play the hell out of the end of the song.
“Those great songs like that, you don’t have that these days,” Van Zant continued. “People loved guitar back then.”
Over the course of its history, Lynyrd Skynyrd has experienced more adversity than any other rock band. From the fatal plane crash, in 1977, that robbed the world of singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines in the prime of their lives to the passing of Gary Rossington just last year, the music of the band continues.
“Before Gary (Rossington) passed, he said, ‘You know, man, I don’t want this band to go away, even if I go. I saw what happened with Allman Brothers. I want to know that when I go somebody’s still talking about the band that we created — Ronnie, Allen and myself,’” said Johnny.
“I said, ‘Well, brother, I’ll do what I can do,’ and that’s what we’re doing.”
