Lynyrd Skynyrd

Lynyrd Skynyrd started in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1964, under the name My Backyard: Ronnie Van Zant singing, Gary Rossington and Allen Collins on guitars, Larry Junstrom on bass and Bob Burns on drums. It took four years of grinding through small venues under assorted names before they settled on Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1968, and they came out of all that road work sounding tough as a bar fight and loose as a Saturday night.

Their 1973 debut, (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd), was a stunner. By then Leon Wilkeson was on bass, Billy Powell on keyboards and Ed King on guitar, and the three-guitar attack gave them a sound nobody else had. "Free Bird" is its epic, a slow, mournful ballad that erupts into a guitar storm that seems like it might never end, and "Simple Man", "Tuesday's Gone" and "Gimme Three Steps" show the range, from hushed and reflective to strutting and wiry. Second Helping followed in 1974 with "Sweet Home Alabama", that rolling, cocksure strut, plus the rowdy "Call Me the Breeze". Artimus Pyle took over the drums that year, and Nuthin' Fancy in 1975 brought "Saturday Night Special". King left in 1975, and Steve Gaines joined in 1976.

This was the band that popularized Southern rock, and they were at the peak of their powers when it all came crashing down. Street Survivors came out in 1977 with "That Smell" and "What's Your Name" on it, and on October 20 of that year their chartered plane went down, killing Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and backup singer Cassie Gaines, and badly hurting the others.

In 1987 they regrouped to tour again, this time with Johnny Van Zant, Ronnie's brother, out front, and kept going, with Rickey Medlocke, who had first played with them from 1971 to 1972, returning in 1996. Lynyrd Skynyrd went into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 13, 2006, and its record sales have passed 78 million. Rossington died in 2023, leaving no founding members. On rock radio's countdowns, "Free Bird" is still the song that never seems to end, in every sense.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.