Lynyrd Skynyrd
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| Lynyrd Skynyrd | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Jacksonville, Florida, USA |
| Genre(s) | Southern rock, hard rock, blues-rock |
| Years active | 1970–1977 1987–present |
| Label(s) | MCA, Atlantic, Capricorn, SPV Records, CMC International, Sanctuary, Universal |
| Website | LynyrdSkynyrd.com |
| Members | |
| Johnny Van Zant Gary Rossington Billy Powell Ean Evans Rickey Medlocke Michael Cartellone Mark Matejka |
|
| Former members | |
| Ronnie Van Zant Allen Collins Bob Burns Larry Junstrom Leon Wilkeson Ed King Artimus Pyle Steve Gaines Cassie Gaines Randall Hall Hughie Thomasson |
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Lynyrd Skynyrd (pronounced /ˌlɛnɚdˈskɪnɝd/,Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd) is an American Southern rock band. The band became prominent in the Southern United States in 1973, and rose to worldwide recognition before several members, including lead vocalist and primary songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, were killed in a plane crash in 1977 near McComb, Mississippi. A tribute band was formed in 1987 for a reunion tour with Johnny Van Zant, Ronnie's younger brother, at the helm, and continues to record music today.
The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 13, 2006, with members Gary Rossington and Billy Powell, former members Ed King, Bob Burns, and Artimus Pyle, and deceased members Ronnie Van Zant, Allen Collins, Steve Gaines, and Leon Wilkeson.
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[edit] Background
[edit] Early years
In the summer of 1964, teenage friends Ronnie Van Zant (vocals), Allen Collins, and Gary Rossington (guitar), formed the band "The Noble Five" then later in 1965 changed to "My Backyard" along with Larry Junstrom (bass) and Bob Burns (drums) in Jacksonville, Florida. Their early influences included British Invasion bands such as Free, The Yardbirds, the Rolling Stones, and The Beatles, as well as Southern blues and country & western music, and later The Allman Brothers Band.[citation needed] In 1968, the group won a local Battle of the Bands contest and the opening slot on several Southeast shows for the California-based psychedelic rock band Strawberry Alarm Clock.[citation needed]
In 1970, roadie Billy Powell became keyboardist for the band, and Van Zant sought a new name. "One Percent" and "The Noble Five" were each considered before the group settled on Leonard Skinnerd, a mocking tribute to a gym teacher at Robert E. Lee High School, Leonard Skinner, who was notorious for strictly enforcing the school's policy against boys having long hair.[1][2] The more distinctive spelling was adopted before they released their first album.
Despite their high-school acrimony, the band developed a friendlier relationship with Skinner in later years, and invited him to introduce them at a concert in the Jacksonville Memorial Coliseum.[3]
The band 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 left just before they were to record the first album (Wilkeson rejoined the band shortly thereafter at Van Zant's invitation).[citation needed] Strawberry Alarm Clock guitarist Ed King filled in as bass player, later switching to guitar after the album's release, allowing the band to replicate the three-guitar mix used in the studio.
[edit] Peak years (1973–1977)
In 1972 the band was discovered by musician, songwriter, and producer Al Kooper of Blood, Sweat, and Tears, who had attended one of their shows at a club in Atlanta. They changed the spelling of their name to "Lynyrd Skynyrd"[4], and Kooper signed them to MCA Records, producing their first album the following year. 1973's (pronounced 'lĕh-'nérd 'skin-'nérd) featured the hit song "Free Bird", which received national airplay, eventually reaching #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, and is still considered a Rock and Roll anthem today.
Lynyrd Skynyrd's fan base continued to grow rapidly throughout 1973, largely due to their opening slot on The Who's Quadrophenia tour in the United States. Their 1974 follow-up, Second Helping, was the band's breakthrough hit, and featured their most popular single, "Sweet Home Alabama" (#8 on the charts in August 1974), a tongue in cheek response to Neil Young's "Alabama" and "Southern Man." (Young and Van Zant were not rivals, but fans of each other's music and good friends; Young even wrote the song "Powderfinger" for the band, but they never recorded it[5]). The album reached #12 in 1974, eventually going multi-platinum. In July of that year, Lynyrd Skynyrd was one of the headline acts at The Ozark Music Festival at the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia, Missouri.
In 1975, Burns left the band and was replaced by Kentucky native Artimus Pyle on drums. Lynyrd Skynyrd's third album, Nuthin' Fancy, was released the same year, though guitarist Ed King left midway through the tour. In December 1975, backup singers Leslie Hawkins, Cassie Gaines and JoJo Billingsley (collectively known as The Honkettes) were added to the band, and guitarist Steve Gaines, brother of Cassie Gaines, replaced King in 1976. Lynyrd Skynyrd's fourth album Gimme Back My Bullets was released that year, but did not achieve the same success as the previous two albums. Despite this, the band recorded the double-live album One More From the Road in Atlanta, Georgia, and toured the UK with The Rolling Stones.
Lynyrd Skynyrd's sixth album, Street Survivors was released on October 17, 1977. It would be the final album by the "classic" line-up, and featured an image of the band members surrounded by flames.
[edit] Plane crash (1977)
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On Thursday, October 20, 1977, just three days after the release of Street Survivors, and three dates into their most successful headlining tour to date, Lynyrd Skynyrd's chartered Convair 240 developed mechanical difficulties near the end of their flight from Greenville, South Carolina to LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Though the pilots attempted an emergency landing on a small airstrip, the plane ran out of fuel and crashed in a forest near McComb, Mississippi, just short of its goal. Singer/songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist/vocalist Steve Gaines, backing vocalist Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray were all killed on impact. Other band members were injured, some 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 Mote either firing a warning shot into the air or actually shooting Pyle in the shoulder — no report is completely reliable. Pyle claimed in a February 2007 appearance on Howard Stern's Sirius radio program that Mote had shot him; Mote has always denied shooting the drummer. Video of a barechested 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. Wilkeson suffered severe internal injuries, including a punctured lung, and had most of his teeth knocked out. Gary Rossington broke both his arms and both 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. Road crew member Steve Lawler suffered severe contusions and facial lacerations. Security manager Gene Odom was seriously burned on his arm and face and lost the sight in one eye as a result of an emergency flare on board the plane that was activated during the crash. Victims were taken to the hospital in McComb, Mississippi by ambulances and other vehicles. Keyboardist Billy Powell's nose was nearly torn off as he suffered severe facial lacerations, and he later caused a controversy by giving a lurid account of Cassie Gaines' final moments on a VH-1 Behind The Music special about the band, claiming that the backing singer's throat was cut from ear to ear and that she bled to death in his arms. Powell also claimed that Ronnie Van Zant's head had been smashed. Powell's version of events has been discounted by both Artimus Pyle and Judy Van Zant Jenness, who posted the autopsy reports on the band's website in early 1998 in order to set the record straight. Despite this faux pas, Powell has been on good terms with the remaining band members since the incident.
Notably, the third member of The Honkettes, JoJo Billingsley, was not on the plane and in fact was home tending to a family member's illness. She was planning to join the tour in Little Rock on October 23, three days after the crash. 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 McCreary and Gray trading a bottle of Jack Daniels back and forth while Buker and his father were inspecting the plane. 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 (Powell, among others, spoke of seeing flames shooting out of the right engine on a trip just prior to the accident), and that pilots McCreary and Gray had intended to repair the damaged part when the traveling 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 run out of fuel. It was suggested on the VH-1 Behind The Music profile on Skynyrd that the pilots, panicking when the right engine failed, accidentally dumped the remaining fuel. Pyle maintains in the Howard Stern interview that the fuel gauge in the older model plane malfunctioned and the pilots had failed to manually check the tanks before taking off, although it is common practice in all but the largest transport-category aircraft to manually check fuel quantities to verify fuel gauge indications.
Lynyrd Skynyrd disbanded after the tragedy (although the surviving members, plus Judy Van Zant and Teresa Gaines, reunited to perform an instrumental version of "Free Bird" at Charlie Daniels' Volunteer Jam in January 1979). As a result of the crash and the ensuing press, Street Survivors became the band's second platinum album and reached #5 on the U.S. album chart. The single "What's Your Name" reached #13 on the single airplay charts in January of 1978.
MCA Records withdrew the original cover sleeve of Street Survivors and replaced it with a similar image of the band against a simple black background out of respect for the deceased.[6]
[edit] Hiatus (1977–1987)
Rossington and Collins formed The Rossington-Collins Band between 1980 and 1982, releasing two albums. Pyle formed The Artimus Pyle Band in 1982. Collins formed The Allen Collins Band in 1983. Tragedy struck the band again in 1986 when Collins crashed his car while driving drunk near his home in Jacksonville, killing his girlfriend and leaving him permanently paralyzed from the waist down.
[edit] 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 Collins' paralysis from the 1986 car accident, 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 was 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.
In 1994, various country music artists united to record a Skynyrd tribute album titled Skynyrd Frynds.
The reconstituted Lynyrd Skynyrd has gone through several lineup changes and continues to record and tour today. Leon Wilkeson, Skynyrd's bassist since 1972, was found dead in his hotel room due to liver / lung disease on July 27, 2001. The remaining members 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, Crossroads, a concert featuring country duo Montgomery Gentry and others genres of music.
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 of that year Lynyrd Skynyrd did a tribute to Southern Rock on the Grammy Awards with Gretchen Wilson, Tim McGraw and Keith Urban. On May 10, 2005 Johnny and Donnie Van Zant released a country 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 cord to have a polyp removed. He was told not to sing for three months. On September 10, 2005 Lynyrd Skynyrd performed without Johnny Van Zant at the Music Relief Concert for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, with Kid Rock standing in for Johnny. 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.[7][8]
Ronnie Van Zant's widow, Judy Van Zant Jenness, operates a Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute web-site for the educational purpose of sharing the original Lynyrd Skynyrd band's history - [9] as well as Freebird Live, [10], a live music venue in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.
The band performed live at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky as part of their 2007 tour. That night was recorded in high definition for broadcast on HDNet (premiering December 1, 2007 at 9pm).
On September 9, 2007, former Skynyrd guitarist Hughie Thomasson died of a heart attack at his home in Florida.
[edit] Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
On November 28, 2005, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced that Lynyrd Skynyrd would be inducted alongside Black Sabbath, Blondie, Miles Davis, and the Sex Pistols. They were inducted in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan on March 13, 2006. Lynyrd Skynyrd had been nominated 7 times.
On March 13, 2006: Lynyrd Skynyrd was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the 21st annual induction ceremony. The inductees included Ronnie Van Zant (Lead Singer/Song Writer), Allen Collins (Songwriter/Lead and Rhythm Guitar), Steve Gaines (Singer, Song Writer, Lead and Rhythm Guitar), Ed King (Backup Vocals, Songwriter, Lead and Rhythm Guitar), Gary Rossington (Songwriter, Lead and Rhythm Guitar;), Billy Powell (Keyboards), Leon Wilkeson (Songwriter, Bass Guitar), Bob Burns (Drums), and Artimus Pyle (Drums).
[edit] Discography
[edit] Studio albums
| Year | Title | Certifications | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | (pronounced 'lĕh-'nérd 'skin-'nérd) | 2x platinum (USA) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1974 | Second Helping | 2x platinum (USA) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1975 | Nuthin' Fancy | Platinum (USA) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1976 | Gimme Back My Bullets | Gold (USA) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1977 | Street Survivors | 2x platinum (USA) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1991 | Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991 | — | |||||||||||||||||
| 1993 | The Last Rebel | — | |||||||||||||||||
| 1997 | Twenty | — | |||||||||||||||||
| 1999 | Edge of Forever | — | |||||||||||||||||
| 2000 | Christmas Time Again | — | |||||||||||||||||
| 2003 | Vicious Cycle | — | |||||||||||||||||
| "—" denotes albums that weren't certified. | |||||||||||||||||||
[edit] References
- ^ Robert E. Lee high school website
- ^ "Origins of bands' names"
- ^ Cox, Billy (2006-06-02). Skynyrd Namesake in Brevard. Florida Today. Retrieved on 2007-07-15.
- ^ Lynyrd Skynyrd history, by Judy VanZant Jenness
- ^ Simmons, Sylvie. Neil Young: Reflections in Broken Glass. ?: Canongate, 2002. 135. Google Books. 10 May 2008. <http://books.google.com/books?id=uEOM7-oX-K0C&pg=PA135>.
- ^ The 'Lynyrd Skynyrd' Crash, Check-Six.com.
- ^ 100 Greatest Artists of All Time
- ^ The Immortals: The First Fifty. Rolling Stone Issue 946. Rolling Stone.
- ^ Lynyrd Skynyrd History Official Website
- ^ Freebird Live - Premier Live Concert Venue - Jacksonville Beach, FL - Home Page
- ^ US Certifications
[edit] External links
- Official Lynyrd Skynyrd site
- Official Lynyrd Skynyrd History site
- The Lynyrd Skynyrd & Frynds database
- "Southern Comfort" Lynyrd Synyrd tribute song by Jimmy Aldridge
- Lynyrd Skynyrd - Verboo Article
- Detailed list of Lynyrd Skynyrd studio sessions and tracks recording dates
- Lynyrd Skynyrd and Neil Young: Friends or Foes?
- Wall Street Journal: Rock's Oldest Joke: Yelling "Free Bird!" In a Crowded Theater
- Check-Six.com - The 'Lynyrd Skynyrd' Crash - includes a full passenger and crew listing
- NTSB report of crash
- "Lynyrd Skynyrd Survive" - July 11, 2007, Crawdaddy!
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