Lynyrd Skynyrd – the last of a dying
breed – announced today that they were dropping the Confederate Flag as a
backdrop to their concerts.
Guys as old as me, raised in working
class neighborhoods, will always count Lynyrd Skynyrd as one of the best rock
and roll bands of all time. Kings of the “southern rock” style, the band
had seven platinum albums between 1973 and 1977, which included their iconic
hits “Freebird,” “Sweet Home Alabama,” “That
Smell,” and “Simple Man.” The ubiquitous
Confederate Flag hung as a backdrop at every concert, and the band regularly
expressed pride in their southern (Gainesville, Florida) origins.
But according to the aging members
of the band, the time has come to portray themselves as Americans, and the
American flag will replace the confederate flag at concerts.
“Groups like the KKK have hijacked
the flag, and we don’t want our fans to think that we’re associated with that
kind of thinking,” said Gary Rossington, the last remaining original member of
the band.
In one of the most famous set of
lyrics in rock history, Lynyrd Skynyrd used their song “Sweet Home Alabama” to
refute criticism aimed at the south by fellow-rocket Neil Young:
“Well I heard old Neil sing about
her;
Yes I heard ol’ Neil put her down.
Well I hope Neil Young will remember
A southern man don't need him around
anyhow.”
At the height of their success in
1977 – the year I graduated High School – tragedy struck. On October 20, 1977, just three days after
the release of “Street Survivors” – an album eerily named and even more
eerily designed with the cover engulfed in flames - their plane ran out of fuel near the end of their
flight from Greenvilee, South Carolina to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The plane crashed in Gillsburg, Mississippi,
killing lead singer/guitarist Ronnie Van Zand, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines,
assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot
William Gray. The other band members:
Allen Collins, Gary Rossington, Leon Wilkeson, Gary Powell, Artemis Pyle, and Leslie
Hawkins) and road crew suffered serious injuries.
After a breakup of the band
following the crash, Rossington, Collins, Wilkeson and Powell formed a new
band, the Rossington-Collins Band, which released two albums between 1980 and
1983. In an effort to avoid the charge of being a ‘reborn” Lynyrd Skynyrd, they
chose a woman, Dale Krantz, as lead vocalist. Rossington and Collins eventually
had a falling out over the affections of Dale Krantz, whom Rossington married.
In 1987, Lynyrd Skynyrd reunited for
a full-scale tour with five major members of the pre-crash band: crash
survivors Gary Rossington, Billy Powell, Leon Wilkeson and Artimus Pyle, along
with guitarist Ed King, who had left the band two years before the crash.
Ronnie Van Zant's younger brother, Johnny Van Zandt, took over as the new lead
singer and primary songwriter The
reconstituted Lynyrd Skynyrd has since gone through a large number of lineup
changes and continues to record and tour today. One by one, the members of the
pre-crash band have left, been forced out, or have died.
In 2004, Rolling Stone
magazine ranked the group No. 95 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists
of all time. On March 13, 2006, Lynyrd
Skynyrd was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In
October 2008, Lynyrd Skynyrd's song “Freebird” was named the 3rd greatest
guitar solo of all time by Guitar World.
Last month, they released a new
studio album, Last of a Dying Breed.
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