50 Fun Facts About Lynyrd Skynyrd

What job did Leonard Skinner, the man Lynyrd Skynyrd is named after, hold at the founders' Florida high school?

Gym teacher Leonard Skinner later befriended some of the band, and The New York Times called him arguably the most influential high school gym teacher in American popular culture.

Which Canadian singer is called out by name in Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama, a reply to his song Southern Man?

Neil Young took the jab well: he later admitted his own lyrics had deserved it, and he reportedly wrote the song Powderfinger for Lynyrd Skynyrd.

What caused the chartered plane carrying Lynyrd Skynyrd to crash in a forest on October 20, 1977?

It ran out of fuel near the end of a flight to Baton Rouge, and investigators put the crash down to the crew's inattention to the fuel supply.

What relation is Johnny Van Zant, who became Lynyrd Skynyrd's lead singer in 1987, to original frontman Ronnie Van Zant?

Brother Johnny took over ten years after the crash, though on that reunion tour Free Bird was played as an instrumental, with no singer at all.

Which country star's 2023 cover of Free Bird features Ronnie Van Zant's original vocal and members of Lynyrd Skynyrd?

Dolly Parton cut it for her rock album Rockstar; by her account, Ronnie Van Zant's widow had refused the band itself the use of his voice but agreed for her.

In Lynyrd Skynyrd's Simple Man, which family member gives the narrator advice on how to live?

His mother does the talking, but the song came out of a family loss: it was inspired by the death of Ronnie Van Zant's grandmother in November 1971.

Which earlier name did Lynyrd Skynyrd abandon after hecklers used it to mock the band's talent?

The One Percent handed audiences an easy insult, that the band had about that much talent, so Ronnie Van Zant went looking for something new.

Which rock band's flight crew had inspected and rejected the plane that Lynyrd Skynyrd chartered for its 1977 tour?

Aerosmith's crew judged neither the plane nor its pilots up to standard, even though Steven Tyler and Joe Perry had pressed their management to rent it.

Which actress starred in the 2002 romantic comedy that took its title from Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama?

Reese Witherspoon plays a New York fashion designer who has to go home to Alabama for a divorce before she can marry her new fiancé.

Billy Powell became Lynyrd Skynyrd's keyboardist after writing Free Bird's piano intro while holding which other job?

Roadie Billy Powell had worked on the crew for two years before the band heard what he could play, and his intro became the song's finishing touch.

Leonard Skinner inspired the name Lynyrd Skynyrd by strictly enforcing which rule at a Florida high school in the 1960s?

No long hair on boys was school policy, and Skinner always said he was only enforcing it; future band members slicked their hair down with Vaseline to try to pass.

Which Lynyrd Skynyrd album carried a photo of Leonard Skinner's business sign inside, complete with his phone number?

Nuthin' Fancy had fans phoning him from all over the country, sometimes at four in the morning, after they spotted the number in the artwork.

Leonard Skinner, the namesake of Lynyrd Skynyrd, spent the 1970s working in which line of business?

Real estate kept him busy through the decade, and he also opened a bar called The Still, where the band that borrowed his name came to play.

Which comedian's 1963 summer camp novelty hit names a boy called Leonard Skinner, part of the origin of Lynyrd Skynyrd?

Allan Sherman set his homesick letter from camp to the ballet tune Dance of the Hours, and it was drummer Bob Burns who suggested borrowing the name.

Leonard Skinner met future members of Lynyrd Skynyrd at a Florida high school then named for which Confederate general?

Robert E. Lee High School was also where Skinner had been a student himself; in 2021 the school board voted to rename it Riverside High School.

Lynyrd Skynyrd formed in 1964 in which northeastern Florida city on the St. Johns River?

Jacksonville is where the five teenage founders first rehearsed, in a parent's carport, under the name My Backyard.

Ronnie Van Zant first met two future Lynyrd Skynyrd bandmates as teenagers while playing which sport on rival teams?

Baseball brought them together the hard way: a ball hit by Van Zant injured drummer Bob Burns, and the three ended up jamming that same afternoon.

Which producer was made to wait in his car while Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded Simple Man, a song he wanted dropped?

Al Kooper thought the song too weak for the debut album, so Ronnie Van Zant walked him out to his car and told him to stay there until it was recorded.

Guitarist Ed King joined Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1972 from which California band, known for Incense and Peppermints?

Strawberry Alarm Clock had once used the unknown Florida group as an opening act, and King told Ronnie Van Zant to call if a guitarist was ever needed.

Which British band took Lynyrd Skynyrd along as the opening act on its 1973 Quadrophenia tour of America?

The Who put the newcomers in front of far bigger crowds than they had ever seen, a slot their producer landed through his friendship with Pete Townshend.

Which founding guitarist, who died in March 2023, was the last original member still playing in Lynyrd Skynyrd?

Gary Rossington had outlived every other founder, and after his death the remaining members confirmed that the band would carry on.

Which Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist wrote Free Bird's chords and took its opening line from a question his girlfriend asked?

Allen Collins had the chords for two years before Ronnie Van Zant found a melody for them, and then the singer wrote the words in a few minutes.

Which guitarist joined Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1976 at his sister's urging and made one studio album, Street Survivors?

Steve Gaines so impressed Ronnie Van Zant that the singer predicted the whole band would one day be in his shadow.

Which Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer, a former Marine, stumbled from the 1977 crash site to a farmhouse to get help?

Artimus Pyle so startled the 21-year-old farmer that he was taken for an escaped convict and met with a warning shot fired over his head.

Which relative of Lynyrd Skynyrd's original singer co-founded and fronted the rock band 38 Special in 1974?

Donnie Van Zant got a hand from Ronnie, who introduced the newcomers to his own band's manager once he felt they had paid their dues.

Rickey Medlocke drummed for Lynyrd Skynyrd in the early 1970s, then left to front which hard-rocking Southern band?

Blackfoot kept him away for more than two decades before he returned in 1996, this time as a guitarist rather than a drummer.

What name did Lynyrd Skynyrd give the trio of women who sang backup on its mid-1970s tours?

The Honkettes lost one of their number in the 1977 crash, while another, JoJo Billingsley, missed the flight because she was under a doctor's care.

On stage, Lynyrd Skynyrd dedicated Free Bird to which Southern rock guitarist, killed in a 1971 motorcycle crash?

Duane Allman was only 24 when he died in Macon, Georgia, and the dedication became a fixture of the song's live finale.

The survivors of Lynyrd Skynyrd reunited once in 1979 to play an instrumental Free Bird at whose Volunteer Jam concert?

Charlie Daniels and members of his band joined them on stage, with the widows of two of the musicians who died watching from the audience.

Which rock band, formed in Lynyrd Skynyrd's own Florida hometown, scored a hit with a cover of Simple Man?

Shinedown played it on a Boston radio show, and the response was strong enough that the debut album Leave a Whisper was reissued to include it.

Which segregationist governor figures in a verse of Sweet Home Alabama that listeners have argued over for decades?

George Wallace goes unnamed in the song, and the reference is followed by a chorus of boos; Ronnie Van Zant said the two of them had very little in common.

Which political scandal gets a dismissive mention in Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama, released as it unfolded?

Watergate was still playing out when the single climbed to number eight in 1974, the only time the band reached the top ten.

Which nickname of the Muscle Shoals session players is celebrated in a verse of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama?

The Swampers had played on hits for Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett, and Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded early demos at their studio before finding fame.

Which singer's 2008 hit All Summer Long is built on Sweet Home Alabama and Warren Zevon's Werewolves of London?

Kid Rock even brought in Lynyrd Skynyrd keyboardist Billy Powell to play on the track, and the original charted in Britain in its wake.

Lynyrd Skynyrd's That Smell was written as a warning after one of the band's guitarists did what in 1976?

Crashed his car into an oak tree, to be exact, after drinking and taking drugs; Ronnie Van Zant made the wreck a caution about where the band was heading.

Lynyrd Skynyrd's Saturday Night Special, heard in The Longest Yard, takes its title from a slang term for what?

A cheap handgun is the song's target: the lyrics tie such weapons to impulsive violence, and it was the only single from the band's third album.

Gimme Three Steps retells the night a gun was pulled on Ronnie Van Zant in a bar for what?

Dancing with someone's girl nearly got him shot, and the story became one of the two singles released from the band's debut album.

Which metal band covered Lynyrd Skynyrd's Tuesday's Gone on its 1998 covers album Garage Inc.?

Metallica taped it at a radio session with guests from Alice in Chains, Primus and Blues Traveler; the first single James Hetfield ever bought was Sweet Home Alabama.

Which Oklahoma songwriter, also the author of Cocaine, wrote Call Me the Breeze, covered by Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1974?

JJ Cale earned a windfall from the cover, much as he had when Eric Clapton turned his song After Midnight into a hit.

In Lynyrd Skynyrd's The Ballad of Curtis Loew, which instrument does the old bluesman play for the boy narrator?

Dobro blues from Curtis Loew is bought with the boy's soda-bottle money, and the character is a composite of people from the Van Zants' old neighborhood.

In which state did Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane come down in 1977, short of its destination of Baton Rouge?

Mississippi woodland near the village of Gillsburg was where the plane fell, and local people drove survivors to hospital in the backs of pickup trucks.

What surrounded the band on the first cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Street Survivors, withdrawn after the 1977 crash?

Flames gave way to a plain black background, a change made out of respect for the dead and at the request of one victim's widow.

Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded its 1976 live album One More from the Road at the Fox Theatre in which Southern city?

Atlanta nearly lost the Fox to the wrecking ball, and the band's three nights there were part of the campaign that saved the theatre.

Lynyrd Skynyrd played to a vast crowd at Knebworth in August 1976 on a bill headlined by which band?

The Rolling Stones topped the bill, but film of the Southern band's own set that day became the heart of a concert movie released in 1996.

Which record label released Lynyrd Skynyrd's 1970s albums and is named in the song that opens One More from the Road?

MCA came to the band through Sounds of the South, the small label it distributed for the producer who had signed them; the song is Workin' for MCA.

What nickname did Lynyrd Skynyrd give the sweltering Florida rehearsal space where the band drilled its early songs?

Hell House earned its name from long days of jamming in the Florida heat; by the time the band reached a studio, every note was fixed.

In which 1994 film does Lynyrd Skynyrd's Free Bird play while Jenny stands out on a balcony, about to jump?

Forrest Gump director Robert Zemeckis wanted every song in the film to be by an American artist, the only music he felt its hero would buy.

Which 1997 action film about a hijacked prison plane features Sweet Home Alabama but left it off the soundtrack album?

Con Air stars Nicolas Cage as a newly paroled prisoner whose flight home is bound for Alabama, which gives the song its cue.

Which actor's character fights through a church to the guitar solo of Free Bird in Kingsman: The Secret Service?

Colin Firth's scene was planned around November Rain until director Matthew Vaughn found that song's solo too short.

Which band built its 2001 double album Southern Rock Opera around the story of Lynyrd Skynyrd?

Drive-By Truckers first imagined the project as a screenplay about growing up in the South and the 1977 plane crash.