Lynyrd Skynyrd
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50 free Lynyrd Skynyrd trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Lynyrd Skynyrd took a schoolyard grudge, three guitars and a set of songs about ordinary Southern life, and became the band every bar band still gets asked to cover. The story has everything: a name borrowed as a joke, a run of 1970s albums that defined Southern rock, a tragedy at the height of the band's fame, and a second life that has lasted far longer than the first. This quiz covers all of it. There are questions on Leonard Skinner and how the name came about, on the people in the classic lineup and those that followed, and on the stories behind Free Bird, Sweet Home Alabama, Simple Man, That Smell and Gimme Three Steps. Others deal with the 1977 plane crash and its aftermath, the reunion, and the films, covers and tributes that keep the songs in circulation. It is pitched for classic rock fans, pub quiz teams and anyone putting together a music round. Some questions are easy wins and some are for listeners with the albums on vinyl, and every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What job did Leonard Skinner, the man Lynyrd Skynyrd is named after, hold at the founders' Florida high school?
Gym teacher
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.
Q 02Which Canadian singer is called out by name in Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama, a reply to his song Southern Man?
Neil Young
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.
Q 03What caused the chartered plane carrying Lynyrd Skynyrd to crash in a forest on October 20, 1977?
It ran out of fuel
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.
Q 04What relation is Johnny Van Zant, who became Lynyrd Skynyrd's lead singer in 1987, to original frontman Ronnie Van Zant?
Brother
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.
Q 05Which country star's 2023 cover of Free Bird features Ronnie Van Zant's original vocal and members of Lynyrd Skynyrd?
Dolly Parton
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.
Q 06In Lynyrd Skynyrd's Simple Man, which family member gives the narrator advice on how to live?
His mother
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.
Q 07Which earlier name did Lynyrd Skynyrd abandon after hecklers used it to mock the band's talent?
The One Percent
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.
Q 08Which rock band's flight crew had inspected and rejected the plane that Lynyrd Skynyrd chartered for its 1977 tour?
Aerosmith
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.
Q 09Which actress starred in the 2002 romantic comedy that took its title from Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama?
Reese Witherspoon
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.
Q 10Billy Powell became Lynyrd Skynyrd's keyboardist after writing Free Bird's piano intro while holding which other job?
Roadie
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.
Q 11Leonard Skinner inspired the name Lynyrd Skynyrd by strictly enforcing which rule at a Florida high school in the 1960s?
No long hair
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.
Q 12Which Lynyrd Skynyrd album carried a photo of Leonard Skinner's business sign inside, complete with his phone number?
Nuthin' Fancy
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.
Q 13Leonard Skinner, the namesake of Lynyrd Skynyrd, spent the 1970s working in which line of business?
Real estate
Q 21Which founding guitarist, who died in March 2023, was the last original member still playing in Lynyrd Skynyrd?
Gary Rossington
Gary Rossington had outlived every other founder, and after his death the remaining members confirmed that the band would carry on.
Q 22Which Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist wrote Free Bird's chords and took its opening line from a question his girlfriend asked?
Allen Collins
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.
Q 23Which guitarist joined Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1976 at his sister's urging and made one studio album, Street Survivors?
Steve Gaines
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.
Q 14Which comedian's 1963 summer camp novelty hit names a boy called Leonard Skinner, part of the origin of Lynyrd Skynyrd?
Allan Sherman
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.
Q 15Leonard Skinner met future members of Lynyrd Skynyrd at a Florida high school then named for which Confederate general?
Robert E. Lee
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.
Q 16Lynyrd Skynyrd formed in 1964 in which northeastern Florida city on the St. Johns River?
Jacksonville
Jacksonville is where the five teenage founders first rehearsed, in a parent's carport, under the name My Backyard.
Q 17Ronnie Van Zant first met two future Lynyrd Skynyrd bandmates as teenagers while playing which sport on rival teams?
Baseball
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.
Q 18Which producer was made to wait in his car while Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded Simple Man, a song he wanted dropped?
Al Kooper
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.
Q 19Guitarist Ed King joined Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1972 from which California band, known for Incense and Peppermints?
Strawberry Alarm Clock
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.
Q 20Which British band took Lynyrd Skynyrd along as the opening act on its 1973 Quadrophenia tour of America?
The Who
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.
Steve Gaines so impressed Ronnie Van Zant that the singer predicted the whole band would one day be in his shadow.
Q 24Which Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer, a former Marine, stumbled from the 1977 crash site to a farmhouse to get help?
Artimus Pyle
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.
Q 25Which relative of Lynyrd Skynyrd's original singer co-founded and fronted the rock band 38 Special in 1974?
Donnie Van Zant
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.
Q 26Rickey Medlocke drummed for Lynyrd Skynyrd in the early 1970s, then left to front which hard-rocking Southern band?
Blackfoot
Blackfoot kept him away for more than two decades before he returned in 1996, this time as a guitarist rather than a drummer.
Q 27What name did Lynyrd Skynyrd give the trio of women who sang backup on its mid-1970s tours?
The Honkettes
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.
Q 28On stage, Lynyrd Skynyrd dedicated Free Bird to which Southern rock guitarist, killed in a 1971 motorcycle crash?
Duane Allman
Duane Allman was only 24 when he died in Macon, Georgia, and the dedication became a fixture of the song's live finale.
Q 29The survivors of Lynyrd Skynyrd reunited once in 1979 to play an instrumental Free Bird at whose Volunteer Jam concert?
Charlie Daniels
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.
Q 30Which rock band, formed in Lynyrd Skynyrd's own Florida hometown, scored a hit with a cover of Simple Man?
Shinedown
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.