“Iconic band calling it quits…”

This is a bittersweet moment in Rock in Roll! Earlier this year, The Rebels of Southern Rock, Lynyrd Skynyrd announced that after a career that has spanned more than 40 years and includes a catalog of more than 60 albums with over a million units sold, they have embarked on their “Last of the Street Survivors Farewell Tour.” Lucky for those of you who haven’t had the chance to experience this band live, they have added some more dates that runs through September 2018. For more info: on tickets, check out their official website: http://lynyrdskynyrd.com/

Lynyrd Skynyrd, officially started out in the summer of 1964 in Jacksonville, Florida when a teenager named Ronnie Van Zandt and some of his friends devised a plan of forming a band to play covers of classic rock bands and other country blues rock music locally around Jacksonville. Naming their band after Leonard Skinner, a gym teacher at their high school who had issues with their long-haired aspirations of being musicians, they started playing gigs at parties and bars throughout the south. By the early 1970’s, their luck changed. They had the opportunity to record their first demos at the now iconic Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama. They moved to Atlanta, where they amassed a large following and was offered an MCA contract which led to their début album (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd) and a chance to be the opening spot for The Who’s American tour in the fall of 1973.

This was a pivotal time for Lynyrd Skynyrd, they just finished their second album, “Second Helping”. Their song “Sweet Home Alabama” had landed on the top 100 charts and secured them as one of the top touring acts in the country. Not only did they have the songwriting chops to create music that people connected with, but they had relentless drive and just enough rebellious Southern swagger and down to earth charm to captivate their audiences at their shows leaving them wanting more.

Then tragedy strikes, after a show in Greenville, South Carolina, the band’s-chartered plane crashed in the Mississippi woods. Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, backup singer Cassie Gaines and three other people lost their lives. The rest of the band members recovered from their injuries and the band went on a 10-year hiatus. But like a phoenix rising out of the ashes, in 1987, the remaining Lynyrd Skynyrd band members came together to reunite for a full-scale tour with Johnny Van Zant taking the helm on lead vocals. The tour and the live album recorded during the tour dates were so successful that a new hybrid of Lynyrd Skynyrd was created. In 2006, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and to this day continues to celebrate the band’s history. After all the triumphs, tragedies and all the great moments in between, this is why you should check out this iconic band and celebrate a piece of rock history.