Lynyrd Skynyrd biography

The seeds of the Lynyrd Skynyrd band were sowed in the summer of 1964. The common theme amongst those early members was baseball.

Young Gary Rossington loved to play guitar, but an equal passion for him was baseball. As a child Gary had harboured a dream to play for his favourite team, the New York Yankees.

A baseball nut to equal Gary Rossington was Westside boy Ronald Wayne (Ronnie) Van Zant;

"I went as far as playing American Legion ball. The next stop would have been AA (minor league baseball). I played centerfield. I had the highest batting average in the league one year and a good arm - you've got to have a good arm to play outfield. Gary was good too, but he gave it all up when he got to like the Rolling Stones."

Another future Skynyrd guitarist, Allen Collins, had no illusions of a career in sports - he just wanted to be a rock star!

The band first came together when Gary Rossington and his school friend Bob Burns turned out to watch a Little League baseball game that Ronnie (who they didn't know at the time) was playing in. At one point in the game, Ronnie came in to bat and hit the ball so hard that it flew across the field, hitting Bob Burns and knocking him out. Ronnie, concerned that he may have killed the guy, ran across to make sure the spectator was OK. Once it was established that Bob wasn't about to die, the three introduced themselves. What immediately became clear was that, aside from baseball, they had a common interest - music. Rossington was a guitarist, Burns was a drummer, and Ronnie was an aspiring Merle Haggard influenced singer,

Very soon the three new friends were meeting up and practicing their music together at the garage at Bob's parents house. They initially named their new band "My Backyard", and learned to play by copying some of the songs they heard on the radio. They ranged from Brit rock to blues to honky tonk country music - all of which blasted out of the radio in the cab of Ronnie's trucker dad, Lacey.

Gary Rossington remembers those early influences;

"You know, we came from English music. We'd listen to the Yardbirds and Clapton, you know and Jeff Beck, the Beatles and the Stones, the Animals, all those groups. They were our idols and gods at the time. As a matter of fact, that's when I really did think the Beatles were like gods. I had this thing when I was going to school. I'd listen to the radio - couldn't afford a record player then - I had a little radio then. If they ever came on,I would never turn them off and if I was late for school, had to miss school or miss church and get my butt beat by my momma because I'd miss a chore. It was like against my religion to turn them off."

The band's debut gig came about in December, when they were booked to play the Christmas party for Morris Auto Supply (which was owned by Ronnie's brother-in-law).  Gary explains;

"It wasn't the Green Pig, but it had a little dance floor and stage and they used to have country combos so people could dance after they ate. It was kind of a juke joint/barbecue joint. He invited all his employees, friends and gas station people that worked and bought parts from him and he wanted a band - cheap. We got ten bucks.

That was big time money. We thought we were rich. That was two bucks apiece and we all chipped in a quarter apiece for gas. We came home with $1.75

At that time we were still playing through Allen's Super Reverb and Bob had drums and Larry (future 38-Special Larry Junstrom who had joined on bass) had a little Ampeg bass amp you could barely hear.It was one of those little R2-D2 robot-looking things. We played `Gloria' and a few Rolling Stones songs. We only knew about five, six or seven songs. We kept doing those all night and he paid us and we got out of there."

The band started to change their name regularly, running through names like Wildcats, the Sons of Satan, Conqueror Worm, and the Pretty Ones. They then settled on what they thought would be THE band name - the One Percent Band. The name came from a movie the band saw in Gainesville about bikers. The bikers had tattoo's on their arms saying "One Percent" - meaning that 1% of the world is a biker. The name stuck ...... for a while.

Many new friends were made during the days of "The One Percent"  - people whose names became inextricably linked with Skynyrd later on - people like Gene Odom, Randall Hall, and Billy Powell. Ronnie met his wife-to-be Judy at this point, when she was introduced to him by Gary Rossington.

As the band got more and more gigs, they cultivated their image as young rock 'n rollers. Unfortunately, this didn't go down well at Robert E Lee High School where some of the guys still attended classes. One teacher in particular, gym coach Leonard Skinner took particular offence to the way the boys looked - particularly their long hair.  (Allen went to Forrest High School which was just as strict).

In 1978, Skinner recalled,

"I was a gym coach in high school for Ronnie VanZant and of the others in the band. Back in those days we had a dress code. The dress code involved sideburns not coming below the ears; hair not touching the back of the collar; belts had to be worn; shirt tails had to be in; and socks had to be worn at all times. It was among the duties of the coach to help enforce these rules and apparently one of the people, or one or more of the people, that I may have sent down were members of this band."

The boys resorted to all sorts of tactics to avoid the dreaded haircut, such as slicking their hair back with Vaseline to make it appear shorter. Gary recalls;

"All the teachers thought we had short hair, but then at gym you had to take a shower - it was mandatory. Leonard Skinner would come through the showers while you were doing it, and if he caught you with your hair down touching your ears or something he'd kick you out or send you to the principal. After about 20 or 30 times of doing that to me, and kicking me out for two weeks of suspension, I just quit school. He kicked me out and I said,`____ you, I'm gone!'

"We played at the Forrest Inn a night or two later and as a joke, because Ronnie was goofing on me leaving and what happened when Skinner kicked me out, he said `Hey, we're One Percent. We're gonna play for y'all tonight, but we're gonna change our name though. Everybody who wants to change it to Leonard Skinner applaud, Everybody who don't, don't.' Everybody knew Leonard Skinner because he was everybody else's coach too. So everybody roared and cheered and they thought it was a big joke and funny, but we kept it. And later we changed the Y's and stuff so we wouldn't get in trouble and it kind of caught on from that little joke."

After the gig, the running joke continued. Every time the phone rang, Burns would claim it was "Leonard" out looking for Gary. The names metamorphisised; Leonard Skinner became Lynard Skynard, which in turn became Lynyrd Skynyrd.

By 1970, the members of the Skynyrd band had been together for more than five years and had played over a thousand shows. Their hard won musical abilities next took them to Sheffield, Alabama in 1970 where their hard rockin' style caught the eye of legendary producer Jimmy Johnson (father of Southern Rock Allstars guitarist Jay). So taken was he with the band, Jimmy stumped up the money to pay for their sessions. All he would take from the sessions were his producer's percentage if a recording was ever released from the sessions. 

The band hauled themselves out to Sheffield for these Muscle Shoals sessions; eight guys staying at two rooms at Blue's Truckstop. At this stage, Bob Burns had temporarily left the group, with his stool now taken by future Blackfoot star Rickey Medlocke. The sessions, with the band in situ, began in the spring of 1971. A second session began in the autumn, with Larry Junstrom replaced on bass by Leon Wilkeson (after Larry was busted for smoking pot).  He was followed into the band by classically trained, keyboard playing roadie, Corpus Christi, Texas native Billy Powell.

The tapes were taken to many labels but with no interest, apart from Capricorn Records. However, Ronnie quickly discounted the idea; if Skynyrd were to be noticed, it wouldn't happen on a label hosting such Southern rockers as Wet Willie, The Marshall Tucker Band, and The Allman Brothers Band. Skynyrd would be smothered there. (Ironically, years later when Skynyrd parted with Atlantic Records, they recorded "Endangered Species" for Capricorn). 

The band were low in morale, and this got worse for them when they found they were no longer "flavour of the month" in Jacksonville, with bookings becoming more difficult to come by. The band then made the ultimately crucial decision to set up camp in what would become their spiritual home; Atlanta.

The band was "discovered" there by former Blood, Sweat and Tears keyboard player Al Kooper and signed to his Sounds of the South label.  Kooper spotted the band playing at  Funocchio's bar in Atlanta in 1972, whilst Kooper himself was out touring with Badfinger. Kooper already had three acts signed up; his reformed Blues Project, LA funk band Elijah, and bar band Mose Jones. It was Mose Jones who recommended Kooper sign up Skynyrd. 

Skynyrd's then manager Alan Walden recalls the moment the band were signed;

When we signed the recording contract on the hood of my pickup truck in the Macon Coliseum parking lot, Ronnie asked me in front of the other musicians what I thought of the contract. My reply was it was the worst I had ever seen. Worse than most of the old R & B contracts.

His reply was "What else we got? Nothing" I said. "Gimme that damn pen" as he reached for it. We could wait no more. The band could not starve any more. We had already been in the clubs too long. They signed and he went back to Jacksonville and started writing "Working for MCA!"

Before managing the get to the studio to begin cutting their debut album, Leon Wilkeson, in a moment of self-doubt, quit the band. (He played for a while with King James Version, and was replaced by both Greg T Walker and Rickey Medlocke) This left the lineup in disarray. How would they replace him? Van Zant recalled the gigs Skynyrd played in 1970 supporting Strawberry Alarm Clock, and particularly their guitarist Ed King, who was also a mean bass player. King, who by now was no longer with Strawberry Alarm Clock was visited by Ronnie at the bar where he worked in North Carolina, and soon signed on as Wilkeson's replacement. 

The band got together at Studio One in Atlanta and played an all night "live" recording session resulting in five songs. 

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