Original subtitles

(southern rock music)

When Lynyrd Skynyrd emerged on to the world stage in 1973

for the band it was the result

of their collective determination.

Having struggled to gain real recognition

since they had formed eight years beforehand,

and although they were immediately identified both

in the music industry and the press as yet another act

in the booming Southern Rock movement of the time

it soon became apparent that these Floridians were not only

an entirely distinctive musical unit,

but also one of the greatest rock bands in the world.

- They wanted to cash in on something you know,

that would be unique to them you know,

a Southern Redneck biker band.

It was just such a crazy concept, but they were

just audacious enough to make it work.

- Lynyrd Skynyrd was the show stopper.

When I walked to the stage with Lynyrd Skynyrd the hair

on the back of my neck stood up.

It was like the Gladiators going into the arena.

- [Voiceover] The driving force

of the band was Ronnie VanZant,

a tough, blue-collar brawler that led Skynyrd from the front line

with his powerful stage presence, distinctive vocals

and his gritty, honest lyrics.

Head strong and domineering,

his energy and vision propelled the group

from it's formation until it's tragic end in 1977.

- From the minute I joined the band

to the minute we had the plane crash

he was the hardest working band I've ever known of,

that was due primarily to the work ethic of Ronnie VanZant.

He was the true leader, writer, mentor of that band.

- Ronnie was spectacular.

He just had a charisma all of his own.

Man, he grabbed my heart hook, line, and sinker.

I said, "Man, everything that comes out

"of his mouth is meaningful."

- [Voiceover] Ronnie VanZant was a great song writer.

He was a terrific lyricist too, an observant person,

and a very smart guy, and he knew how

to be ambiguous about stuff.

He was was very sharp.

They put out six albums,

and 80, 90 % of those songs are absolutely top-rated.

It's amazing.

- [Voiceover] Ronnie Van Zant was born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1948.

The eldest child of parents Lacy and Marion Van Zant

At the time this port city on the Northeastern tip

of Florida, was undergoing rapid expansion,

yet the Van Zants settled away from the industrial

and commercial center of downtown Jacksonville

in the semi-rural area of the Westside.

Here Ronnie grew up alongside his five siblings

in a small family home close to the unspoiled beauty

of the Cedar River, known to the locals a Cedar Creek.

- They weren't guided by any particular rules.

Lacy Van Zant was almost never there.

The Father he was hard living, truck driving man,

and he was very rarely home and the Mother who

everybody called Sis was kind of a hands off kind of parent.

- Ronnie was a barefoot country boy you know,

on the Westside of Jacksonville.

We lived down the street there on Mull Street,

and me and Ronnie just became fishing buddies.

We'd ride our bicycles down to Cedar Creek.

I'd be on the handlebars

or he'd be on the handlebars,

and we'd go down and take a croaker sack

and we'd catch mullet.

We'd catch a sack full of mullet,

and we'd bring them back and give them to everybody,

some black folks on the other end of the street down there,

we gave fish to everybody.

- [Voiceover] Although fishing was the young Van Zant's

favorite past time during his childhood

the area surrounding the family home

on Mull Street was a rough, working-class neighborhood

renamed Shantytown by it's residents,

and the quick tempered Ronnie soon developed

in part through necessity,

into one of the toughest kids on the block.

- The old saying then and now even,

the farther North you go into Florida,

the more in the South you are,

and when you were in Jacksonville you were at the upper tip

of Florida, and it was pretty bad.

It was bad country.

- Ronnie lived in a neighborhood that where

12 o'clock noon on a summer day you don't want to be

in that neighborhood.

Okay, and I lived about 1/4 mile away

and the houses, not much bigger than this room,

but they were brick and they were a whole level

up from where Ronnie's people were.

They used to call us the rich folk.

He lived in the roughest neighborhood they was.

- It was blue-collar and it was working-class people,

rednecks you know.

I'm happy to be a redneck, you know. (laughs)

It was a great neighborhood back then.

We called it Shantytown.

They call it the bottom now.

- The Westside was everybody knew each other

in the Westside.

We played baseball together.

We went fishing together.

We wanted to live here all our lives,

but we knew we weren't going to

really amount to much of anything here.

You work for the railroad or you join the Navy.

That was pretty much it

or you went to college to become a lawyer,

and starting a band just seemed to be a whole lot more fun.

- [Voiceover] Despite being drawn to music from an early age

in particular country in the work of Merle Haggard

and having already developed

an enthusiasm for singing, Van Zant's

earliest ambitions were not artistic,

yet they all involved breaking out of Shantytown.

Growing up within walking distance from Jacksonville's

Speedway Park his initial childhood aspiration was

to become a champion stock car driver.

Although with his enrollment in Robert E. Lee High School

in 1961 his thoughts turned to more athletic pursuits.

- At Lee, early on, he wanted to play football.

He wanted to be a running back,

and he got to play and they did a scrimmage

and the first play from scrimmage he got his ankle broken.

They put pins in it and made him 4F,

so he couldn't be drafted.

Right before that when Cassius Clay was in his heyday

before he turned over and changed his name

to Muhammed Ali, Ronnie loved Cassius Clay,

and he wanted to be a boxer, but boxer,

and I wasn't there that day Orestes Godwin which lived

over on Pangola, the other side of Woodcrest,

Ronnie's side boxed Ronnie and he just beat the hell

out of Ronnie, so that changed Ronnie's mind

about wanting to be a boxer.

You get your ass beat the first time you want

to be somebody you don't want to be that, next day.

- [Voiceover] The single event that caused Van Zant to focus

not on sport, but on music occurred in 1965

when he and a friend attended a concert

at the Jacksonville Coliseum.

Despite the rich, musical heritage of the South

it was a British band channeling this heritage

into their own distinctive sound that provided the young

Floridian with a clear roadmap for his future.

The Rolling Stones played to a packed house on May the 8th,

and that performance proved inspirational.

- Mick Jagger and the Stones is what inspired him.

He liked music, country music.

Mick Jagger, The Rolling Stones is what put the shuffle

in his feet and what put him into wanting to be

in the music business.

♪ I can't get no ♪

♪ I can't get no ♪

♪ When I'm driving in my car ♪

♪ A man comes on the radio ♪

♪ Telling me more and more ♪

♪ About some useless information ♪

♪ Supposed to fire my imagination ♪

♪ I can't get no ♪

♪ A no, no, no ♪

♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪

♪ That's what I say ♪

He seen the reaction of the fans and the people

especially the girls, and the girls loved the singers.

They don't care much about the band,

but they loved that front man.

Ronnie loved it.

He just had that reaction because truthfully speaking

he wanted to get out of Shantytown.

He hated it.

He didn't bring nobody over to his house,

us close friends, but if he didn't if you wasn't

a close friend you didn't come over to Shantytown.

In Ronnie's eyes he wanted to be somebody.

Mick Jagger did that dancing.

Ronnie Van Zant come back, "Hey, I want to be

"I want to be in rock-n-roll."

He put that in his mind, and that is what guided him.

Ron Van Zant had a goal.

- [Voiceover] It didn't take Van Zant long

to begin working towards this goal.

Within weeks he had joined young teen-aged group

The Squires, and several years older than the other

band members, he quickly took charge.

Renaming them Us.

This would soon bring him into contact with rival bands

The Mods which featured young guitarist,

Allen Collins and bassist, Larry Steele.

- I first met Ronnie Van Zant in 1965.

Allen and I had a band together called The Mods

We attended Lake Shore Junior High School together

as did Gary Rossington and Allen and I's band

had a Battle of the Bands coming up with another band.

We had had a Battle of the Bands previously

and we won.

But now this band that we were competing against, now,

thier new lead singer was Ronnie Van Zant.

Ronnie came over to Lake Shore Junior High School

to kind of advance the gig.

He was always calculating.

He was like a field general and he had requested

through someone to meet with me.

That was terrifying, you know?

It was like, what?

It just didn't sound good at all, you know?

I knew of him.

I knew the name everybody on the Westside

of Jacksonville knew the name because Ronnie had

a fairly big reputation as a street fighter.

He was a tough guy.

I was expecting to meet Attila the Hun,

but he was very soft spoken.

He was very polite.

He was very intelligent.

He knew what he wanted to do.

He was as nice as he can be.

- [Voiceover] Although Us won the contest,

Van Zant quickly decided that his band mates lacked

the skill and focus to match his own ambitions,

and he began looking for a new outfit to front.

Another group on the local high school circuit

soon caught his attention.

A recently formed three-piece band

consisting of bassist Larrry Youngstrom,

guitarist, Gary Rossington, and drummer,

Bob Burns.

- First it was me and Larry.

We were trying to do something and I said,

"Larry, we got to get us a guitar partner."

He said, "I don't know none."

I said, "I do."

- Gary Rossington, yes, I told Gary about it and he said,

"Sure." Because he didn't have an amplifier.

So we walked about two miles and got one,

and that's what we started practicing with.

We named the band Me, You and Him.

The way I met Ronnie, he knocked on my door

one morning to say, right before school.

I said, "I don't want to fight you, man."

He said, "I ain't here to fight."

He said, "I'm a singer."

I said, "You're a singer?"

He said, "Yeah."

I said, "Well, I'll be dang."

I said, "I got a bass player and I have a guitar player.

"Let's try to put something together."

- [Voiceover] As they began to practice, however,

this new as yet unnamed band quickly realized

that something was missing from their sound.

Enter guitarist, Allen Collins.

- Allen was playing in a band called the Mods.

He was their lead-guitar player.

We were practicing.

We stopped.

We said, "Look it's just not full enough, you know?

The sound is just not full enough."

I said, "We need another axe."

Everybody said, "Yeah, where?"

I went, "Bingo, Allen Collins."

And Gary just about thought about it

at the same time because he didn't know Allen

like I did.

He was just a distant, distant friend.

I know Allen, good

He was in a lot of my classes.

We approached him about it.

- They needed another guitar player.

Ronnie was of the opinion that he could take

two mediocre at best, at that time, the truth is

Allen and Gary neither one, they were both learning

from each other.

Ronnie felt like if he could take the two of them

and combine that energy and have them feed off

of each other that ultimately he could come up with

at the very least a very good guitar player.

As it turned out, he knew exactly what he was talking about.

As it turned out he got two very good guitar players.

- [Voiceover] With the band's line-up in place

after some rehearsing, they made their way on to the

Jacksonville Live Circuit.

Although as the majority of the members were still

high school students, they were restricted to playing

teen clubs and youth centers.

Their set list almost exclusively made up of covers

of songs by British invasion acts, this group eventually

named the Noble Five was the first step

in the journey towards Lynyrd Skynyrd.

- That band right there, if we jumped on a copy tune

at first it was good, people were very impressed.

Then they were saying, "Damn, that sounds good."

And before we quit playing copy tunes

and we played anywhere from the Doors and the Stones

to Beatles, a lot of rock-n-roll, some blues-rock,

just on and on forever, good stuff.

All the copy tunes, okay.

And I'll vow it to say this the band Ronnie, me, Gary,

Allen and Larry probably had one of the best copy bands

in the world.

We knocked it out.

People loved it.

- How good were they?

Not really good.

The Noble Five when they were the Noble Five

they were playing other people's music and they were trying

to put some of the original stuff, you know,

trying to come up with something.

You know, they were average young band, young musicians,

they didn't hit every note perfect.

- [Voiceover] If the Noble Five still had to develop

instrumental prowess and musical creativity one thing

it wasn't lacking was a commanding presence out front.

From the get go Ronnie Van Zant was a striking

and very singular lead singer.

- I would say that Noble Five was very average,

but he knew his limitations and he was very confident.

He had a lot of stage presence, a lot of charisma.

In the beginning I think that's what got him by

more than anything.

At that time he had not really come

into his own as a singer.

He had just recently made up his mind that that's what

he wanted to do.

Actually to phrase it like Ronnie did to me,

not what he wanted to do, what he had to do.

He took it from there, he had, like I say,

all the confidence in the world and he had his plan,

his idea about how it was all going to come together

and he stuck to it.

- [Voiceover] As a Top-40 cover band the Noble Five

were competing in a crowded market.

The coming of the Beatles, The Stones and the numerous

other artists from across the Atlantic had seen

an explosion of musical activity across the US.

The major hub for the artists who developed in the wake

of this British invasion was California.

Here the members of The Byrds, The Mama's and the Papa's,

and the Greatful Dead, among many others were forging

new sounds.

The musicians dragging themselves out of the once

dominant folk revival scene and into the brave new world

suggested by the British acts.

As distant as this all seemed to the young bands playing

cover songs in the South and actually on occasion

played the same clubs as the Noble Five had made

an attempt to break into this competitive world.

Brothers Dwayne and Gregg Allman from Daytona Beach

had initially began playing on the Florida Circuit

in the ensemble The Escorts in 1964.

The following year they had become The Allman Joys

and they quickly rose to the top of the scene.

Playing venues not only in their home state,

but across the South.

In 1967 they became the Hour Glass and with industry

support behind them they relocated to Los Angles.

Yet, despite several high profile shows and two albums

they failed to make their mark.

To musicians on the Florida Circuit however, including

the ambitious, young members of the Noble Five,

they were an inspiration.

As well as Gregg Allman's powerful vocals

and Dwayne Allman's technical virtuosity as a guitarist,

the band wrote original material.

- We opened up for the Allman Brothers.

They were called the Hour Glass back then,

but it was the Allman Brothers.

We were on first.

We got in there and Gregg and Dwayne just sat there.

They said, "Look, you guys got a tremendously

"powerful band."

"You sound great, but you'll never go anywhere

"until you do your own stuff."

He said, "What you gotta do is get you a place

"that to where you can practice seven days a week

"from morning till night, you know, and put a little

"recorder in there to keep place with the songs."

So we did that for seven years.

- [Voiceover] Inspired by Dwayne Allman's advice the band,

having recently changed their name to the One Percent.

looked for a location in which they could work up

new material and hone their musical skiills

through repetitious rehearsals.

After exhausting the patience of family and friends

they eventually found a run down cabin in the town

of Russell which they would call over time

Hell House.

Under Van Zant's stern leadership they began their slow

metamorphosis into a major rock band.

- We practiced seven days a week, from 10 in the morning

until 10 at night.

Tin roof, no air conditioning, it was hard work.

It was hard work, but we loved it, man.

You know, we loved it.

- Ronnie was just realizing that we were going to have

to work harder than everybody else to make it.

His work ethic just went into overdrive.

There was no time off.

If you weren't playing a gig you were rehearsing

to play the next gig.

As a result of that there was a huge transition.

When they became One Percent basically it was the same band

the whole attitude was completely different.

- [Voiceover] This new vigor led One Percent to quickly rise

to the top of the local circuit and in 1968

they began playing regularly at the recently opened

Comic Book Club, the most vibrant venue in Jacksonville.

As the band continued to develop, the following year

there was a significant shift in the music industry

of the South.

After the collapse of their band The Hour Glass

guitarist Dwayne Allman who worked as session musician

at famed studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama,

immediately drawing the attention of Atlantic Records,

Jerry Wexler.

He in turn introduced Allman to an associate, Phil Walden

a manager from Macon, Georgia, who has previously

represented R&B heavy weights, Otis Redding and Al Green.

So impressed was Walden by the young guitarist's talent

he encouraged Allman to form a new band

and set up a record label, Capricorn

to release their albums.

In March 1969, The Allman Brothers Band was born

bring together musicians from Floridian groups

The 31st of February and the Second Coming alongside

Greg and Dwayne.

By April they had moved to Macon.

Here Walden set up a studio and began to build Capricorn.

a record label that would become a beacon for talented

young, local acts playing rock music.

Phil Walden totally believed that there was a lot

of creativity where we lived, where we came from

and we experienced it.

We experienced it in Alabama, in Macon, Georgia, where

I'd gone to school and Phil grew up.

Phil was the leader of this thinking

and his brother Alan joined in, too.

You know, you've got great players around

just look over your shoulder.

Turn around and look about.

Joe got a call from Gary Wexler

about Dwayne Allman and then he took action

on that phone call.

Dwayne was ready to make a move.

♪ I've been run down ♪

♪ I've been lied to ♪

♪ I don't know why, ♪

♪ I let that mean woman make me a fool ♪

♪ She took all my money ♪

♪ Wrecks my new car ♪

♪ Now she's with one of my good time buddies ♪

♪ They're drinkin' in some cross town bar ♪

♪ Sometimes I feel ♪

♪ Sometimes I feel ♪

♪ Like I've been tied ♪

♪ To the whipping post ♪

♪ Tied to the whipping post ♪

- It was very inspirational.

It was the first inkling that we had that it could

actually be done.

It was Ronnie in fact that turned me onto Greg

and Dwayne Allman and we had known for years

that they were the best around.

If they didn't make it we better start thinking

about something else.

Once they finally did, once Capricorn signed

The Allman Brothers, we knew then, we can do this, too.

♪ In Memory of Elizabeth Reed ♪ by The Allman Brothers ♪

- The Allman brothers opened the door for all of us.

They were the ones that went out there

and paid the dues, first.

Little Richard had done a lot.

Otis Redding had done a lot.

Ray Charles had done a lot.

James Brown had done a lot,

but for a white band

they were the pioneers.

They were the first ones out there

that really meant something, that played the Fillmores

and really played original music.

That was one thing, they set the example for,

was playing original music.

- [Voiceover] The Allman Brothers immediately made an impact

on the One Percent.

Their distinctive, sonic approach quickly absorbed

into the young Jacksonville band sound.

Yet, it was a British group traveling to Florida,

on a US tour that would prove and even greater

inspiration musically for the One Percent.

- We followed the brothers a lot,

the double leads kind of came in you know.

Ronnie liked the way Greg sang.

Hell, who didn't?

Then we heard a band called Free that was

supposed to be coming to town

an English band.

We heard them at a skating rink

and I'm telling you what, right there

I think Free changed our band more

than any band in this world.

♪ Every single day ♪

♪ I got a heartache coming my way ♪

♪ I don't want to say goodbye, baby ♪

♪ But look at the tears in my eyes ♪

♪ I don't want to say goodbye, baby ♪

♪ But look at the way you made me cry ♪

♪ In every way that's nice ♪

♪ You show you got a heart that's made of ice ♪

♪ And I know Fire and water ♪

Paul Kossoff, Gary Rossington, it's identical

to what Gary does.

That was really beautiful, man.

Beautiful , Simon Kirke on drums

and Andy Frasier, that little hat, you know?

- [Voiceover] For Ronnie Van Zant the emergence of Free

was almost as influential as his initial exposure

to The Stones five years before him.

♪ Took her home to my place ♪

♪ Watching every move on her face ♪

♪ She said, Look man ,what's your game ♪

♪ Are you trying to put me in shame ♪

♪ I said slow baby, don't go so fast ♪

♪ Don't you think that love can last ♪

♪ She said Love, Lord above ♪

♪ Now you're trying to trick me in love ♪

♪ All right now, baby ♪

♪ It's all right now ♪

♪ All right now, baby♪

- The Stones may have ignited something,

but it was really Paul Rogers who was his great hero.

He wanted to sing like Paul Rogers.

The inside joke with people like Al Cooper

who produced the Skynyrd albums was that

on each one of those there had to be Free song

a song in which Ronnie would try to sound like Paul Rogers.

That was his (mumbles) ideal of what a rock-n-roll star

would be.

Here's a guy in the deep South and his hero is you know,

across the pond.

His sights were very broad even then.

And it was very canny because that wasn't being done

back then in Jacksonville.

Even The Allman Brothers didn't sing that kind.

They were a great blues band but they didn't emulate

Paul Rogers or Mick Jagger.

So this is a whole new thing that's coming with Skynyrd.

It's taken a little time, but it's on the way.

- [Voiceover] Quickly assimilating these influences

hold up in the backwater isolation of Hell House

Van Zant and the band began developing their own material.

- Let's say Gary Rossington and Allen went home

and were just picking around on their guitars.

We practice all day, they go home and clean up

and play guitar and practicing.

Well, they get into a groove, something really cool,

you know, it's a whole measure, you know.

And a whole measure, so it could be a song

even with a cord some of them sometimes,

a whole song right there and if the band liked it

and Ronnie could dig it and put some words to it

we'd keep it.

Ronnie never wrote down one word to any song.

If that don't freak y'all out, I don't know.

Nobody's ever done that.

Intricate songs and they'd ask him,

"Ronnie, why don't you write it down?"

And he'd say, "Look, if it ain't worth remembering

"it ain't no good."

- [Voiceover] With a clutch of self-penned tracks

now in their arsenal in May 1969 the One Percent

were offered their first stab at recording.

Local manager, David Griffin seemed to capture the best

of the up and coming Jacksonville acts on vinyl booked

both Van Zants band and Larry Steele's

new ensemble Black Bear Angel

into Norm Vincent's studios to produce two promotional

singles for Shade Tree Records.

- David Griffin was the one that set up the studio time

for One Percent and Black Bear Angel.

My band wasted time, Ronnie's did not.

Ronnie went in there he knew exactly what he wanted to do.

He took advantage of the situation.

They put down two songs and the next thing you know

he had TV exposure, a lot of air play and stuff like that.

That was a big thing to their career.

♪ It's been so long since I been gone ♪

♪ Lord I'm tired and want to go home ♪

♪ I going strong but I'm singing the blues ♪

♪ Need all my friends to talk to ♪

♪ Now yes I do ♪

♪ Need all my friends to talk to ♪

- Those were the days I enjoyed the most.

These All My Friends, that was the first really

professional one we just really grooved on.

Everybody liked it, the crowd, my friends,

and we like it, yeah, that was a pretty good time.

The songs brought us joy, you know?

♪ Michelle, little girl I need you baby ♪

♪ More than the air I breathe ♪

♪ My love for you grows stronger, babe ♪

♪ My words you must believe ♪

♪ Well I need to see you laugh again ♪

♪ And I want to see you smile ♪

♪ Michelle, little girl I love you baby ♪

♪ You're my only child ♪

- To me I don't think they have a distinctive, original

sound on this first single.

They sound like the typical rock band of the day.

Ronnie's voice is kind of Gregish.

I'm sure that they were all well aware of Greg and Dwayne

from Daytona Beach and Gary told me

that when he was 15 he was a massive

Dickie Betts fan from Second Coming

from before The Allman Brothers.

They had been steeped in that Florida thing already,

but in Allen Collins solo in Michelle I hear there's

a little bit of that Free Bird thing already.

Michelle is a lot like While My Guitar Gently Weeps,

but a little more sped up.

Allen Collins was a huge Johnny Winter fan.

You really hear the Johnny Winter influence

in his writing and his playing.

(guitar music)

Meet All My Friends and Michelle, I don't think they

sound all that original.

They sound fairly derivative.

Based on those tracks you wouldn't really say

this is a band that's going somewhere.

I don't hear a lot of really original music.

I hear a little bit of the Yardbirds.

I hear impact of Cream.

Other really British bands, but Ronnie Van Zant

has a very distinctly Southern, American, country

tinged voice and you can look back in retrospect

and hear the budding of something, but I don't think

taken on their own those cuts sound like a band

on the cusp of great originality.

- [Voiceover] Yet, week by week the band

were adding new songs to their set list and before

the limited release of this single they changed their

name once again.

This time it would be permanent.

In a bastardization of the name of their

high school gym teacher, they became

Lynyrd Skynyrd stepping out onto the Jacksonville Circuit

with a fresh moniker and an ever expanding catalogue.

By the end of 1969 they had their first break.

An audition for Alan Walden, the brother of Capricorn

Records founder, Phil who was looking to sign fresh talent.

- My brother and I had seperated.

I had gone out and auditioned 187 bands

in one year.

You know how many bands that is a week?

Some of them I'd tape.

Some of them I'd video.

Some of them in person, you know?

But I was invited to come down to Jacksonville, Florida,

and audition bands in a warehouse

and a guy named Pat Armstrong, he had 13 bands lined up.

Lynyrd Skynyrd was the last band that played that day.

Allen Collins got down and flipped all over the floor

and did all sort of stunts with the guitar.

Played behind his head and everything.

They were doing it, but they didn't stop.

They kept going and driving.

By the time they finished with Free Bird, I was blown away.

I assigned them to management, production, publishing,

recording, all of it.

- Alan Walden is probably one of the coolest people

I have ever met.

He used to ask, "Would you like for me to mange you."

He says, "I'll take a shot with you."

And I said, "Yes, yeah, let's try."

Both parties had something to gain, nothing to lose.

- [Voiceover] With a manager now looking

after their interests the bands live schedule

intensified over the following year.

While Walden himself tried to secure Lynyrd Skynyrd

recording time at Muscle Shoals Sound.

This studio set up in Sheffield, Alabama, by the

session musicians who had played along side

Dwayne Allman at famed studios in the late 1960's

was an emblem of the growing strength of the music

industry in the South.

As Phil Walden was building Capricorn

and the Allman Brothers first album was being released

these session musicians were recording The Rolling Stones

in their isolated studio in rural Alabama.

First trying to secure sessions for the close of 1970

Walden finally managed to lock down a studio time

in late June 1971 with guitarist turned producer

Jimmy Johnson.

Although for Ronnie Van Zant and his band mates

it was an invaluable opportunity to prove their talents

the sessions coincided with another unplanned

personnel changes.

Drummer Bob Burns left the band shortly before

the recordings while days in bassist Larry Youngstrom

was ejected from Skynyrd by manager Walden

and they were replaced temporarily by two musicians

from fellow Florida band Blackfoot, Ricky Medlock

and Gary T. Walker.

They were also joined in the studio by their roadie

Billy Powell who Ronnie had only recently discovered

was a pianist of some talent.

Despite these unexpected set backs and new editions

the young Jacksonville musicians took to the studio

remarkably well.

- Lynyrd Skynyrd, I didn't call them a natural talent band.

They were a rehearsed talent band.

Without rehearsals they would have been a weak band,

but these guys went to, every Monday through Friday

they went to Hidden Hills every day, so they were

well rehearsed when the came to Muscle Shoals

all Jim and them had to do was get the balances

and the tones and let these guys go to work, you know?

And maybe suggest something about the arrangement

but very little.

Jimmy Johnson and Roger Hawkins

and those guys, Barry Baker all of them

they taught Lynyrd Skynyrd how to record,

how to really record, you know?

Did I think their recordings were good?

I do.

I think they were excellent recordings.

- [Voiceover] With the recordings in place

Skynyrd hit the road hard

for the remainder of 1971.

Playing further afield venues in Georgia and South Carolina,

alongside their regular shows in their home town.

In the new year drummer, Bob Burns returned to the band.

Shortly afterwards they brought in a new bassist,

Leon Wilkeson who years before played alongside

another Van Zant, Ronnie's younger brother Donny

In high school band The Collegiates.

After grueling rehearsals with this lineup

at Hell House in September 1972 Skynyrd returned

to the studio in Alabama, to record six new compositions.

Although the final collection of Muscle Shoals tracks

was passed around record companies following the completion

of these sessions, they would not be heard by the public

until 1978 when they were issued as the LP,

Skynyrd's First And Last.

- You're hearing the pieces in place

and they're getting there.

Most of the picture's there.

I think it's impressive.

I think in a very short amount of time they did

develop their own sound and the song,

Down South Jukin turned this country

honkey-tonk, but rocked up thing.

You don't really hear that in any of The Allman Brothers

music at all, but Skynyrd is kind of defined

by shit-kicking music, you know,

for lack of another term.

I think you hear it right away.

♪ Well Billy Joe told me, said every thing's lookin' fine ♪

♪ He got the place all secured, got the icebox full of wine ♪

♪ He said, "Hurry on over and don't be late" ♪

♪ He got three lovely ladies who just won't wait ♪

♪ Do some down south jukin' ♪

♪ And lookin' for a peace of mind ♪

♪ Now put your Sunday pants on ♪

- They were great recordings.

They were a juking band, right up my alley.

I mean this was right up my alley, man.

I been jukin with Johnny Taylor,

who''s making love to you're old lady,

all that, for years.

Here's this white rock-n-roll band

just jamming.

They're getting it on, and an original song.

♪ Wino on the street. ♪

♪ Drinkin' a bottle of booze ♪

♪ Ain't got nothing to say, yeah ♪

♪ And he don't got much to lose ♪

♪ Times are on his face. ♪

♪ Blisters on his brain ♪

♪ Wonders who's at fault. ♪

♪ Knows that he's to blame ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

- Muscle Shoals was a great studio,

but whoever recorded at Muscle Shoals needed

a producer.

The studio was fantastic, the acoustics unbelievable,

but they have to rely on Jimmy Johnson as the producer

and he's a great musician, a great, you know, owner

of a studio, but he's not a great producer.

He just gets it on tape, so again

if you know Skynyrd's music

from later on you can go back and listen

to those Muscle Shoals tapes and hear all the great stuff

that would be, that would come out of it,

but at the time it just sounded like demos.

- [Voiceover] Whatever the quality of the recordings

it was the band and their songs themselves

that Alan Walden struggled to push.

Armed with the Muscle Shoals album he traveled

to Los Angeles with Jimmy Johnson and arranged

several meetings with record company executives.

Yet, the reaction was in most cases was overwhelmingly

negative, and after two years as their manager

Walden was running out of both money and options

in his attempts to break the band.

- Those first three years were hard, hard, hard work.

Lynyrd Skynyrd was turned down by nine different

major record companies.

Turned down, not we like you guys but the songs are weak.

I'm talking about, we are not interested. (laughs)

It's like don't send us any more tapes.

We don't want you, you know.

That just broke my heart.

I'm sitting there listening to Gimme Three Steps,

Simple Man, Free Bird, you know.

These are great songs and we were being turned down.

My own brother turned Lynyrd Skynyrd down, you know.

At Grand Slammers, he heard them there

and I asked him afterwards what he thought he said,

"You're lead singer's too cocky.

"He can't sing and the songs are weak.

"And they sound too much like The Allman Brothers."

I'm standing there listening to him and he walks away

and I'm walking this way and Ronnie stops me and said,

"What'd he say, man?"

And i said, "Nothing important."

All of the major record companies said they sounded

too much like The Allman Brothers.

You take a Lynyrd Skynyrd record and play it back-to-back

to an Allman Brothers record and tell me what are they

similar, they're Southern bands, you know.

They've got a massive guitar line-up.

Great guitar work, you know,

but what else to they have really in common?

- [Voiceover] By late 1972 when Walden was

attempting to attract major label interest

The Allman Brothers were no longer simply

a Southern phenomenon.

Despite the tragic death of their driving force,

Dwayne Allman, with the release of their third album,

Live at the Fillmore East in 1971 and Eat A Peach

the following year, they had been propelled into

the top flight both critically and commercially.

The negative comparisons to the band were

damaging for Skynyrd and Alan Walden

began to actively distance himself and his group

from both the Allmans and Capricorn.

Yet, although his brother Phil was uninterested

in the Jacksonville act, his colleague and promoter

Alex Hodges was far more intrigued by them.

- I call up Alan and say, "I want to know about your band."

He said, "Well, they're probably not going to sign with you

"as a booking agent for two or three reasons.

"One, you represent The Allman Brothers Band.

"Two, you're in partnership with my brother.

"and your best friends with my brother,

"and I'll think of a third reason

"and we're just not going to sign with you."

I said, "Alan, who's the best agent you know?"

He said, "You are."

I said, "So we've got to talk." (laughs)

I went to see them in Atlanta.

Alan introduced me.

Saw their whole show.

It was fantastic.

I met them in a hotel and I think Allen Collins

probably said, "So we might sign with you.

"We want two shows with The Allman Brothers Band,

"but we don't want you to be putting us on tour

"with The Allman Brothers Band.

"They do their thing.

"We do our thing.

"They're obviously enormously successful,

"and we just want to be sure though,

"that we play with them a few times,

"but you've got to figure out how to break us

"on the road.

"Give us our sense of independence

"on the road."

It was an independent nature,

probably of most great bands.

I felt I saw that and it was expressed

in their words when I first met them.

But we hit it off, and it was great.

- [Voiceover] Hodges respected Skynyrd's wish

to only play on the same bill as The Allman Brothers

on occasion.

Although towards the end of 1972 he did arrange

the first of these shows in Macon, Georgia,

in which the Jacksonville ensemble held their own

supporting the Capricorn Headliners on their home turf.

Van Zant and his band mates had been gaining

the most traction as a live tour in Atlanta, however,

where they had been booked to support Bob Seger

and his band at the club The Head Rest, but also managed

to secure a residency at a more run down venue

called Funocchio's.

It was here that they finally caught a break.

- When we got into Atlanta there was a club

called Funocchio's.

Fruit and nut bar all the way.

More drug addicts than any other club

in the whole city.

I told the Skynyrd guys, "If you can entertain,

"these drug heads and these junkies, then you can

"entertain the world, cos some of these guys are coming

"in there and they need something and they don't want

"to hear nothing and if you can entertain them,

"you can entertain the world."

And we stayed right there in Funocchio's.

We played there probably seven or eight times.

- The first time we came down and played for a week

we got laughed at, we got laughed at.

And they said, "Who in the hell are these hillbillies?

"What in the hell is this hillbilly stuff?"

But then they give us another chance.

It started catching on, catching on,

catching on, you know.

Before we knew it every time we packed

Funocchio's which would hold 400, 500 people

we'd pack it out.

Ain't nobody dancing, ain't nobody up there

at the bar getting drinks, all around the stage.

- They worked, and they worked, and they worked,

and they always were better every time you heard them

they got better.

You knew there was something there, something was

going to happen and you could just see it.

The first time I knew they were gonna make it big

I was with them in Atlanta, Georgia.

There's a place called The Head Rest.

There were stages at each end of the dance floor.

The other band played, they played a lot of Top-40

stuff and everything and all the kids were packing

the dance floor and dancing and everything.

When they finished their sets Skynyrd played.

Well, one night, Skynyrd started the set with Simple Man

and all the people were still on the dance floor

from the other band playing and nobody left the dance floor.

Nobody danced.

They just stood there motionless and stared at them

and everybody in the club, when you looked around the club

was staring at them and you could've if not for the band

you could've heard a pin drop because everybody

was tuned into Lynyrd Skynyrd and that was the first time

I knew, yeah these guys have got it.

They're gonna make it.

- [Voiceover] The crucial figure would recognize Skynyrd's

potential and take them into the next level witnessed the

band playing at Funocchio's during their second residency

at the club in January 1973.

Al Kooper had been involved in the music industry

since his early teens as first a musician and then

song writer and in the mid to late '60s was a key figure

on the East Coast scene playing in multiple sessions

with Bob Dylan, Steven Stills, The Rolling Stones

and The Who and forming the band, Blood, Sweat and Tears.

In 1972 he had temporarily relocated to Georgia to work

with The Atlanta Rhythm Section at their newly opened

studio in Doraville, Studio one.

During his time off in Atlanta he had by chance begun

frequenting Funniccio's at the turn of 1973

and was there to witness Lynyrd Skynyrd

in all their glory during their week long residency.

By the third night he was joining them on stage

and was eager to develop a working relationship

with Van Zant and his band mates.

- Just sounded great, just had a great sound.

The thing that we had in common was we were

both gigantic fans of the band Free

and that's what really made it work

because they understood what was great

about Free and I understood that and I heard

the Free in them.

Ronnie was not as great a singer as Paul Rogers,

but he wrote those songs and he had a sound.

Paul Rogers was influenced by a lot of soul singers.

and Ronnie didn't have that voice,

so he just did his thing.

And he sounded like Ronnie.

- [Voiceover] Kooper's response to this explosion

to Skynyrd was incredibly committed.

Within days he decided to introduce their music

to MCA Records who allowed him to set up his own label,

Sound Of The South in order to represent Skynyrd

and any other Southern acts he could discover.

Although the terms of the contract that Kooper

presented them with were poor, offering only

a $9000 advance, both Skynyrd and Alan Walden knew

that as Capricorn had shown no interest

this was the only other horse in town.

- If Capricorn turned you down

you were through down there

because there was nothing like it.

I mean it was South

for white bands.

Alan Walden really didn't have to do anything

because there was really no choice.

They'd been to Muscle Shoals and nothing happened

with that.

I already had the makings of a deal with MCA.

- Al Kooper was a last resort.

When I knew that Lynyrd Skynyrd could not take

another year of starving to death.

When I knew that I was ready to sign a deal

with almost anybody at that point

because it was gonna mean

the salvation of the band.

If I'd told them they were going to play bars

for another year and a 1/2, two years

the band probably would've broke up.

- We were getting nowhere and Ronnie called me one night

and said, "Someone broke into our van and took a lot

"of our stuff.

"We can't work.

"We can't put food on the table.

"We need an advance of $5000."

I said, "You want me to mail it or you want

"to come up and get it?"

And he said, "You can mail it

"and you just bought yourself a band."

- When they got ready to sign their record deal

with Sounds Of The South which was Al Kooper's label

had the recording contract laid out on the hood

of my Ford pick-up truck in the parking lot

of the Macon Coliseum, okay.

I laid out all the contracts for them to sign

and Ronnie picks up the pen and he looks at me

and he said, "Alan, what do you think of our record deal?"

My reply was, "This is the worst piece of shit

"I've ever seen in my life.

"It's worse than R&B contracts that we have."

He said, "What else we got?"

I said, "Nothing."

He said, "Give me that God damn pen."

And he signed it.

- [Voiceover] Having finally landing a recording contract

no matter the compromises involved, the band set

about preparing to record their debut album.

Yet, unexpectedly this opportunity caused bassist

Leon Wilkeson to question his commitment to Skynyrd

and he quit the band.

With the recording sessions due to begin

in March, rather than enlist a player from the Jacksonville

pool Ronnie Van Zant turned to an experienced musician

who they had toured with three years before hand

as a support act, Californian guitarist, Ed King.

- I think it was back in 1970 I was with a band called

The Strawberry Alarm Clock.

We had a number one record in 1967.

In 1970 our old manager put together a bogus

Strawberry Alarm Clock and started booking

tours in the South, all these Souther colleges and stuff.

We found out.

We filed an injunction him to stop him

and then we decided well, were bankrupt, let's go ahead

and do the tour our self, so our first gig,

I think we met down in Jacksonville, Florida,

and the guys in Skynyrd were our opening band.

The band was good and Ronnie was spectacular.

He just had a charisma all of his own

and I told Ronnie later I said, "If you ever need

"another guitar player or bass player, you know,

"don't forget about about me.

"I'd love to play with you."

- Leon got kind of scared of a record deal

and didn't really know if he wanted to be

go through all that being famous routine

or whatever it was the work that followed the commitment,

so he quit and went to work at an ice cream factory

and then I joined the band on bass.

It was a real shock to me.

I had to really try and get used to it.

I didn't really hear my bass playing

with this band.

For some reason it was a different style

than I was used to, so I had an awkward time.

- [Voiceover] In preparation for the upcoming

studio sessions, King was thrust into Skynyrd's world

beginning with intensive rehearsals at Hell House

in which he was initiated into the band.

- Long before I joined the band somebody came up

in a boat late at night and stole a couple of amps,

so every night somebody had to stay there,

but my initiation for the first week was to spend

every night there for the first week.

So here I am the first night there, they all leave.

I'm out with a bag of potato chips and a couple of Cokes,

you know, and I have two at least maybe 150 watt

light bulbs hanging from the ceiling and they stay on

all night long because the sounds outside are unbelievable.

I mean, one time an alligator came up on shore.

The guy who owned the house way up front

had to come up with a rifle and shoot it in the head.

That week was absolutely terrifying.

- [Voiceover] Outside of this initiation, King also had

more significant hurdles to overcome.

Having already enjoyed chart success in the late 1960s

he had to adapt himself to Ronnie Van Zant's often

oppressive leadership of the ensemble while also

ingratiating himself with the rest of the band

in which he was the first non-Southerner.

Ronnie and I had a disagreement where he told me

he was the leader of the band.

I said something that everybody around

that I disagreed with and he pulled me aside

and made it extremely clear (laughs)

that it was his band and if I didn't like it

there was the door and it was gonna be done his way.

And I said, "That's fine."

I said, "As long as I can just throw in my two cents."

He said, "That's okay, I just want you to understand,

"this is going to be my way."

No problem, I never had a problem with that.

If you want to get a glimpse of me integrating

with the band, here it is.

In the box set there's a picture of us standing

in front of Hell House.

You've got six guys on one side of the door

and me on the other and that says it all.

It was difficult and I was invited there by Ronnie,

but the other guys really didn't want me there.

- [Voiceover] On March 27, 1973 the band entered Studio one

in Doraville to begin recording their debut album

with Ed Kind on board and ex-roadie, Billy Powell

now a permanent member of the group on piano.

Al Kooper himself decided to produce the record

and the peculiarities of the band he had only seen

perform live were immediately revealed to him.

- When started working with them I discovered

what really made the unique.

There was no, not one moment of improvisation

in their whole show.

When we recorded every guitar solo they played was

pre-written and memorized and never differed.

The whole solo in Free Bird he could play in exactly

the same every time he played it

and I'd never worked with anyone

that pre-wrote guitar solos.

It was phenomenal.

- [Voiceover] And although Ronnie Van Zant had a

domineering approach to his fellow band mates

with Al Kooper he relented recognizing the producer's

previous track record and experience although

others were less certain of his creative vision

for the album.

- If I wanted to change something, they would fight me

tooth and nail to the point where

I was discussing something with Allen Collins

and he said, "Why don't you just leave us alone."

And Ronnie came over and said, "No, no, no, no.

"If he suggests 20 things over the course of this album

"and we use one of those, then that's one thing

"that made us better and I'll suffer the other 19

"to get that one thing."

- Al Kooper, you know, he's a dominating guy in the studio.

He was very difficult.

We had two different personalities and we clashed

from the beginning to the end.

And I finally told him after I saw him at the 20th reunion

after I saw him at the 20th reunion

I said, "Al Kooper, I have to say one thing,

""You certainly sweetened the Skynyrd sound.""

And that was the highest compliment I ever paid him

and he did.

That was exactly what he did to their sound.

- Al had a vision for the band, and it was good.

Nobody else did and he mixed the band a certain way,

how he heard it.

I could tell it was fit for radio.

But there was one special time when there was a real

big clash and that was when we thought the album was fully

recorded and Kooper called up and said, "We need one

"more song."

That was the time when Leon showed up

and showed us Simple Man, showed me Simple Man.

We worked it up.

Within a couple of days we went to Atlanta to record it.

We set up in the studio for Al and we played it

for him, live.

And he said, "I'm really sorry you guys, we can't cut that

"we're looking for something else."

♪ Mama told me ♪

♪ When I was young ♪

♪ Come sit beside me ♪

♪ My only son ♪

♪ And listen closely ♪

♪ To what I say ♪

♪ And if you do this it'll help you ♪

♪ Some sunny day ♪

Ronnie asked Al to step outside and Al drove

a I think it was an old Bele, and Ronnie opened the door

to the Bele and told Al to get in the car.

Al gets in Ronnie rolls down the window, shuts the dorr

and he sticks his head through the window

and he said, "Al, when we're done cutting it,

"we'll call you."

So he sent Al on his way and the rest of us were really

kind of surprised.

You don't hear very many times in history

when a first album band tells the producer

to get lost.

Usually they get fired or something, but you want

to talk about Al Kooper's passion, he put up with that

you know, where many others wouldn't.

They'd say, "Like, you're gone, you know."

- [Voiceover] With the album completed Kooper's mind

now turned to selling Lynyrd Skynyrd to as wide

an audience as possible and the first obstacle

for the general public that he envisaged was the band's

name itself.

- They were the second band to come into the club

when we were residents in Atlanta.

Up on the marquee it said, "Linerd Skinerd."

I went, "What the hell is this?

"What is that?

"Linderd Skinerd, what is that?"

And then they introduced them and said,

"Oh, it's Lynyrd Skynyrd, I see, yeah, I get it."

They said, "What a dumb way to do that."

So I was saddled with that.

It was the first thing that came to me was let's

put it to our advantage.

It's like, what is who is Linerd Skinerd and I thought

everyone would mispronounce it, so I thought the best

thing to do was to name the album, Pronounced

and put that dictionary thing 'Lĕh-'nérd

'Skin-'nérd like that.

- [Voiceover] One, two, three.

- [Voiceover] Released on August 13, 1973,

Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd was an album

that may never have existed given the struggles

the band had gone through to get it made.

In the press Kooper was declaring the band

America's Rolling Stones and while not an overnight

success the LP's reputation steadily grew

with Skynyrd slowly seeping into the heart

of American culture across the following year.

- Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd is a very, very

strong debut.

It announces them from the very first notes

of I Ain't The One as a unique entity, as a self-confident

entity and it has a handful of songs on it

that are rock-n-roll classics, that stand up to this day.

It has Tuesday's Gone, Gimme Three Steps, Free Bird,

that was all there on their first record

and they had a very distinct sound, a very distinct

vision and it's a very, very impressive debut.

♪ Train roll on ♪

♪ On down the line ♪

♪ Won't you please take me far ♪

♪ Away ♪

♪ Well I feel the wind blow ♪

♪ Outside my door ♪

♪ Because I'm leaving my woman ♪

♪ at home ♪

♪ Lord and ♪

♪ Tuesday's gone ♪

♪ With the wind ♪

♪ My baby's gone ♪

- They had been working hard for a long time

by that point, and you can hear it.

To me it's a phenomenally strong debut

because they sound, they are a fully formed entity

at this point and you've got

Gimme Three Steps,

You've got Tuesday's Gone which is a great pop song

like fantastic pop song

and then I mean Free Bird, you know.

It's their first real album, it has their

the biggest song they every wrote on it.

If you had to boil Lynyrd Skynyrd down to one song

it would have to be to me it would have

to be Free Bird.

♪ Free Bird ♪

(piano)

(guitar)

- Free Bird had developed quite a bit

from the time they had first recorded it

as a demo until their first album.

One of the things that had happened I think

was a result of all these gigs they had played

and gaining their confidence on the stage

and as a live band.

It was also the addition of keyboard player, Billy Powell

and the elegant piano playing he brought to that song

and to the band in general.

iIthink that in many ways Billy Powell was sort

of the underrated secret weapon that Skynyrd had

because as much as they could be a hard-hitting

rock ban,d as much as people think of them

right off the bat as a two or even three at various stages

a guitar band which they certainly were

they also had this sort of elegant swinging piano playing

of Billy Powell and that can really be heard

on Free Bird.

He added a tremendous amount by having this

beautiful piano intro rather than it being just a finger-

picked guitar and that's something else

that set them apart.

♪ If I leave here tomorrow ♪

♪ Would you still remember me ♪

♪ For I must be traveling on now ♪

- You have this terrain and you start

on this journey with this song.

It really draws you in with the slide-guitar playing

the sort of haunting melody and it's kind of hypnotic

you know, it's kind of slow mournful.

It's like a ballad

and then a lot like Stairway To Heaven

which is the same thing.

The song builds in intensity very gradually, you know

and it's that shift where you're going from this sort

of gentle thing and then the power starts to come

behind it and the tempo's picking up a little bit.

It's true for both songs.

You know, that's it's there's a payoff there

for the listener, everytime.

♪ Oh, I can't change ♪

♪ Won't you fly ♪

♪ Oh, Free Bird, yeah ♪

(guitar music)

- When I heard Free Bird for the first time

I thought I would like to see

any kid

between the ages of 12 and 21

when they hear this they will just put their heads down

and run into the nearest wall.

I thought it was irresistible.

I thought it was much more primiative

than Whipping Post which is the Allman's big song

at the time.

This is very simple, other than it starts slow

and then it gets fast, but that's very simple, too.

And it was phenomenal.

- [Voiceover] Initial reactions to the LP in the music press

saw lazy comparisons to The Allman Brothers mirroring

the record company's initial reception

to the Muscle Shoals demos.

And although these weren't necessarily negative

they continued to baffle the band themselves

along with the more perceptive critics who found

no in distinguishing the two bands.

- They were a blues band and later on kind

of a what? A fusion band.

I mean but in their own way they were virtuoso's.

We were not virtuoso's because Ronnie liked

the same thing every night.

He wanted to make sure the band sounded

like the record.

He's very scripted.

There was no improvisation.

We couldn't really.

We were lousy improvisers and that's okay.

We're still in the Rock-N-Roll Hall of Fame, you know?

- The Allman Brothers were a jam band

and Lynyrd Skynyrd is a song band.

That's the difference.

Ronnie Van Zant was a great song writer.

Dwayne Allman was not a great song writer.

He wasn't, great player? Sure.

Knew a great song when he heard it?

Damn right, but he wasn't a great song writer.

The good song writer in that band was Dickey Betts,

for better or worse and he wasn't so great either.

Ronnie Van Zant on the other hand, I mean what?

They put out six albums, 80, 90 percent of those songs

were absolutely top grade.

It's amazing, it's amazing,

and so you know, when I heard the first album

I just knew something different was going on there.

First I noticed that Al Kooper was involved,

not exactly a Southerner, New York, Jew

from Queens, my stomping ground.

And he understands that this band is something special.

I liked the record when it came out,

but I'd say it was a little hard for me to hear

from my own prejudices about Southerners,

exactly how good Van Zant was.

But it didn't take long.

- [Voiceover] Comparisons to The Allmans quickly

diminished however, once Van Zant and his band

began doing the rounds for the Music Press.

Unlike the Capricorn act these were clearly

not Southern hippies and the simmering aggression

and redneck swagger of Lynyrd Skynyrd quickly

mobbed them out as something totally distinct

from any their contemporaries.

- That was the beauty of late '60s early '70s,

the beginning of rock, the first good 10 years of rock

was be different, you know?

Do everything you can to sound like yourselves.

They had a band personality.

It was a very strong personality

and it was distinct.

- They were bringing something that had never been heard

before, it was redneck rock.

They made redneck rock into an art.

They made it into an idiom itself

not just an offshoot rock-a-billy or country

or something like that.

It was totally indescribable which was the reason

they had such a hard time at the beginning

getting that contract, but in the end, you really have

to admire people like Al Kooper and the MCA people

for recognizing that.

At the time there was nothing like it.

There'd never been anything like it.

- All of those guys except Ed King were rough and tough.

But they portrayed that on stage.

I can remember getting to New York

one of the early trade magazines came in to interview us

and they said, "Well, we heard y'all are from deep South

"and might be referred to as rednecks."

And Ronnie's answer was, "Hell yes, damn right,

"where's your daughter?" (laughs)

He took the poor white trash image

and turned it into something glamorous.

He made people feel proud that they were rednecks

and that The Allman's hadn't done that.

- [Voiceover] The white, Southern, working-class mentality

and outlook was not only expressed through the band's

image but also in the lyrics and Ronnie Van Zant himself.

The album introduced a very singular if under appreciated

writer into the rock world.

- I gotta say that working-class was never something

that I as a very class-conscious person actually thought of.

I never thought of them as a proletarian band.

iIwas wrong.

It's a very good way to think about them.

When you say Ronnie Van Zant is a great song writer,

well, why is that?

Well, one of the reasons is that they were narrative

details in his songs that he observed life

and wrote about it.

Gimme two steps is a great song

about being in a bar fight, or not.

Great, great song.

There are a lot of songs

about Saturday night's alright for fighting

as Elton John did it, but very few good songs

about how he doesn't actually want to fight

and he's gonna get the fuck out of there, you know.

I always thought that was, I loved it because he had the

guts to paint himself in that way.

♪ Well the crowd cleared away ♪

♪ And I began to pray ♪

♪ And the water fell on the floor ♪

♪ And I'm telling you, son ♪

♪ Well, it ain't no fun ♪

♪ Staring straight down a forty-four ♪

♪ Well, he turned and screamed at Linda Lou ♪

♪ And that's the break I was looking for ♪

♪ Well, you could hear me screaming a mile away ♪

♪ I was headed out toward the door ♪

♪ Look at here big man ♪

♪ Oh, won't you ♪

♪ Gimme three steps, gimme three steps, mister ♪

♪ Gimme three steps toward the door ♪

♪ Gimme three steps, gimme three steps, mister ♪

♪ And you'll never see me no more ♪

♪ Whoo ♪

- Ronnie Van Zant was the son of a truck driver.

And that's what he knew.

His experiences with women

were lyrically in some songs

hilarious to me.

I'm trying to tell you I love you

in each and every way.

I'm trying to tell you I need you

much more than just a piece of leg.

I couldn't write that.

A, it was from the heart

and B, it was realer

than most people

have the nerve to write.

- [Voiceover] Shortly after the recording of the album

the band's lineup shifted once again

with Leon Wilkeson coming back into the ensemble

and Ed King moving from bass to guitar.

Although apparently only a small change

it made an instant impact on the Skynyrd sound.

- Ed was my favorite guitar player

and in the beginning I didn't even know he played guitar.

First of all he played

Fender guitar, so there was that

and B, he was a phenomenal guitar player.

(guitar music)

Now, he had the opportunity to bring

his knowledge into the band and he was,

you know, he wasn't a Southern guy.

He was from California, so now

they had this added to their pool of thought.

- Once I became the third guitarist in the band

integrating myself was so much easier

than being a bass player.

Pretty much I stayed out of the other guy's way.

I found myself a third part.

I try not to play too much which I realize now,

I still overplayed some, but I thought we integrated

very well and the crowd loved it, but I think my really

clean Stratocaster sounded against their dirty Gibsons

was a beautiful contrast.

I didn't have to explain it to them.

They just excepted it.

- [Voiceover] Now, playing his favorite instrument,

King immediately contributed to Skynyrd's material

in a crucial manner.

Before the first album had even been released

bring his compositional skills into the band's

daily Hell House rehearsals.

- How a typical day at rehearsal would go,

we'd all show up at pretty much the same time

and Ronnie would say to any of the guitar players

or whoever, "What do you got?"

And of course ideas were always flowing.

You made sure you showed up at rehearsal

with something to work on and somebody had

something good, you know, Ronnie would be sitting

in his corner on this long sofa we had

and if he liked it he'd have his head in his hands

and he'd go like this.

Keep going, keep going and after a few minutes or so

20 minutes he might come up and sing a verse.

I mean Sweet Home Alabama didn't take longer than

20 minutes to write.

I walked into rehearsal and Gary Rossington was playing

this figure on the guitar and I picked up this Strat

that I had just bought, I don't know, maybe a couple

months before and immediately bounced mine off of his

a totally different lick.

Mine went dum, dum, da, da,

dadunen do dun na and Ronnie heard that

and just locked into it.

iIcould just see him

and you could tell when he locked into it.

20 minutes later he sang it, he grabbed the mic

and sang us the first verse.

Once he started singing I came up with the rest of it.

(guitar music)

♪ Big wheels keep on turning ♪

♪ Carry me home to see my kin ♪

♪ Singing songs about the Southland ♪

♪ I miss my family once again ♪

♪ And I think it's a sin ♪

- Ronnie called me up and said, "I need a favor."

I said, "How much?"

He said, "No, no, no."

He said, "We wrote a new song and I love the way

"it sounds now, and I think maybe it'll change in tempo

"or this and that and I want to record it right now."

I said, "I don't have a problem with that."

I said, "The only thing I would like to do

"is the night before we record, I'd like to go

"into the rehearsal studio and just listen to it

"and see if I have anything I want to change in it

"before we record it."

So he came down and they played Sweet Home Alabama

and I thought the same thing.

I thought this is a number one record.

- [Voiceover] Both Kooper and the band

decided to hold Sweet Home Alabama

in the reserves and after their debut was released

Skynyrd headed straight out on the road

playing shows across the South.

These dates in modest venues help spread

their name it had little wider impact.

In November however, they began a second date

that would propel them into the spotlight

as they embarked on a 13 show run opening

for The Who on their 1973 Quadrophenia Tour.

Although Alan Walden and Alex Hodges handled the logistics

of these shows, the opportunity itself occurred by chance

after Al Kooper had been meeting executives at MCA's

offices shortly before the release of Pronounced.

- I came out of the meeting and I bumped

into Pete Townsend, who I knew, and hey, how ya doing,

blah, blah, blah.

I said, "What are you doing?"

He says, "Well."

He says, "We're gonna tour the Quadrophenia album.

I said, "Wow, that's great."

He says, "As a matter of fact we're looking for

"an opening act, do you know anyone

"that would be good?"

I had just gotten a pressing or two of the first album.

I had three of them with me, so I said, "Take this home

"and play it.

"This band would be phenomenal to open for you."

I wrote my phone number on the label

because it's just a white label.

So he called me the next day and said,

"You're right, this is great.

"This would be great.

"Let's do this."

- When we opened for The Who, we only had 30 minutes.

We had eight inputs into the sound board in 30 minutes,

plus we had to play Free Bird which is nine minutes,

so we only got about maybe five songs maybe six songs in,

but made quite an impact.

- I said, "Look, this is the way we gotta do it.

"Don't give them a chance to boo you.

"Don't give them a chance to applaud you.

"No more than a three second delay between songs.

"I want it, like that ,(clapping) all the way."

And buddy, Ronnie Van Zant delivered.

- We were more used to almost

like a nightclub deal.

You know where you just get tight

with everybody sitting all around, you know,

but you look down and there's 15,000 feet

and there's the first person.

Leon way over there.

Ronnie way up there and I'm looking down at him.

I hated it.

I was nervous, but I overcame it, see.

I overcame it and I actually enjoyed turning them on

because if I turn them on,

here it come back,

and I turn it on some more,

here it come back.

- They were really, really, nervous,

but they were incredibly professional.

They got worried because they're gonna play

20,000 seaters every night.

And you know we played like Madison Square Garden,

Cobo Hall in Detroit.

And what must've that been like

for them?

Hanging out with The Who, you know who are

very generous with their time and drugs

to the lads, so it was a wonderful experience

and it broke them as an act.

- [Voiceover] Riding high on the back

of The Who shows in the new year the band

returned to the studio to begin work on a second album.

Now, partly established the financial necessities

of staying in the South no longer applied

and for this LP Al Kooper decided to bring

the Jacksonville boys into the heart

of the entertainment world, booking sessions

at the Record Plant in Los Angeles in January 1974.

For the rising stars what was becoming know

as Southern Rock it was a far cry from Doraville, Georgia.

- They were out recording a track together

and John Lennon came into the control room

to ask me a question.

I think he was in there for maybe 30 seconds.

He went back out and the stopped playing and they said,

"Was that John Lennon that just came in the booth?"

I said, "Yeah."

Ronnie said, "We have to take a break for a few minutes."

- [Voiceover] Yet, despite the prestigious, newly built

studio Kooper had chosen to record the album in

some band members weren't entirely convinced

with the Record Plant or the material itself.

- To me it was not as much fun as playing albums.

It seemed like it was a whole lot harder work

cause those songs weren't to me

as close to me as the songs on Pronounced.

- The Second Helping was not as pleasant

because of the environment.

Really, Studio One in Doraville, Georgia, is a great place

to record.

I don't even know if it's there anymore,

but the ambient sound, the familiarity we had

with the board, the guys, we missed it, missed it a lot.

The difference between playing in a room

where the floor is tiled or wood versus

playing in a room where the whole floor is carpeted

and at Record Plant, the whole floor was carpeted

and it was just dead in there.

To me Second Helping, except for Sweet Home Alabama

which was recorded in Doraville, Second Helping has

that dead sound to it.

♪ Swamp Music ♪

♪ Going down to ♪

- [Voiceover] Despite these reservations upon it's release

in April 1974, Second Helping proved an enormous

commercial success.

Although like Pronounced it took it's time building

up momentum not aided by the failure of it's lead single

Ask Me No Questions to chart.

Yet, the input of Ed King as a composer the new

three pronged guitar line up

and Ronnie Van Zant's continued development

as a songwriter meant that over time the album

would make a significant impact.

- Lynyrd Skynyrd was very unique starting

with Second Helping and having three guitar players.

It's something that on paper can't work,

but each of the guitarists, Ed King,

Gary Rossington, and Allen Collins were

very different and had their own strengths

and understood that about each other.

I think Second Helping stands up as a great album.

It has Call me the Breeze.

It has The Ballad Of Curtis-Loew.

There was depth to the music

and to the singing,

and to everything about it,

that again made you feel things without

quite understanding them which is what

the best music should do.

♪ Well, I used to wake the morning ♪

♪ Before the rooster crow ♪

♪ Searching for soda bottles ♪

♪ To get myself some dough ♪

♪ Brought them down to the corner ♪

♪ Down to the country store ♪

♪ Cash them in and give my money ♪

♪ To a man named Curtis-Loew ♪

- Allen Collins and Ronnie brought Curtis-Loew,

The Ballad of Curtis-Loew to the band

and unlike any other song we'd written,

that was written outside of our rehearsal space.

That was written at home, so they already

brought it finished and I arranged it

and it was an inspiration.

Here's a song I didn't write that I really kind

of grabbed on to and said, "Wow, this is

"it's a very cool song."

It's still one of my favorite Skynyrd songs.

♪ Play me a song Curtis Loew, Curtis Loew ♪

♪ I got your drinkin' money ♪

♪ So tune up your dobro ♪

♪ People said he was useless ♪

♪ Them people all were fools ♪

♪ 'Cause Curtis Loew was the finest picker ♪

♪ To ever play the blues ♪

- I think the band was definitely still growing

when they did Second Helping.

They were getting stronger and more confident.`

Ballad of Curtis-Loew is a great song, really cool

and sort of very distinctive.

It give Skynyrd this whole other part

of their personality and Call Me The Breeze

is this boogie tune.

I can hear a connection to like Bob Dylan

Watching The River Flow or something like that

and just the blues, but the beat and the way they play

with the breaks and things sort of designed

to sort of show off the band, arrangement wise.

It was definitely a step in the next direction.

I think that this was creatively maybe the high point

of the band.

♪ Call me the breeze ♪

♪ I keep blowin' down the road ♪

♪ They call me the breeeze, baby ♪

♪ I keep blowing down the road ♪

♪ I ain't got me nobody ♪

♪ I don't carry me no load ♪

♪ Ain't no changin' the weather ♪

♪ Ain't no changes in me ♪

- Ronnie Van Zant was showing

an incredible ability to write songs

that move people and also to have great taste

when picking outside song writers which they didn't do

a lot of, but they did with great effect when they did.

Call Me The Breeze I think is the perfect example.

JJ Cale's a great songwriter who also provided great songs

for Eric Clapton, just by pulling from him

with the same sort of musical gusto and swagger

and upbeat swing.

It was again, music that made you feel good.

They took a very cool, laid-back, sort

of swampy JJ Cale song and turned it

into an out and out party, rock anthem

that gets everybody up

and dancing and feeling good.

- [Voiceover] Shortly after the album's release

the band played their biggest show to date

alongside The Allman Brothers Band

at the Georgia Jam in front of 61,000 fans

in Atlanta.

On the back of their country hit Ramblin' Man

at this time Greg Allman's ensemble were

at the peak of their popularity and other Capricorn acts

such as The Marshall Tucker Band

and Wet Willie had also begun to build a strong following.

Despite being uncomfortable about being identified

too closely with this wave of music now being dubbed

Southern Rock, Skynyrd were canny enough to know

they had the songs to distinguish them

from these contemporaries.

- They played with The Marshall Tucker Band

on a lot of dates.

They played with The Allman Brothers on a few dates.

They played with Charlie Daniels on some dates.

Skynyrd got a bigger picture actually that we are who we are

and we're going to knock them dead

and just give us that stage and give us our time

and we're gonna go prove it.

If somebody can follow us, God Bless them,

but it wasn't really competitive.

It was an amount of self-assurance.

- Lynyrd Skynyrd was the show stopper.

When I walked to the stage

with Lynyrd Skynyrd the hairs

on the back of my neck stood up.

It was like the Gladiators going into the arena.

We're fixing to kill.

We're gonna blow this roof off of this place,

and we did, over and over and over again.

- [Voiceover] Yet, from the beginning of 1974

controversy had surrounded Skynyrd's live shows.

While they were in part looking to distance themselves

from the Southern Rock boom, the new decision

to use the Confederate Flag as the band's onstage

backdrop in many ways identified them

as the quintessential Southern band.

The connotations of the flag itself raise serious

questions.

Not only did it represent the South's historical defense

of slavery it had also been subsequently appropriated

by the Ku Klux Klan and a number of other white

supremacist groups.

- They were not in favor of this at the beginning.

According to them it was all MCA's doing.

It was the marketing people, the promotions people.

Sat back in L.A. and New York and they would say,

"How we gonna present this band?

"You know they come on stage.

"They sing about growing up in the deep South

"and all that goes along with that.

"How we gonna present it?"

And they come up with, "Well, why don't we do

"the Confederate Flag behind them?"

One of the worse decisions ever made,

but also one of the best

because it really became identified with them,

but also forced them to have to explain.

They had some splainin' to do.

Mostly the critics who are based in New York

and L.A. you know, people like Lester Bangs,

and you know, Robert Christgau, and people

very araldite men, Robert Hilburn, people like that.

Were not so, quick to accept the Confederate Flag

as an innocent symbol of rock-n-roll.

That was a symbol of slavery.

That was a symbol of treason.

That was a symbol of 1/2 a million Americans dying

in a war.

- As to who's decision it was, I think if the band didn't

want to do it they wouldn't have done it.

As a natural thing to do because the band didn't see it

in the way it was often interpreted.

A piece of history, you know.

I think that they kind of wanted to do it

as rebels, as Southerners, not to relive the past

in stretch of the imagination.

I don't think it was any more than we grew up in the South

let's put the flag up there and go play for it.

Unfortunately it could be misunderstood.

- The idea of using a Confederate Flag as a back drop

on the stage came from the band.

MCA would never have suggested that

because you know, it's derisive

and racially.

But MCA didn't stop them from it either.

Nor I.

That's what they wanted to do.

That's what they felt in their hearts.

That's who they believed they were.

That's who they were, so that's what they did.

- I always thought it was a Rebel Flag.

Me personally, understand I'm from Southern

California, I'm about as anti-slavery as you can get.

The flag being part of their heritage,

I understand that, too.

Just because we draped a flag back there doesn't mean

that we believed in slavery or anything.

It's simply a Rebel Flag

and the band was surely Rebels.

- [Voiceover] This controversy was heightened

with the release of Skynyrd's next single,

Sweet Home Alabama which was in part

an anthem for the South.

It also a highly ambiguous statement

from Ronnie Van Zant.

Not only did he address Neil Young in the lyrics

taking him to task for the songs, Southern Man

and Alabama in which Young had condemned

white Southerners for their racism.

He also made reference to Alabama's segregationist

Governor, George Wallace.

- I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet

before the feet of tyranny I say segregation now,

segregation tomorrow, and segregation forever.

- [Voiceover] These lyrics would forever cause doubt

over Van Zant's own position on segregation.

Yet, the controversy in no way damaged the impact

of the single itself which not only provided the band

with their first top 10 hit on the Billboard Chart,

but also broke them internationally.

- Ronnie was proud to be from the South.

It's a rallying cry for the South.

That's really what Sweet Home Alabama is.

If they hadn't written this great song,

really strong song we wouldn't be talking

about it today, nobody would care.

- Sweet Home Alabama represents the growing

confidence of young southern men.

- It represents the growing confidence of the band.

It represents some sort of swagger awash in America.

It gave people a sort of wistful feeling

of wanting something that was gone and again

for some people that represented wanting something

that most of the world was happy it was gone,

but for many other people it didn't represent

that specifically at all.

It just represented something good in some indefinable way.

It was a song that made you happy, made you stomp your feet,

made you jump up out of your seat and they just nailed it.

Everything came together into a perfect song

for that band at that time.

♪ Well, I heard Mr. Young sing about her ♪

♪ Well, I hear old Neil put her down ♪

♪ Well, I hope Neil Young will remember ♪

♪ A Southern Man don't need him around anyhow ♪

♪ Sweet Home Alabama ♪

♪ Where the skis are so blue, whoo ♪

- What I always thought was it was a completley

legitimate song.

I never had any problem with that song.

I'm not suggesting that the political logic

of Sweet Home Alabama is anything special,

but simply as an expression of feeling

it seem completely legitimate.

Basically, he's saying to Neil Young

who's after all a Canadian,

don't you moralize at us.

And I don't think that's a bad thing

fort somebody to say.

He was moralizing.

And I love Neil Young.

Neil Young is one of my favorite artists

in the whole history of his music.

♪ Southern man better keep your head ♪

♪ Don't forget what your good book said ♪

♪ Southern change gonna come at last ♪

♪ Now your crosses are burning fast. ♪

♪ Southern man ♪

- The Neil Young thing of course

it was a repost to Neil Young

for dumping on Southern men, you know,

didn't do what the good book says

and yeah, he had every right to, Neil Young

had every right to do a song like that.

It was perfectly timed.

And Ronnie had every perfect right to dispute it

and stand up for Southern manhood.

That part of it was fine,

but when you get into the Governor in Birmingham

Birmingham, why did he choose Birmingham?

It's not the capital of the state.

Birmingham is a place where the worse,

bloodiest race riots happened in Alabama.

Why did is he choosing, in Birmingham

they love the governor,.

Yeah, we know that.

They love him because they're a bunch of racists.

So is he was he sending them up?

Or was he endorsing them?

We never knew.

- I put the background vocals on that

without discussing it with them.

It was a very tough session

because I used black women

and they don't think Sweet Home Alabama

they think George Wallace.

♪ In Birmingham they love the governor ♪

♪ Boo, hoo, hoo ♪

♪ Now we all did what we could do ♪

- What's he doing there?

He's playing both ends against the middle.

That's what he's doing.

That boo, boo, boo thing.

Who was booing?:

He leaves that completely open.

I really tried to pin him down on it.

He said, with a fair amount of clarity

that he did not agree with George Wallace's view of race.

He said that with a fair amount of clarity.

Did he therefore think that the appeal that George Wallace

had to working-class Southerners was all together

illegitimate when no other candidate was

in any way trying to meet

any of their interests and George Wallace was smart enough

to do class stuff and in fact did some liberal stuff

for working people in Alabama.

He understands that there's something about George Wallace

that he want to celebrate.

And there's something about George Wallace

that he wants to critcize.

There's a certain type of chip on shoulder,

double-dare you thing going on where he wants

to rile up and get his core audience,

the people he grew up with

and wants to say to the rest of the rock audience

who he really would love to have on board,

who he wants to have buying his record.

No, this is who I am.

Take it or leave it.

I'm gonna do this now

because I'm not simply going to be kissing ass here.

It's a very, very complicated gesture

that he brought off with more subtly than I can

in the end penetrate and that speaks well of him.

- [Voiceover] With a bonafide hit to propel them

Skynyrd continued to tour the US into the Summer.

Yet, despite their growing fame, their devotion

to the chaotic routine, of the rock-n-roll lifestyle

was beginning to take it's toll on the band

and strained their relationship with manager,

Alan Walden.

- By the time the band got out there

they had been playing the bars so long

that almost everybody in the band was an alcoholic,

myself included, you know.

I needed to grasp real control of the band

before they started fucking up the whole thing.

I began to have to talk to hotel managers

more and more and more about them tearing up hotels.

Spend a good bit of time trying

to convince the law officials not to arrest them all, okay?

Finally in Saint Louis one night, they were checking

in to a hotel and on the way in, checking in,

they busted out the exit signs in the hallway.

Well, the bellman calls down to the desk

and the desk comes up and says, "Hey, you guys gotta leave."

"Well, that ain't no problem, we'll get our manager to get

"another hotel."

There was a convention in town.

That was the last hotel that had any rooms, okay.

So now they're mad with me because I can't get them

a room in the middle of the night.

I said, "Let me tell you something,

"this just goes to show you why you shouldn't be doing

"this dumb shit."

- [Voiceover] In August the band members returned

to Jacksonville and back in the relatively tranquil

environment of their home turf were able to recover

from their excesses.

Work soon began at Hell House and new material however,

with a creative partnership of Ed King and Ronnie Van Zant

continued to thrive.

- I came to rehearsal with this groove

that Ronnie really liked.

Actually Ronnie contributed to the groove.

It was the first time he ever did.

He says, "Look, I like that and the verses

"want you to do this and then go back

"to what you have."

Saturday Night Special

So I'm there rehearsing with the band trying

to teach them the groove and Ronnie's over there

in the corner and after about 20 minutes Ronnie comes

up to me, not on the mic which he usually did,

sing for everybody, this is really, this tore me up.

He cupped my ear with his hand

and he sung to me.

"Two feets they come a creepin

"like a black cat do."

You know, and he sang the whole verse to me.

♪ Two thiefs they come a creepin' ♪

♪ Like a black cat do ♪

♪ Two bodies laying necked ♪

♪ Creeper think he got nothing to lose ♪

♪ So he creeps into the house, Lord ♪

♪ Unlocks the door ♪

♪ And as a man's reaching for his trousers ♪

♪ Shoots him full of bullet holes ♪

♪ Mister Saturday night special ♪

- I mean I feel inspired now just thinking about it.

I went right to the chorus and then he wrote the chorus.

So he had a verse and a chorus,

went to go fishing.

He went fishing, you know.

- [Voiceover] Although Saturday Night Special

developed quickly the rehearsals also highlighted

the limitations of drummer Bob Burns who was struggling

to recover from the heavy touring during the first half

of the year.

Although Ronnie Van Zant started looking for a temporary

replacement, Burns himself sensed that his time with Skynyrd

was coming to an end.

- I just got so burned out.

What they were asking for I just

had had so much of it

and for so long

I just told them to get another drummer.

You see the way I'm playing

and I developed some pretty serious illnesses

to keep me where I couldn't play correctly.

- We tried to rehearse Saturday Night Special with him,

but it just wasn't right.

Leon and I went to Atlanta and auditioned Artimus Pyle

who was a good friend of the Marshall Tucker boys.

Al Kooper dropped by and said, "You know that song

"you guys worked up, Saturday Night Special,

"why don't you work that up with Artimus

"because it's gonna be in this movie, The Longest Yard."

So we started working up with Artimus

and Al liked what he heard and he said,

"Go over to Studio one and record it."

So we did.

- [Voiceover] Artimus Pyle who had previously worked

with Charlie Daniels proved a perfect replacement for Burns.

♪ For 20 dollars you can buy yourself one too ♪

- Well, he was very good.

I thought he was better than Bob.

It was a good thing for the band,

musically it was really a good thing for the band.

- Ronnie called me after talking to Charlie

and after talking to the Caldwell brothers

Toy and Tommy, I think Charlie said something

to the effect of, "I know a guy that's crazy enough

"to be in your band, Ronnie.

"He's as crazy or crazier than all of you."

To be the drummer of Skynyrd you have to be a little crazy.

Ed knew that Bob had to take a break

and they needed somebody, so I was

Mister Somebody and I was thrilled.

- [Voiceover] During this break in their touring schedule

Van Zant also actively sought to severe the band's ties

with Alan Walden and another option was interested

and available.

British manager Peter Rutch who had been overseeing

The Who's affairs since 1971 was over awed

by Skynyrd shows opening the Quadrophenia tour

and had let Van Zant know that if the nature of the band's

relationship changed with Walden he'd

happily take his place.

- It was heart-breaking to me, but at the same time

it was like a big old concrete block falling off

of my shoulders.

- I don't think Ronnie trusted Alan.

Didn't think for where the band was headed

that Alan was the right guy.

Needed somebody bigger.

I and I think Peter Rutch, you know not many people

could get to Ronnie as far as making an impression

on him because Ronnie could suss you out pretty quick.

I mean real, real fast.

He was very, very bright, but Peter Rutch I think

put one over on him.

Not that Peter Rutch was deceptive or anything

except Ronnie was overwhelmed by Peter's accent

his demeanor, just Peter was the guy.

Of course, Peter managed The Who, and Tanya Tucker,

and The Stones, so why wouldn't he be, you know.

- [Voiceover] Rutch took over shortly before Skynyrd

was due to head to Europe for their first non-domestic

tour to capitalize on their surging popularity overseas.

The issue of a drummer now became pressing

as they still hadn't formerly invited Artimus Pyle

to take on the roll full time.

And a flagging Bob Burns was reluctantly taken along

for the show.

It would prove to be the end of his journey with the band.

- They were kind of phasing Bob out, but they had to go do

a European tour and there wasn't time to teach me the

entire set, so for a little short time,

just maybe two weeks we were on the road

and Bob and I played together, one little tour.

And then they went to Paris and Bob had a nervous

breakdown.

- I don't think it was drugs.

I don't think it was drugs.

I think Bob was under a lot of pressure.

There was times on stage where he would lose his place

in songs and none of us got on Bob that much,

but Ronnie sure did.

I mean if you messed up, Ronnie would get on you real bad.

In Europe one night, one morning, early morning

we had a bus ride and Ronnie got on Bob's case

about the night before, just really, really, bad

and Bob lost it.

♪ Oh, 9000 dollars, that's all we could win ♪

♪ But we smiled at the Yankee Slicker ♪

♪ With a big ol' Southern grin ♪

♪ They're gonna take me out to California gonna ♪

♪ Make me a superstar ♪

♪ Just pay me all of my money ♪

♪ And mister maybe you won't get a scar ♪

♪ Should have signed the contract ♪

♪ Should have signed today ♪

♪ Gonna give you lots of money ♪

♪ Workin' for MCA ♪

- It was a good tour.

We played some damn good music.

I kept a diary of it.

I got road fatigue, you know.

I wasn't eating right.

I wasn't sleeping right.

I was down to skin and bones.

I wasn't eating.

All the perverted sex, you know,

I didn't think it was perverted back then,

later on in my older life I can see, wow, man.

My mind just blew a 50 amp fuse.

I pushed so hard.

I pushed harder than a man should ever push himself.

I snapped a 50 amp fuse.

Had to go in the hospital.

- It was sad.

It was really sad.

I think it just because the band was just overworked.

We were under Peter's direction at the time

and we hadn't really had much of a break that whole year.

What happened with Bob in England, I could go into detail,

but I'd really rather not.

He just had a breakdown of all breakdowns.

it was quite visible to everyone.

It was so bad the hotel guy kicked us out.

Wouldn't let us come back.

Actually he threw the house cat out the window

and killed him from five stories above

and it got worse after that.

Yeah, it was sad.

It didn't have to happen.

Bob had grown up with these guys.

I think if we just handled our tours better.

Nobody who managed the band really saw

any longevity, of course how could you back then?

It was just good, go for all the money you can right now.

- [Voiceover] The relentless nature of the Skynyrd schedule

continued directly for all the tour.

Returning to the US in late December 1975

by January 6th the were booked into WEBB IV studios

in Atlanta to record a new album.

Artimus Pyle had now been drafted in

as a replacement for Bob Burns and Al Kooper

was once again present as a producer

despite MCA having recently bought out his

Sounds Of The South deal with the band.

Yet, his circumstances were totally foreign

to all involved.

With no time to compose new material during the

previous year Skynyrd had 21 days to both write

and record the album.

- We were putting out a new album, new material

every nine months.

Bands don't do that today.

It might take two or three years, you know?

But they wanted new product every nine months

which I thought was just way too much.

Nuthin' Fancy was written and recorded in the studio.

Up until this time everything was written at Hell House,

thoroughly rehearsed, maybe played once or twice

in front of people, then taken in the studio.

- We had a month.

We were in Atlanta.

I said, "I'm gonna go to New York

"for two weeks,

"and I'm gonna party my brains out.

"This is your time to do what you normally do,

"but you only have two weeks to do it."

I came back and it was what I thought it would be

which is it was almost done.

This was a very tense making of a record.

There was no fun involved for me what-so-ever.

- Things changed with our relationship with Al.

It was really out of control.

There was times at the studio when other band

members would bring all their friends by.

All these people coming and going

and lots of drugs, beer which we never had

at Hell House.

At Hell House it was all business.

Nuthin' Fancy was just difficult

and Al was totally fed up and understandably so.

It was really hard for him because they were really

everybody was really putting it in his face.

He was a Yankee and it really got tough for Al.

- [Voiceover] With no one satisfied with the situation

the music itself suffered.

Yet, the hectic schedule that had been

imposed on the band was apparently inflexible.

It not only proved detrimental to the album itself

but also spelled the end of Skynyrd's creative

partnership with Kooper.

- The last song on the record Ronnie has a head cold

that's so bad, you can just tell.

There are sections on it that needed to be redone

maybe expanded.

It was just unfinished record.

But yet the minute it was over, the rest of the band

was on a bus going to Detroit to start a tour

the second it was over.

Ronnie and I stayed back to finish the vocal

on Whisky Rock and Roller, then we both took

a plane to Detroit to meet the band

and then the tour just started.

- I remember vividly the last day.

The tour bus was parked outside.

It wasn't like they were gonna go home

and get ready to tour.

The tour bus was there and they were going right out

and they were gonna start touring.

I thought to myself while all this was going on,

"I can't do this again.

"This is torture."

So I said to them, "I would rather be your friend

"than be your producer from now on."

And I think you know, they had had enough of me.

- [Voiceover] Issued in late March in 1975 the album

Nuthin Fancy peaked at number nine on the

Billboard Charts.

The band's first Top-10 album.

Yet, Van Zant himself expressed his dissatisfaction

with the end result.

♪ Cheating woman make you crazy ♪

♪ Cheating woman make you a fool ♪

♪ She'll leave your house or home ♪

♪ Brother, there's nothing that you can do ♪

♪ Well, I can't stand the pain no more ♪

♪ She don't want my love for sure ♪

♪ She don't want poor me ♪

♪ Oh knocking on her front door ♪

- I think it was a more laid back record

than the other two because they felt

comfortable in a way

and they were trying to be even more

of themselves on that record

and also they'd changed as human beings

over the course of the three albums.

♪ I pick cotton down on the Dixie line ♪

♪ I work all day tryin' to make a dime ♪

♪ But that's all right, that's OK by me ♪

♪ 'Cause that's the way that it was meant to be ♪

♪ Big city, hard times never bother me ♪

♪ I'm a country boy, I'm as happy as I can be ♪

- Do we sound like a tired band?

Well, the songs aren't as strong.

Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd and Second Helping

were really strong records, you know they're like,

you know, like bang out of the gate, like big time.

No sophomore jinx with them at all,

so their sophomore jinx kind of came with their next

record although their musicianship as players hadn't

dropped and their ability to play like a great band

hadn't changed, but you know, compositionally

those songs didn't stand the test of time.

- Nuthin' Fancy is a disappointing record

because it didn't have any of the classic songs

that had defined Lynyrd Skynyrd's first two albums.

it still sonically sounds pretty good.

They're introducing some new elements

with mandolin and other stringed instruments

and it has a couple of really solid songs,

Saturday Night Special, Whiskey Rock and Roller

and maybe most poignantly Am I losing

which really seems to be Ronnie reflecting

on the band's state and his own state as they struggle

with success and all the problems that come

with success.

♪ I recall when I used to come home ♪

♪ Never had a dime ♪

♪ Lord, I always had a good time ♪

♪ I recall drinking wine ♪

♪ With one of my friends ♪

♪ Lord, can't go back again ♪

♪ Am I losing ♪

♪ My own way back home ♪

♪ Am I losing ♪

- That's an honest reflection of what happens now.

Where am I now?

Am I losing what made me great,

what made me strong, what made me

who I am?

And I think that in itself is a powerful statement.

- [Voiceover] During the recording of the album

new comer Artimus Pyle was introduced into Skynyrd's

inner sanctum and the following few months

would prove a baptism of fire for the drummer.

If life on the road for the band had proven excessive

from previous tours, under the management

of Pete Rutch their parting increased

and as they moved directly from the studio

to the tour bus following the Nuthin' Fancy

sessions the drink, drugs and punch outs became

a daily phenomenon once more.

- Yes, there were fights,

but I've never been afraid of a fight.

I can take a punch.

I just immediately integrated into what I was doing

in their world, you know.

Which was a tour bus, an airplane, a stage,

a tour bus, an airplane, a stage, you know,

just a hotel room, hotel room, tour bus, airplane,

stage, studio, studio, you know, just those five

things in a row all the time for three years.

Back in those days I enjoyed smoking weed,

but the guys they were hard on themselves.

You can't burn the candle at both ends,

and expect to have your energy up all the time.

I don't see how they functioned.

Backstage at our concert it looked like an ABC store.

There were cases of scotch, and cases of vodka,

and Jack Daniels, and cases of beer.

The promoter you know, the promoter always trying

to make the band feel really good

and I never understood that.

They brought all this you know cartons and cartons

of cigarettes and the guys would my boys thought

that at every show we played these big arenas,

stadiums ,all that stuff that was backstage they were

supposed to smoke and drink all of it then.

- [Voiceover] Ronnie Van Zant in particular was struggling

to control his intake which had a disturbing effect

on his temperament.

Never one to back down from conflict alcohol

not only fueled an inner rage, but let him intimidate

and often physically abused his own band mates.

- Ronnie was a maniac that whole tour, just a maniac,

night after night something traumatic would happen.

One time in Lake Charles, Louisiana, Ronnie had vowed

well, he had vowed two weeks before that

to stop drinking and he did,

It was really he was a lot better.

I think he was miserable but towards the second week

he got better, but something snapped in Lake Charles

two weeks later where he just went crazy,

and he gathered everybody in the room.

He ripped off his shirt.

He grabbed a lamp on the nightstand and broke it

against the night stand all this jagged glass hanging

and he slammed me up against the wall held it right

to my neck and he said, "I don't want you to say

"a fucking word."

"Okay, no problem."

I can't remember really what his gripe was.

"Y'all are stealing from me."

That was one thing .

I can't it was just unjustified it was stupid.

- [Voiceover] As this run of 61 shows aptly named

the torture tour continued across America

the camaraderie between the band members quickly

began to break down exacerbated by Van Zant's routinely

drunken and abusive behavior.

Struggling with both of volatile atmosphere and his own

substance abuse issues Ed King decided midway through the

tour that it was time to take his exit from the world

of Skynyrd.

- Things started to fall apart around the middle of May.

There were decisions just being made that everybody

disagreed with and I didn't think it would hurt to take a

month off and go rest and maybe write some more

and get back in our little groove that we had

and I know people will disagree and say this is a lie,

but it's the absolute truth because I have no reason

to lie, but Ronnie said to me in front of everybody,

"Look man I've had it with all this bickering back

"and forth management and all this and I just want

"to focus on what I do.

" I'll let you you make the decisions.

"Just check it with me, but you deal with them, you know."

So I did.

I told Peter Rutch I said, " I wanna cut this tour

"and go home and rest take at least maybe two weeks off,

"and maybe 2 weeks writing and then resume it."

Well that was around the middle of May

and by the 26th of May I was out of the band.

The only thing I can surmise is that sometime

between then and the 26th of May somebody got

together with Ronnie and said, "You know, you can't

"do this, you can't just stop a tour"

Then the pressure started coming down on me

to move me out and rather than move me out I

just decided, "Well, this isn't worth it.

"I'm just going to leave."

- One night during the making of Nuthin' Fancy I was

living in a hotel separate from wherever they were living.

Ed came over one night and he was complaining to me

about how much money he had spent the last year

on serious drugs

and that he didn't know how much

longer he could stay in the band,

so I wasn't totally surprised

by that and if that's why he left

I was glad he left.

- I had my share of drugs, oh yeah,

and I'd had enough, too, yeah.

I'm not saying I was perfect by no means you know,

but I know when I left the band I knew the band wasn't going

to end well.

I had no idea it would end like it did,

but it wasn't going to end well and I really didn't want

to be a part of it after that because my creativity

at that point was shot, really there's just so much friction

and everybody needed some rest.

People don't come to your hotel room crying and saying

they need a break if they are just kidding, you know.

I mean it was some mental stuff going on.

- [Voiceover] Now a man down

in July they rode back to Florida,

to close the tour at the Jacksonville Coliseum.

Despite the tensions within the group,

the hotels damaged and the various run-ins

with the police for their audiences had for most part

seen no knock on effect for the show themselves.

Yet, back in their own stomping grounds

things finally fell apart.

End of the '75 torture tour, the hometown boys came home.

Big deal, right?

We get into town and a guy named Sidney Drashin

he's the promoter, he brings a big fat bag

of pure cocaine.

Well everybody gets into it.

Charlie Daniels open the show then we came out

and played like four songs

and Ronnie collapsed.

Charlie Daniels came out and jammed with us,

tried to kind of save the day,

but it just wasn't enough for the crowd

because we didn't do the whole set.

The crowd was like carnivores you know,

(growls)

They wanted that music

and we couldn't deliver that night.

Even doing Free Bird when we went to the fast part

I will never forget leaving the stage and looking back

and seeing glass bottles bouncing off my drums.

- The amazing thing is how little Peter Rutch cared.

He's doing tons of cocaine himself.

This is no secret.

And he's encouraging all this coke use.

Looking back I can't even fathom it.

Alan Walden would have never done that.

He never would have met them at an airport

with coke for them to do or take on a plane.

They were kicked off planes.

They were refused flights because when they would

get drunk and stoned on a plane it would be a physical

threat to the plane going down, ironically.

Ronnie, so the story goes tried to throw a groupie

out of a plane at 35,000 feet,

Tried to open the back, the door and throw

a guy out.

These are guys in big, big trouble.

Making great music, but in big trouble

and nobody cared.

- [Voiceover] Following a much needed Summer break

the band returned for further shows in August '75

including a number of dates supporting Peter Frampton.

At the same time with only nine months past since

they had completed Nuthin' Fancy plans were already

under way for Skynyrd to return to the studio

to begin work on a fourth album.

Without Al Kooper to oversee the recordings Peter Rutch

arranged for Van Zant and his bandmates to meet with

legendary producer Tom Dowd who had begun his career

in jazz before moving into soul and then rock.

Operating out of Criteria Studios in Miami, Dowd

seemed an obvious choice having been the producer

behind The Allman Brothers Band's break-through albums.

In September 300 miles South of their home town,

SKynyrd began recording Gimme Back My Bullets.

- They liked Dowd.

How do you not like a guy with that kind of record?

He's tremendous, pivotal figure in the music industry.

The whole thing with Tom Dowd was sort of a master plan

to get Skynyrd to go to Atlantic Records.

It was a whole thing.

We're gonna move off MCA, you know.

We're sick and tired of these guys.

We're not getting paid enough.

It was sort of a plan where it was going to be

an incremental thing.

The skins would be greased by having Tom Dowd

do their album and they they would just make a break

completely.

- They respected Tom as like a Father figure.

Al Kooper was like one of the bros, you know?

Al should have been put out on a little bit

of a pedestal.

Al should have be given a little bit more respect.

Tom Dowd, they called him Father Dowd.

Tom liked to rehearse parts and go over things.

He was meticulous and had good ideas.

And yes, Ed was missed.

I missed Ed.

And Ronnie missed that guy that he wrote songs with,

but the sessions were better on Gimme Back My Bullets

because we were a little more prepared.

Some songs had been written on the road

and on break.

There was some material that had been looked at.

- [Voiceover] Completed in November 1975

Gimme Back My Bullets was rushed released

and out in stores the following February.

Yet, there were signs that Skynyrd were losing

their wider appeal.

Although it was the first of their albums to chart

in the UK, where they were steadily amassing

a significant fan base.

In the US it sold disappointingly.

It's lead single Double Trouble peaking at number 80

on the Billboard Chart.

Without Ed King's input as a song writer

or Al Kooper's slick production, for many

it was a sign that the band were in a creative rut.

- The thing that I really contributed to those records

was capturing the sound of the band

and using the studio

to enhance it even further

than it was and the best way to judge that

is I did the first three albums

and is to listen to the fourth album

because it's devoid of anything that I did

which surprised me.

It just made them sound like an average band

which they weren't and I was disappointed.

I remember getting the actual LP

and I didn't know how I was going to feel

about it.

I took it out and put it on the turntable

and as I was putting the needle down I said,

"Knock me on my ass, please."

So then I knew.

I wanted it to be good.

I was very disappointed

and I felt bad for them.

♪ Life is so strange when it's changing, yes in deed ♪

♪ Well, I've seen the hard times ♪

♪ And the pressure's been on me ♪

♪ But I keep on workin' ♪

♪ Like a workin' man do ♪

♪ And I got my act together ♪

♪ I'm gonna walk all over you ♪

♪ Gimme back my bullets ♪

♪ Put em back where they belong ♪

♪ Ain't foolin' around cause I done had my fun ♪

♪ Ain't gonna see no more damage done. ♪

♪ Gimme back my bullets ♪

- Al Kooper had a certain style

and the early recordings of the band

he had full control of that freshness.

When Tom came along we were looking

for some help and I don't think Tom was able

to capture that sound.

It was nobody's fault,

but the facts were that the band

was very popular,

expected to come out with some more material.

Tom Dowd was the magic man, Aretha Franklin,

Live Cream, Derrick and the Dominos,

The Allman Brothers, he had a track record,

so Ronnie liked that.

But capturing the magic from Pronounced,

that boat had left, you know had sailed,

that Pronounced boat.

You can't get that magic,

but Tom in his own way emphasized

the words and Ronnie Van Zant and made sure

that those vocals were out there.

And that's what the band was about.

♪ Those misters dressed in blue ♪

♪ Never done so right by me ♪

♪ Some of the times I was innocent ♪

♪ but the judge said guilty ♪

♪ I'm not one to complain ♪

♪ Now son I tell you true ♪

♪ When the black cat cross your trail ♪

♪ Lord they come in pairs of two ♪

♪ Double Trouble ♪

♪ That's what my friends all call me ♪

♪ Double, double ♪

♪ T-R-O-U-B-L-E ♪

- I think that Tom Dowd was probably a logical person

to work with because he was clearly a great producer.

He had the history with The Allman Brothers

as well as with Cream who are very profound

influence on Lynyrd Skynyrd,

so I'm sure it all made sense.

I'm sure that Tom worked his very hardest

to get something out of them.

I think the biggest issue with that album

was that the material just wasn't there.

They really didn't have the songs.

The loss of Ed King almost certainly had

a volatarious impact on Lynyrd Skynyrd song writing.

Their song writing suffered.

Their creativity suffered and at that point

it seemed like a fairly reasonable bet

to think that Lynyrd Skynyrd was petering out

and was not going to be a creative or commercial

force for much longer.

- [Voiceover] Yet, Gimme Back My Bullets would be divisive

with some critics and fans viewing it as an overlooked gem

in Skynyrd's cannon.

- I think Gimmie Back My Bullets was one of their best

albums, that's just my opinion, always.

Me and Alan always agreed on that.

I loved that album.

Of course none of the rest of them,

it didn't sell well.

Nobody else was really satisfied with it.

I thought it was a great album.

- I feel like this record really did get it's

short's ripped.

Maybe because there isn't a big hit song

on the record.

I think that they are actually getting stronger

as a band when I listen to this record

now, today.

It's very, it's a very self assured record.

The playing is great.

It's a great record.

Probably a better record than even fans

might give it credit for, just because it doesn't have

Free Bird or Sweet Home Alabama or Simple Man

or like one of these tunes,

these block buster tunes.

I think the record actually hasn't gotten it's due.

I think it's a better record than people think.

If a Skynyrd fan was sitting here he go, "I know.

"You don't have to tell me."

- [Voiceover] If Gimme Back my Bullets was commercially

a disappointment, as a live act, Skynyrd was losing none

of it's appeal.

Just before the album's release the band

headed across the Atlantic for another European tour.

Returning to the US in March to embark on a three month

run of shows.

Now a headlining act playing large venues,

Ronnie Van Zant was keen to expand Skynyrd's live sound

and brought female backing singers Leslie Hawkins,

Deborah, Jo Jo Billingsly and Cassie Gains into the fold

who would collectively be know as The Honkettes.

It was a welcome addition to the stage show

and although the widest Southern Rock movement

had by 1976 begun to wain, Lynyrd Skynyrd remained

one of the top live draws in the world.

- We had three beautiful women that sang back-up with us,

The Honkettes, hand-picked by Ronnie Van Zant.

Cassie was like a broadway singer.

She had a broadway voice.

Ooo, you know, really strong.

Leslie Hawkins was our soprano.

She was our song bird.

Jo Jo was the honkey-tonk queen.

She had that rough, baby, baby

and Ronnie liked that.

He liked the fact that the girls were all different.

Their blend was perfect.

He hand-picked them.

♪ Let's cry for the bad man ♪

♪ ooo, ooo, ooo, hoo ♪

♪ I wrote a song for the bad man ♪

♪ Bad man ♪

♪ ooo, ooo, ooo, hoo ♪

♪ Let's cry for the bad man ♪

- Everybody thinks we're a Southern band

well, we are and the crowds in the South

are crazy, but man, when we play in New York City

and up North they love the music.

They were just as big of fans as the people in the South

as well as in UK, just as big of fans

When we went to Japan they treated us like

we were the Beatles, man.

Anywhere we played the reception was always the same,

very exuberant.

- [Voiceover] Lynyrd Skynyrd was strengthened even further

by the introduction of a new guitarist in May1976.

A position that Van Zant had beer considering filling

ever since Ed King's departure.

Upon her arrival in the band, backing vocalist Cassie Gains

had been recommending her younger brother, Steve.

Yet, this suggestion was initially dismissed by the band

because they were looking for a higher profile player.

In May, however, at a show in Kansas City, Van Zant

invited Steve Gains to audition with Skynyrd

at a live concert and following further jams with the band

he proved that he was more than qualified to take

on the roll as third guitarist.

- He got out and played with us in front

of about 80,000 people.

Ronnie asked him that day, you know, to be a part

of the band.

At the time Ed left the band there was everybody

in the band had tremendous drug and alcohol problems

and so I'm not blaming anybody.

It wasn't Ed's fault.

It wasn't Ronnie's fault.

It was just the times.

Steve came at a great time.

Steve's very mellow, laid back intellect came in.

That in itself helped us right the ship.

We were a happy family.

Everybody wanted to be cool for Steve

because he was such a nice guy.

The band didn't want Steve to know

that they were out of their mind drunken maniacs.

That was later.

That came later.

- [Voiceover] Reinvigorated by the introduction

of this young virtuoso in July the band recorded

a live album across three dates at Atlanta's Fox Theater.

After the rushed Nuthin' Fancy and the commercial

disappointment of Gimme Back My Bullets

Skynyrd needed to reestablish their energy on record.

With One More From the Road release September 1976

they succeeded.

Peaking in the Top-10 in the US and going platinum

before the year was out it restored their reputation.

- I remember when it came out.

It sounded phenomenal.

Skynyrd was a live band.

They lived to play live,

and you could tell, that's their thing.

They're musicians.

They're going to thrive on an audience

and ratcheting things up to another level.

Free Bird live is just phenomenal.

It's just everything it should be.

- Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded One More From The Road

in July 1976.

Steve Gains had only been a member of the band

for two months.

As strong as the album is,

as much as it was a great live album

that really reestablished them

and stands the test of time

I believe if it had been recorded two or three

months later it would have been quite a bit better.

Steve Gains was a fantastic guitar player

who had unique ideas, jump started the band

and surely gave a kick in the behind

to Gary Rossington and Allen Collins.

As a musician if you add another person

of that caliber into the mix it has to do that.

It just has to.

It has to change the dynamics and I think what you hear

on this live album is the very beginnings of that happening.

- [Voiceover] This confirmation of the band's status

as one of the greatest live acts in the world

continued in 1976 with a show in front of their biggest

crowd to date.

August 21st almost two months after The Fox Theater concerts

were recorded, Skynyrd travelled to the UK to perform

at the Knebworth festival.

On a bill headlined by a band who had initially inspired

Ronnie Van Zant to persue music in the first place,

The Rolling Stones.

Not only did Skynyrd deliver a momentous set they were

considered the high-lite of the event.

- Everybody that was there said the same thing,

"The Stones were horrible.

"They were barely coherent.

"They could barely stand up."

Skynyrd's set is what turned on the entire crowd

probably 1/2 a million people or whatever,

200,000, 300,000.

- It was 100% cool.

The Mirror said that we possessed the energy of the day

because of the energy of our set.

The Stone came out two hours late and drunk.

I actually made a statement that we blew

The Stones off the stage.

Nobody blows The Stones off the stage, of course.

I felt like we gave it a nice try

as far as going out

and doing our show and our set and just standing

on the music alone.

I think standing on the music alone, we held our own.

- We're on stage in front of 1/2 a million people

and Steve Gains is taking a solo

and you can see Ronnie back up to him

on this humongous stage and you can see his smile.

You can see that he's thinking to himself,

"Man, am I a smart guy, man for bringing this Steve Gains

"dude into the band."

Because Steve's just shredding on this solo

and Ronnie's got this beautiful smile on his face.

(guitar music solo)

And Ronnie, you can just see that moment

that he just looks at Steve and to me

that just says it all.

Steve Gains made a huge difference in the band.

- [Voiceover] Although they were apparently riding high

again reenergized by Gains and back in the charts

with One More From The Road the band members

drink and drug problems were too far advanced

for each of them to properly control.

In September '76 both Allen Collins and Gary Rossington

were involved in road accidents caused by their substance

abuse issues.

Rossington's injuries in particular causing six concerts

to be cancelled.

At this point Van Zant acknowledged that they needed

to change their ways.

Pening the song That Smell and turning to his

old friend Gene Odom to step in and curb their

excesses.

- He says, "I want you to stay with me and be my bodyguard.

"Take care of us.

"Get us off of the booze and alcohol, do that first

"and then the drugs will be next."

He said, "I want you to straighten this band up.

"I want you to get us off of all this crap.

"And you're the only person that can do it because

"you're the only person that'll never do drugs

"or never smoke, or never drink."

And he was determined to get them off of it.

And you can do a sociable drink or you can be an alcoholic.

He said, "We want to get away from this.

"And you're the only person that can do that for us.

"Management can't, nobody can do this,

"but somebody like you that's never going

"to hand us something and say, hey."

I would have got them off of it.

I would have got them off of it to the point

that they didn't have to live with it.

They might do it for a sociable thing,

but they didn't have to bury their head in it.

And he wanted that.

- [Voiceover] 1977 started well.

Skynyrd heading off the successful tours first in Japan

and then in the UK before returning to Jacksonville

in February to work up fresh material.

Having recorded demos of these new compositions

at a local studio, in April the band transferred

to Criteria Studios in Miami to work once again

with producer Tom Dowd.

Yet, after cutting the majority of the album there

they were alerted by their live sound engineer

Kevin Elson to the poor quality of the recording.

Skynyrd abandoned both Tom Dowd and the studio.

- The stuff was sounding like crap.

It was thin and weak.

We needed to go home back to Studio One

where Sweet Home Alabama was recorded,

Saturday Night Special.

Go back where we could get that good sound,

so we trashed about $70,000 worth of material

that we had recorded at Criteria in Florida.

We just threw it in the garbage can.

- [Voiceover] Skynyrd would have to wait until July 1977

to re-record the album.

Their schedule once again demanding that they return

to the road for two months of US shows.

When they finally did reconvene first at Studio One

in Doraville and later at Muscle Shoals working once again

with Jimmy Johnson.

Ronnie Van Zant himself oversaw the album's completion.

The band's radical decision to abandon the original

recordings and start again from scratch paid dividends

however.

Released in October 1977 Street Survivor sproved

a phenomenal return to form.

Steve Gains not only injecting the proceedings

with new vitality but also contributing

as both a songwriter and lead singer on one track.

It would however sadly be the only studio album

of Skynyrd's to which he was able to contribute.

- Street Survivors is an extremely strong album.

I think it's clearly their best album since Second Helping.

The band sounds completely revitalized

by Steve Gains whose playing is all over the album,

but in addition, Ronnie Van Zant has written his

best batch of songs since the beginning

perhaps inspired by Steve's presence.

The fact that there was a torture history to the

recording of the album, that it was recorded once

and put aside is a fascinating foot note

because it doesn't sound anything like that.

It sounds easy and natural and hard driving

and heart swinging.

They had those songs under their thumbs.

They don't sound like new songs.

They don't sound tentative in the least

and it's an extremely strong album.

It's probably the Lynyrd Skynyrd album that I listen

to the most.

♪ Whiskey bottles and brand new cars ♪

♪ Oak tree you're in my way ♪

♪ There's too much coke ♪

♪ And too much smoke ♪

♪ Look what's going on inside you ♪

♪ Ooo ooo that smell ♪

♪ Can't you smell that smell ♪

♪ Ooo ooo that smell ♪

♪ The smell of death surrounds you ♪

- That smell is an eery song listened to

with the knowledge of what was soon to come.

And it shows that Ronnie Van Zant, similar to Am I losing

was aware of the dangerous terrain that the band was

walking on and he understood that they were surrounded

by a certain amount of doom and gloom and foreboding

and that things had to change or they wouldn't last long.

♪ Now they call you prince charming ♪

♪ Can't speak a work when you're full of ludes ♪

♪ Say, you'll be all right come tomorrow ♪

♪ But tomorrow might not be here for you ♪

♪ Yeah, you ♪

- He has a statement to make about Rossington

because you know, he had to go see Rossington

in the hospital a few times.

Rossington almost died from a car accident,

one of his 8 million car accidents.

He was afraid it was going to ruin the band.

This was Ronnie's statement that this is not

going to continue.

I know I'm a hypocrite for saying this.

I'm including myself here in these lyrics.

I'm singing to myself in a way here

but I'm telling you prince charming

that you are not going to be able to continue

to do this.

♪ It's 8 o'clock in Boise, Idaho ♪

♪ I find my limo driver ♪

♪ Mister take me to the show ♪

♪ I done made plans for later on tonight ♪

♪ I found a little queenie ♪

♪ I know I can treat her right ♪

♪ What's your name little girl ♪

♪ What's your name ♪

♪ Shouldn't stay little girl ♪

♪ Cause there ain't no shame ♪

- I was really proud of that album.

From Nuthin' Fancy,

it was yeah, I don't like it.

Gimme Back My Bullets, you know,

Street Survivors, to me was an indication

of what we were going to do.

Street Survivors with Steve and Ronnie

and the band with the new spirit

and Steve is just a great guitar player, incredible.

Ronnie got our feet back on the ground

with Street Survivors and the success of the live

album and everything.

We had two winners and I think the next album

would have been amazing and I think that

Ed King would have been asked to come back

and write a song or play with us, perform with us.

And Bob, on double drums.

That's the vision that I had.

That I thought things would just would come around.

And then we had the plane crash

and Ronnie was killed and that's pretty definitive,

you know?

That's it.

- [Voiceover] Days before the release of Street Survivors

Skynyrd had embarked on a major headline tour

and for this ambitious run of shows, manager Peter Rutch

leased a private plane to transport the band and their crew.

Eager to save on costs, however, the model he picked out

for the crew had seen better days.

And although it had safely delivered them to their first

four dates the journey to the bands final ever show

together in Greenville, South Carolina, had revealed

just how unsafe their method of transport was.

Yet, just before 4 a.m. on the morning after the show

they reluctantly boarded the plane one final time

heading to Baton Rouge.

They would never make that destination.

- We'd shot a flame out of one of the engines

coming in to Greenville and that's why we called

our mechanic out of Dallas, Texas, and they were

gonna meet us in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and fix the plane.

But we shouldn't have tried to make it

from Greenville to Baton Rouge.

That was the mistake.

The plane had problems, obviously

and we took off.

And the rest is history.

We flew into the history books.

(chokes up) Excuse me.

(grinding metal)

- After we got on the plane and we got airborne

Ronnie gets up down to me because

they were hollering for me to come back

and play poker and I had run up to the cockpit

and I was hearing that in the engine and I was

communicating with the pilot about that damn engine.

Ronnie gets up and says, "Man, I took two sleeping pills

"because I was up all night long Gene."

And I said, "Yeah, I heard."

And he says, "I gotta get some sleep."

- We started running out of fuel.

I went to the cockpit.

I played stewardess.

I told everybody to put out their cigarettes.

Conserve power, turn off lights, everything

and get pillows and prepare for impact.

I'm a pilot, so I played stewardess

and I went back to the cockpit

and the pilot and co-pilot, Walter McCreary and John Gray

they said, "You better go back and strap yourself in."

And they looked at me and I could see they had fear

in their eyes.

- Artimus went back to his seat and I grabbed Ronnie

up off of the floor.

I snatched him up and shoved him between Allen and Gary,

but I said, "Man, the plane's crashing."

He said, "Don't be messing, Gene, I got

"to get some sleep, man.

"Don't be messing with me, man I gotta get some sleep."

I said, "The plane's crashing."

And I strapped him in.

He said, "Man, don't be messing with me."

I think he might have unsnapped it before,

I know he did, actually.

And I said, "Man, the plane's crashing.

"I'm not messing with you.

"Put your head down."

And I actually slapped him.

I said, "Man, put your head down.

"It's mostly trees."

- Suddenly we came out of the clouds the low ceiling.

We were right on the tree tops

and I heard one guy go, "Trees."

Clayton Johnson, he worked for Bill Graham

and he goes, "Trees."

And then I could feel the trees brush against

the belly of the plane, the fuselage.

And the pilot and co-pilot the last mistake

they made was to put the landing gear down.

And we almost cleared the trees.

There was a field in front of us.

We'd almost cleared those trees,

but they put their landing gear down.

Landing gear caught the tops of the trees,

tripped us into a 45 degree angle.

We cut through the woods.

I watched the right wing come off.

Just unbelievable crunch, impact, collision

with the earth.

And then it stopped and it was quiet.

- I was in Los Angeles.

I saw it on the TV and I stayed up all night

watching it.

They didn't say who perrished

until the morning,

until the sun was up

and that's why I kept watching.

I wanted to know.

I wanted to know that

like as soon as possible.

- There sitting against a tree is a piece

of an airplane wing torn away

from the rest of the airplane.

Lying down there at the base of the tree

is the engine and that back there,

that twisted metal back there

is the fuselage of the plane.

- I was at my Mother's and Father's house

They almost knocked the door down.

People crying.

They told me what happened and I lost it.

I said "Oh, God who have we lost?"

It killed me, man.

It killed me.

Killed me.

- [Voiceover] As the surviving band members

and their crew were taken to various hospitals

in the vicinity it soon emerged that Skynyrd's latest

recruit, Steve Gains, his sister Cassie and the band's

assistant Dean Kilpatrick who had been working

with them since 1969 had all been killed on impact.

So too had Ronnie Van Zant.

Although the public would become aware

of these details within days of the crash

for the survivors it took longer for them

to discover the tragic fate of their comrades.

- We went to five different hospitals,

so the doctor came in to my room

and he said, "Artimus, I hear you've been asking

"who made it."

And I said, "Yeah."

And he said, "Are you ready?"

I said, "Yeah."

And he said, "Ronnie, Ronnie Van Zant was killed."

And I said, "I know, I knew that."

And then when he said Steve and Cassie

you know, that really hit me.

That hit hard.

- I didn't hear anything until I got out of the hospital

a month later.

They didn't tell me Ronnie died or anything.

I was going, when I got out, I said, ""Kept me,

"let's go see Ronnie, go visit Ronnie, come on."

So he started driving me to Orange Park

and he pulled into the cemetery and I said,

"What the hell are y'all doing?"

And they said, "Taking you to visit Ronnie,

"he didn't make it."

And that was horrible.

That's when I realized he didn't make it

because they didn't tell me.

I guess they didn't want me to know

because my health was so banged up,

you know.

But it was a month later that I knew that he had died.

And whoever else, I didn't know.

I though everybody was fine.

- [Voiceover] The surviving members of Lynyrd Skynyrd

jointly decided to dissolve the band in the wake

of the tragedy.

And for a decade pursued various musical projects,

together and apart.

In 1987 however, they reunited to perform

a one off tribute tour 10 years after the fateful

accident bringing together former members

Gary Rossington, Billy Powell, Leon Wilkeson,

Artimus Pyle and Ed King alongside Ronnie VanZant's

younger brother Johnny on vocals and musical

director Allen Collins who was unable to play

with the band on stage having been left

permanently paralyzed by a car accident

the previous year.

So successful was this tour that the reconstituted

Skynyrd decided to remain together.

Although this has proven controversial

they have endured to the present day.

Albeit not with only one original member

guitarist Gary Rossington.

Yet despite releasing new material

and drawing large crowds to their shows

they have been dismissed by many as simply

a tribute band.

Ronnie Van Zant proving irreplaceable

even by his own brother.

- They suck.

Ithink they're awful.

I take a great interest in how bad they are.

I take a great interest in their Yahoo, right wing,

Fox News bullshit.

Lynyrd Skynyrd died with Ronnie Van Zant period

Is it possible for a reunion band with somebody

doing a Ronnie Van Zant imitation singing his songs

do a decent concert?

I suppose.

I'd rather listen to the records.

- They could never regroup that success without him.

He was the key factor to that band.

He wrote all the songs.

It'd take the authorship away

and it's something else entirely.

But you can make a lot of money.

And that's what they do.

♪ I like a little bit of homegrown ♪

♪ She gets me stoned ♪

♪ Oh in her short dress - yeah I'm a mess ♪

♪ I like to get her all alone ♪

♪ She really turns me on ♪

♪ Yeah in her barefeet - sippin' sweet tea ♪

♪ A little Homegrown ♪

♪ A little Homegrown ♪

- They are acutely aware of what kind

of dedicated fans they have.

They're very thankful for it

and don't from what I can see

they don't take it for granted one bit.

And when I've seen them in recent times

they go out there and want to give people

the best possible show.

We are gonna come out here and we are gonna rock

the crap out of this place.

And they do.

They do the whole thing.

They do the steps,

They all get together and they do the guitar moves

and they do the whole show and they are more than happy

to deliver that to the fans.

They want to put on a great show every night.

It's really important to them.

- [Voiceover] Despite the polarized opinion regarding

the second incarnation of the band and the various

private and public disputes that have since occured

among the survivors of the '77 crash.

The legacy of the first era of Lynyrd Skynyrd has remained

untarnished and although a wholly accurate account

of their years together for the mid '60s until the late '70s

will now never emerge due to the conflicting testimonies

of those who lived through it.

The music the band produced continues to find new listeners

and inspire a new generation of musicians and their departed

driving force, Ronnie Van Zant remains a remarkably singular

talent in the history of rock music.

His rugged no nonsense appeal still influential nearly

40 years after his tragic death.

- Ronnie Van Zant was a very unique front man.

He was incredibly dynamic without doing too much.

He basically walked around usually without shoes on.

Held his microphone in the air.

He was a commanding presence.

That element of being a lead singer and front man

is hard for anyone to copy and emulate

because it had to come from within.

I think as a singer Ronnie Van Zant has been

very influential especially on country artists

Country music has become more and more rocked up

and what we would have thought of in the mid '70s

as country-tinged rock has become rock-tinged

country and I think Ronnie Van Zant's influence

on Eric Church, Jason Alldeen and a whole generation

really of country singers is profound both vocally,

musically and in terms of stage presence and swagger.

- When music is new and it's fresh and you capture that

on record it's always gonna sound new and fresh.

Forever it will and it will probably be like the cliche

about fine wine, it gets better over time.

If it wasn't great music we wouldn't be talking about it.

They found a way to be a distinctive band

that has great music that people are gonna remember

those great songs forever.

- I don't think they'll ever be another

like Ronnie Van Zant in my opinion.

Man, everything that comes out of his mouth is meaningful.

You could tell he was telling about his life.

Everybody asks me what was Ronnie, what was he like?

I say, "You just take any six songs that Ronnie's written

"any six, you pick them, any six, that's him.

"That's his story."

(slow guitar music)