Information about Lynyrd Skynyrd

Lynyrd Skynyrd is a Southern rock band in the United States. This band was originally known as “My Backyard” and was formed in Florida in 1964 by a group of friends Collins, Van Zant, Burns, Larry Junstrom and Cary Rossington who were then just teenagers. In their early years they were influenced by bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds and Free.

This group reached prominence in the 1970s when they were under the leadership of primary songwriter and vocalist Ronnie Van Zant. Unfortunately tragedy struck this band when Van Zant, Cassie Gaines (backup singer) and Steve Gaines (guitarist) were killed in a 1977 plane crash in Mississippi.

The band then changed its name to Lynyrd Skynyrd. They got this idea from the name of a gym teacher Leonard Skinner. Previously they were under different names like “One Percent”, “Noble Five” and “Leonard Skinnerd” before they changed the spelling to Lynyrd Skynryd in 1973.

A distinctive feature was their triple lead guitar sound which made their songs such as “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Free Bird” as some of the top songs on FM radio. They were a Blue-rock sounding and hard driving band. Their peak years were 1973 to 1977. The band’s breakthrough hit was the album “Second Helping” which featured the most popular song “Sweet Home Alabama”. It reached No.12 in 1974 and then going on to multi-platinum.

The airplane tragedy in1977 caused Lynyrd Skynyrd to be disbanded. But between 1980 and 1982 Collins and Rossington formed the band “The Rossington-Collins Band” during which time they released two albums.

It was in 1987 that Lynard Skynard reunited for a tour with the crash survivors Billy Powell, Artimus Pyle, Gary Rossington, Leon Wilkeson and Ed King (former guitarist). Johnny, Van Zant’s youner brother took over as the lead singer. There have been many changes to the band since then due to the death of Collins and Wilkeson. But the reunited band still performs to this day.