Why Listening To Lynyrd Skynyrd Twists My Innyrds
Coming to grips with appreciating a band associated with a symbol of American hate
It’s Memorial Day 2021 and I’m in my office writing about Lynyrd Skynyrd.
This conundrum is at the very root of my incredibly mixed emotions about this band in the present tense. As I sit here on the cusp of 48, I was raised during a time when the Confederate Flag was handled with kid gloves in American pop culture. I mean, who didn’t think the General Lee was the coolest fucking car on earth when The Dukes of Hazzard was riding high in the Neilsen Ratings? I had those toys, for sure. And as a pro wrestling fan, seeing The Fabulous Freebirds with their faces adorned with warpaint in the likeness of the Stars and Bars when they faced The Road Warriors in 1985 was just so badass.
Press play to hear a narrated version of this story, presented by AudioHopper.
However, it took an episode of The Golden Girls spinoff The Golden Palace to show me just how much that flag still brought so much pain to my friends and family members of color. In the episode, Don Cheadle’s character reminds Rue McClanahan’s Blanche of the sordid history of the Confederate flag when she tried to hang it up for a party.
“This flag, Mrs. Devereaux, is not about college football games or quilting bees or fried chicken on Sunday. It’s about colleges that won’t let me in,” Cheadle explains in the episode. “It’s about companies that won’t hire me. It is about crosses being burnt front lawns today – not an evil past, Blanche, today. And not just in the South, all over. The North is just as bad…I’ve battled that flag all my life.”
VIDEO: The Golden Palace, Season 1 Episode 11 (1992)
Almost 28 years after that episode aired, we saw a mob of angry (and predominantly white) men and women storm the United States Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, in a failed effort to overturn the U.S. presidential election. Many people were brandishing Confederate flags during the riot. The image of one of the insurrectionists parading around the punchbowl with a giant stars and bars was something we never thought we’d ever see in our lifetimes. It was like one last gob of spit from the ghostly, fetid maw of Robert E. Lee raining down on American decency.
For the majority of their career as a band, the Confederate Flag has also served as the main symbol for Skynyrd, who utilized the imagery as part of their Southern bad boy image. Nothing the band ever said or did directly smacked of racism. And indeed their music was omnipresent within earshot of anyone with their local classic rock station on the radio dial, which garnered them a fanbase that existed beyond the color lines. Perhaps the most Ronnie Van Zant ever revealed about his political beliefs occurred on “Sweet Home Alabama,” when he admitted his indifference towards Watergate.
I stopped listening to Skynyrd’s music for the most part these days, mainly because when it comes to Southern Rock I would much rather listen to the Allman Brothers Band or The Kentucky Headhunters, to be quite honest. But also because I’m not 100 percent comfortable repping this band in 2021. Therein lies the dilemma.
I got this new live album from Skynyrd that was sent to me in the mail. Its a CD/Blu-ray collection containing the band’s legendary performance at the Knebworth Music Festival on August 21, 1976 while they were on tour in support of their latest studio LP Gimme Back My Bullets. This is the classic lineup, too, featuring Van Zant on lead vocals, guitarists Gary Rossington, Allen Collins and Steve Gaines, bassist Leon Wilkeson, drummer Artimus Pyle and keyboardist Billy Powell.
Many fans have certainly seen the film footage of the concert as part of the 1996 rock doc Freebird …The Movie, in which it was intercut with interviews and other material. But Live at Knebworth ’76 offers viewers the full concert experience for the first time in an official capacity.
Before a crowd of more than 150,000 people, Lynyrd Skynyrd delivered a set featuring several of their most famous songs, including “Sweet Home Alabama,” “Gimme Three Steps,” “Saturday Night Special” and “Workin’ For MCA”. And they just sound so on fire on this hot August afternoon in England, bringing the audience the purest essence of their foot-stomping, triple guitar boogie. There is no Confederate Flag flanking the band onstage on this date, though a few are spotted in the crowd. Who knows if these European fans are even aware of the heartbreak and pain that flag has caused so many people here in these United States.
But when you are in that moment, however, it’s impossible not to get swept up in the pure rush of Rossington, Collins and Gaines trading the greasiest licks as Ronnie Van Zant prowls the stage like a mountain lion waiting to pounce. Then they get to the iconic live version of “Freebird”, kicked off by Powell’s graceful piano rolls and Rossington’s electric bird chirps that always took the song to a new level. This Knebworth version lasts 14 minutes, and is just so divine. It takes you away from your mortal coil as you get lost in Ronnie’s wanderlust and the realities of moving on from a loved one. Then he tags into Collins at the seven-minute mark, where he peels off perhaps the most insane guitar solo of his career–cleaning up the floor with Page, Townshend, Iommi and Ronson all at once it seems as he just rips for over six minutes with Rossington joining in like a Southern Rock spin on KK Downing and Glenn Tipton’s tandem work in Judas Priest.
When you are in the moment of this whirlwind of pure energy that transpires during this rendition of “Freebird,” any foibles you may harbor of this American band and their association with the Confederate Flag disappears from your mind completely. You are powerless in resisting its energy.
Listen, there’s no need to feel bad about it. If you are a decent human being you didn’t get into Lynyrd Skynyrd because of their allegiance to that stupid rag and every evil, idiotic and ignorant theology it represents. Fuck the Confederate Flag. You got into them because of the way “Freebird” makes you feel in your heart. And if you can find a way to make some kind of momentary peace within yourself, Live at Knebworth ’76 is worth a listen.
However, if you recognize the slippery slope of being a Skynyrd fan in 2021 who is not a racist scumbag, it’s important to recognize the elephant in the room.
VIDEO: Lynyrd Skynyrd performs “Freebird” at Knebworth ’76
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October 4, 2019
Brilliant, powerful column. At a Memorial Day barbecue yesterday, the pretty good cover band (Big Hix from New Jersey) concluded their first set with a workmanlike version of Gimme Three Steps. Your thoughts here really capture a lot of what I was trying to sort through as I enjoyed the funny and clever tale of the “fellow with the hair colored yellow.” It’s not so much the music as the scene its fans can connote. But art ought to stand apart from what the guy standing next to you brings to it. Sometimes that’s impossible. How many punk shows have been ruined by that one guy who won’t stop being violent or grabby in the pit? But that doesn’t undo the connection of art to its appreciator. Really glad you spelled it out like this. And man, that scene from Golden Palace is just mindblowing.
Been a Skynyrd fan my whole life and they were in no way, shape, or form racist. The evidence is all over the place to anyone who really knows their history: They recorded and played with black artists multiple times. One of their founding members (Rickey Medlocke) is Native American, and when he left to form Blackfoot, they toured and hung out together all the time. One of their most beloved songs (“The Ballad of Curtis Loew”) is about the singer’s childhood friendship with an old black blues player, and was based on several of them that Ronnie hung out with as a kid. His mom “whipped him” about it, but it was because she didn’t want him around men who drank. And they played blues, after all – hardly something you’d do if you didn’t like the culture. Sweet Home Alabama has a direct rejection of George Wallace and segregation: “In Birmingham the love the governor…” then they yell “Boo boo boo!” Neil Young – a progressive if there ever was one – was friendly and mutually admirous of Ronnie Van Zant and was a Skynyrd fan – he repeatedly wore their t-shirt on stage. One of their lead guitarists (Ed King) was a California hippy. Their longest-playing drummer, Artimus Pyle, had been in the Marine Corps and talked repeatedly about his white AND black brothers. I could go on but you get the picture. The rebel flag was a marketing gimmick deployed by their label as part of their “bad boy” image. But they got tired of it and the endless controversy and informed their label in 1977 as they started their final tour that they’d no longer allow it up.
I think you can relax and enjoy the music of one of the Top 3-4 bands in American rock history without guilt. I do. 🙂
What an insightful, well-written comment. You’ve further enhanced my enjoyment of a band I already love.
Thanks so much Ken!
Hello Ken. I played and lived with Steve Gaines. I just wanted to tell you something that you may not know Steve was far from being a racist. I never heard Steve say the N word ever. He and I traveled together. I had been living in Jamaica and raised my children in the Rasta faith and we were signed to Westbound label and we were in Toronto Canada recording ND the rock star debauchery was too much for me and I left the band and Steve played with Rusty day and the band Detroit for a bit then he returned to Oklahoma and was playing in his old Band Crawdad. Then after Ed King left Skynyrd they searched for a third guitarist and finally by Steve’s sister Cassie’s coaxing that they try her younger brother Steve out. The rest is History. Steve told me his favorite singer was Donnie Hathaway. I just wanted to speak up for my brother who is not here to testify on that matter of racism. For the others, I can only say Steve would not have put up with anything racist or hateful. Steve was an absolute talent and most humble guy I have ever met. Steve covered Taj Mahal, Freddy King, B.B. King at our shows and was definitely not on board with any sort of racism. A soul brother without a mean bone in his body. Take care and thanks. Jimmy Hanson Rio Smoke house 1972-73
Thank you so much, Jimmy. This adds really valuable, believable context. I appreciate the thoughtful reply to my comment and I gotta believe a bunch of other Skynyrd fans are as pleased to read this as I am.
I don’t disagree with this article. However, I am a southerner who loved Skynyrd’s music. Still very fond of the original band. I want to say that I was ignorant with regard to the Rebel flag and it’s symbolism in my late teens & early 20’s. This was around the time the original band was in it’s heyday. That’s no excuse.
Now, I am ashamed… I believe that had RVS known what I know now, he’d never have displayed the Confederate flag. Yes, it was a dumb move… But, had many of their fans thought deeply about it in the mid 70’s we’d have petitioned Skynyrd to burn that flag.
Today, the members who make up Lynyrd Skynyrd are of a different cloth. Van Sant’s younger brother comes on stage with the American flag. The fans that go to see them live today think more like the Confederates did back during the Civil War. So, they’re hiding their prejudice behind the American Flag today. Things aren’t necessarily always as they seem.
Skynyrd quit using the flag as a backdrop in mid July of 77 before the plane crash.
The flag was marketing and a gimmick from the record company … there’s interviews of Ronnie saying it himself. It wasn’t their idea and racist views were not something they supported.
BUT Skynyrd didn’t refuse to use the confederate flag as a disgusting prop and the racists just loved it and still do.
To a lesser extent it’s like when Springsteen allowed BITUSA to be misrepresented by having the Stars and Stripes behind him on stage. Of course the song was a protest of treatment of American soldiers and workers. But he was complicit in the compromise to market the album and tour with that image which muddied the message. RIP to Gary Rossington
Nope, not even a little bit similar. And it wasn’t the picture on the cover of the album that was “misunderstood” about BITUSA, it was the “opposing” messages sent by the juxtaposition of the martial music & the angry lyrics of the title song. Oh, and it was only with the help of a moronic ex-actor, ex-democrat, ex-union-leader-cum-Union-Buster’s re-election campaign’s complete cluelessness about Bruce The Man. Bruce never used ANY flag as a prop onstage (I recall SOMETHING on the 2004 “tour to get GWB out of office”, might’ve been a hologram of the flag, just FYI. I could be recalling completely wrong though, it’s nearly 20y ago. And the only controversy I recall about the flag on the BITUSA cover was whether or not Springsteen was pissing on it – simply because he was facing the flag with his ass to the camera – which is an idiotic idea on its face), American or otherwise – he has entirely too much respect for it, what it stands for, and what it means to the people of this nation (he’s written as much on “Long Walk Home”), his extremely negative feelings about the ways in which returning Vietnam Veterans were treated by their government notwithstanding (“governments” – administrations – come & go; but the flag is forever, or for as long as this country keeps itself, Democracy, alive – unlike great performers who reformed themselves when shown what the Confederate flag REALLY means, such as Tom Petty (and bravo, not to knock Tom! I mean, he WAS born & raised in Northern Florida, much like Skynyrd themselves; misinformation has ALWAYS abounded there, like anywhere only worse, and let’s not pretend life isn’t way more complicated than we like pretend when we write long screeds such as the one I am chucking-up at the moment). But the United States has a long history of throwing its heroes onto the trash heap when they’re “not needed” anymore simply because the “mission was accomplished” (African-American Veterans of ALL our wars; The Forgotten Men of WW1 – many of whom were volunteers, iirc. I could go on and on…).
Just a note on some comments agree with, based on the way I understand the Skynyrd saga – and I am no expert… But I am under the impression that the band members were not racists; the Sweet Home Alabama controversy was mostly about telling Neil Young to mind his own Canadian/Northern California Big Rock Star Business, which was Nixon, and THEY, Floridians/Southerners, would try to deal with azz’oles such as George Wallace (“In Birmingham they love tha Guv’nah; BOO BOO BOO; We all did what we could do. Now, Watergate does not bother me; does your conscience bother you? Tell me true…” in their own way. Which isn’t necessarily pro civil rights, but it’s not racist either. Here’s where the Skynyrd thing goes off the rails…
The reunion in, iirc, 1987, they REALLY leaned into the “Southern By The Grace Of God” , Confederate Flag bulkshidd. Ronnie Van Zant & Steve & Cassie Gaines were a decade in their graves. And WHO CARES about Lynyrd Skynyrd without Ronnie Van Zant?!? NOBODY!! They had to face that. So, they apparently brought it in the Marketing Firm of Davis, Lee, Picket & Jackson, and got themselves some racist FANS 😂, because “racists go concerts, too” .
‘Nuff said, sorry for the novella.
I’m Jim Lonneman and I’m a big Lynyrd Skynyrd fan. Since 1987 I have seen them 27 times including last year. Back in 1991 I even won tickets to the concert on 8/19. My birthday. What a present. And I’ve seen them every year the came around Cincinnati. Approximately 100 mile radius. And I’ve seen them 2/3/4/5 2 times,79 and 11 rows back. Also back in the early 2100s I went to see them. But I was going homeless. And I had to take a bus ride to Dayton Ohio. I got to the box office when it opened.. Only 2 people in front of me. We’ll the got 1st row seats and I was sort of disappointed. But I got 4 rows back. Also my favorite all time Rock song is That Smell. When I first heard the song in 1977 coming out of a bar I heard that scratchy cord and listened to the words. That was the best song I ever heard, and against drugs. That’s when I started getting into Skynyrd. Since then I’ve heard a lot of interviews on radio of them recorded before and after the plane crash. I can tell you more but I’d like to know if you would give me 2-4 tickets to the concert on 8/25 in Cincinnati along with back stage passes. I want to meet you all and I’ll even try to get some friends to see you also. Thanks for your time and I hope to hear from you ASAP. My name is Jim Lonneman and my email is: [email protected]. And if you can you can even call me @ (513)383-6000. That would even be better. Thanks again
I’m from North Bay Ontario…far from Dixieland. The day I bought my first Lynyrd Skynyrd album in 1975, was the day I found my new favourite band of all time. Not one song shows a hint of racism in the lyrics, in fact, to the contrary. The Confederate flag is part of the history of the U.S.A., not the “inventors of slavery” flag, in fact slavery was up and running full throttle before the creation of the Confederate States of America. The cotton that made all of the uniforms of every soldier was picked by African slaves, not just the Confederate uniforms…you cannot just erase history because it was unpleasant. The lifestyle and music and food were mixes of cultures from the Deep Southern States are special and you should think of that rather than the worst part of it. At that time, slavery was rampant all over the globe, not JUST in the Confederate States of America. It’s not slavery anymore anywhere in the civilized world so quit bringing it up to satisfy your cry baby agenda.
I guess you can’t listen to any music because almost every “group” of people had slavery in their bloodline regardless of race or color
Exquisite text about the band, telling the whole context of your career, very good!
They literally denounced the rebel flag
In 2012 and lost a bunch of fans. But go off!
A very delicate subject and it is good that it is currently being exposed. What was said in that article is revealing.
What an exceptional piece of writing about the band, providing a comprehensive overview of their career. It’s truly impressive!
Old article. Old non facts. Any racism from Skynyrd has been thoroughly debunked years ago. But again don’t let facts get in the way of truth. Typical crap that is printed or said today. The flag was and has been a marketing gimmick across music and TV for decades. And if you bother to research the Battle flag, it was used by 2, yes only 2 regiments in the Civil War. Unfortunately hate groups and current woke addicts have made it more popular and well known then the confederacy ever did. I swear we are so polarized that I truly beleive liberals lose their minds over the fact that this band has supported Republicans. Really???? Who gives a shit. The music is why they are loved. The same goes for Taylor swift. Conservatives dislike her. It really is idiotic all the way around. Stick to the facts and the music and shut off the worthless opinions..
First,you don’t have to say the “N” word to be racist.(Trust me;as a 70-year-old black Canadian man,i’ve encountered LOTS of genteel racists.)
Second,I don’t know if Lynyrd Skynyrd were racist;they,like a lot of heedless white folk,thought the Confederate Flag was just a sign of Southern pride . But the Stars And Bars Flag was added to Southern state flags in the late 50’s to assure white supremacists that these states supported racial segregation and opposed black civil and voting rights.(Mississippi,backwards in this issue as it is about anything regarding progress,removed the symbol from their state flag about 10 years ago.)I’m the great-grandson of slave and the grandson of an Alabama sharecropper,so you can guess my feeling on the Confederate Flag in all its iterations.
If people weren’t woke in the 60’s,blacks still would be lynched and denied their civil rights and the vote.