Lynyrd Skynyrd: Once More on the Road (Part 2 of 2)

Continued from Part One…

In recent years, the band has toured in tandem with some of your peers, fellow major acts like ZZ Top and Foreigner. What are the advantages of that kind of a tour?

Johnny Van Zant: There’s a lot of advantages when you bring two iconic bands together. I think it’s great, because ticket prices are so high these days. You’re getting a lot of music and a lot of hit songs whenever you team up with somebody like that. We’ve been doing it for a while – on and off over the years – with ZZ Top, and they’re just like family.

We’re hooking up with Foreigner this year. Years ago, we did a Canadian run when Lou Gramm was in their band, and it was a great time. And people were wondering, how do Foreigner’s “Urgent” and “I Want to Know What Love Is” go with “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Free Bird”? But it worked out so good that when this opportunity came, I was like, “Yeah! Let’s go out and do some shows with those guys this year.” And I’m looking forward to it. The crowds are going to have a night of hits.

Looking back across your many years with the band, can you recall a favorite or most memorable gig?

There’s two of them. The first time I played with Skynyrd was for Charlie Daniels’ Volunteer Jam, and it was broadcast on the Jerry Lewis Telethon for Muscular Dystrophy. That was a big one.

The other was when we did a show for PBS, live from the Ryman Auditorium. That was Gary’s last show before he passed on. And what a memorable night that was. We had Brent Smith from Shinedown, Jelly Roll, Marcus King and a bunch of people; my brother Donnie was there. Gary wasn’t feeling well; he told me, “Bubba, I may have to sit down.” And I said, “Well, if you sit down, we all sit down. Our fans would understand that because they love us, love the music, love the people who’ve been in and out of the band and those who have gone on to Heaven.”

And it was a wonderful night. Me, Gary, Donnie and Rickey Medlocke shared the stage at the Ryman Auditorium. To think that Loretta Lynn and Merle Haggard and George Jones had stood right there, right where I was singing! We all had our suitcases in this tiny room; we were stepping over each other and laughing and carrying on and eating cold pizza. We all said that it reminded us of when we played clubs. Again, I’m very spiritual, so I believe God works in mysterious ways. And he gave all four of us that night.

With so many classic songs in the band’s history and repertoire, is there any room in the set list for deep cuts?

Oh, yeah! We just got back from Brazil; what a crazy bunch of people they are. They love Lynyrd Skynyrd. We played there with Guns and Roses on the Monsters of Rock tour, and did about four shows on our own. And we added some cool stuff. Even the deep Skynyrd cuts are really good: songs like “Things Goin’ On” and “Mississippi Kid,” “Don’t Ask Me No Questions,” “Whiskey Rock-a-Roller,” “Double Trouble.” So every other show we do throw in some obscure song. We’ve put in “Still Unbroken” from [2009’s] God & Guns, which is a monster song.

If we didn’t play “Free Bird” and “Sweet Home Alabama,” you’d never come to see us. But people do ask, “Why don’t y’all play more of the new stuff? that you’ve recorded? And my theory is that I got into this band in ‘86 to play Ronnie and Gary and Allen’s songs, and Ed King songs. And it really wasn’t to write my own stuff and try to make a big thing out of anything new. I really like concentrating on the old stuff, but I’m throwing in some new stuff this year.

You’ve been fronting Lynyrd Skynyrd for nearly 40 years now. What keeps it interesting for you?

The love of the people who made the music, and the love of the fans. There’s not a night that I go out on stage and I’m not excited. Some people would call it anxiety, but I call it excitement. I never phone it in; we’re all giving it 110, 120%. Whenever we go into a song like “Simple Man” and see the audience’s response, it’s an amazing thing. And that keeps me coming back.

Lynyrd Skynyrd has been a household name for more than a half century. What are people going to say about Lynyrd Skynyrd 50, 100 years from now?

Real songs, real people. My brother Ronnie was as down to earth as you could get, but when he hit the stage, he was a badass. And whenever he wrote a song, he wrote for real, hard-working people. I would hope that people would appreciate all the stuff that the band did – from the beginning until the very end, whenever it ends. There’s been a lot of heartache, and I think people love an underdog. When the band started, there was no American Idol. There was nothing for bands except for honkytonks and hard knocks. But you know what? That created the music of Lynyrd Skynyrd.