We started playing 'Free Bird' in clubs, and initially, it was just a slow ballad.
— Gary Rossington
We loved Neil Young and all the music he's given the world.
Old-school rock bands, and blues bands, too, are kind of a dying breed.
We keep our music simple, no big gimmicks. We tell stories people can relate to, not hard to understand.
We're not preachers, but we say, 'Let's try and change things.'
I just take every day on faith.
Our redneck reputation back then was originally just because we had long hair. Back in the '60s and the early '70s, in the South that was kind of a no-no. At all the Army and Navy bases we'd play, we would get into fights with the soldiers over our hair. But I think our music overshadowed everything else.
Our parents helped us, or we wouldn't be here. Lacy Van Zant and my mother used to sign for amps or loan us money to get to the gig or take us in their car. It's just like little sports guys - Little League and football players - whose parents help them. That's why they get good.
We used to travel through Alabama a lot and get onto back roads and just marvel at how pretty it was and how nice the people were.
There's only seven chords, so you got to use the same ones over and over. It's all in what you do with them.
'Freebird' is an anthem, and 'Simple Man' is a very nice song.
We're a rock n' roll band. We're more music and rock n' roll than politics.
All we lived for was playing and being out on the road. That was our dream, and it came true.
Jimi Hendrix's 'Electric Ladyland' and 'All Along the Watchtower,' those solos are just so cool.
It's really weird when we're out of the country, whether we're in Brazil or Greece or some crazy place like France or Germany. When you hear your song on the radio or in a store, and you're in a different country, it's really freaky and surreal.
I sound like an old bullfrog when I sing.
As long as the fans keep wanting to hear new records from us every few years, we'll keep making them.
We travel all over the world, and it seems like the South is the place where the people are nicest and they think of the fellow man more.
If you can write a song that makes people have emotions and show their feelings, that's a powerful thing and a beautiful thing.
God blessed us with talent.
Jacksonville back in the 1960s was kind of a redneck town. There were only two or three places where you could play our kind of hard rock - or 'hippie music' as it was called back then. You had to go to Georgia or some place else.
You go through stuff, and you keep going.
You have to learn to live with the hard things in life and go on.
The only reason we used the Confederate flag was just because we were from the South, and we were proud of that.
I think people who really want to do something do it. No matter what. And they won't quit until they do it.
The more wild experiences you have, the better songs you can write.
We know what the Dixie flag represents and its heritage; the Civil War was fought over States rights.
Man, I love Limp Bizkit, Johnny Lange, many people.
Everybody's got a right to their own opinion, you know?
I've had some heart problems, and I'm on the straight and narrow.
I love Eric Clapton and what he did with Cream; 'Spoonful' and 'Crossroads,' those are probably the coolest solos.
I'm feeling real good and trying to take care of myself and living healthy. As good as I can feel.
We were kinda rebels. From the wrong side of the tracks. Down where we were raised, it was a tough town.
I think that 'God & Guns' turned out a little more 'country' than we wanted it to be.
I love being Southern because of the people and the fans we have. People down here are more friendly - really warm people.
We're not really for anything but a better America, a stronger country. And we do support our soldiers.
I think we're a working man's band.
To see fans singing our songs and loving them and dancing or crying to some of them, it feels like the first time you ever played it. It really gets to you, like day one.
I've always heard that the reason you fall is to get back up and keep going. So when that happens, or life throws you bad breaks or curves or deals you the wrong hand, all I've ever known is to keep going.
Nothing in the past is as important as the future.
The first time we ever used the Dixie flag for our backdrop was actually when we went over to Europe in 1970. It looked good, so we all liked it. We never meant any racial things by it.
In Lynyrd Skynyrd, we always got our recognition.
I could write a dozen different songs with the same three or four chords, but they'd all be entirely different.
If we do not play 'Alabama,' our fans would kill us.
For one reason or another, the good God has left me on this planet; surely, I will not sit around and not do what I do naturally.
I don't know if anybody will ever be as good as Hendrix again.
I did get in a car wreck, but we got a good song out of it.
We didn't have much money when I was younger, so I had to collect Coke bottles and cash them in and get a paper route to afford a guitar. That guitar from Sears came with a case and an amp and everything all in one. It was really cool.
With life and grandkids and the whole thing, every day is busy, but I'm so thankful to God that I'm still here.
We wanted to be America's Rolling Stones, to be the biggest band over here.
