Lynyrd Skynyrd is one of the most iconic of the Southern Rock Bands from the 70’s era still performing today. Not many of the original members still left, I saw the original lineup in June of ’77 at RFK stadium in Philly, they were opening for Peter Frampton, but they seemed to be the main attraction. Before them, Dickey Betts and Great Southern and The J Geils Band started the Show. Betts played a short set as he was having trouble with the sound system. It was a real hot day, and it took a while to get everyone in the 100,00 seat facility, J Geils was playing when I got there with a few friends. They were like a blues rock type band. They were pretty good, but got a couple of requests for free bird.
This was the only time I saw the original lineup of Lynyrd Skynyrd. They really were a great live band, the band really came out cooking, I never had seen a band with three lead guitar players and they were excellent. They had their traditional 70’s Backdrop, a huge Confederate flag. They already had alot of hits, “Gimme Three Steps”, “The Breeze”, and the incredible “Free Bird”. Their live show was incredible.
They were on Discovery Channel’s Bikers Build Off Tonight and the present configuration of Lynyrd Skynyrd played “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Last Of a Dying Breed”, the title track for their latest CD. They nailed both songs and the performance was really good considering they have only a couple of original members.
Personally, I do not believe that Lynyrd Skynyrd would be able to have gone on after the plane crash if it had not
been for Johnny Van Zant, who sounds alot like his brother Ronnie and even looks like him and took over the Lead vocal slot.
