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 Southern-Rock band formed in 1964 in Jacksonville, Florida USA, by high
school friends lead singer Ronnie VanZant , guitarists Allen Collins and
Gary Rossington, bass player Leon Wilkeson and drummer Bob Burns. They
began playing in the Southern States under various names releasing a single
in fall '60s, the quintet finally christened the band Lynyrd Skynyrd and
recorded a demo-album plus the debut single, "I've Been Your Fool".
The group issued via MCA their debut full-length LP , "Pronounced
Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd", in 1973 enlisting a new lineup that included
the third guitarist, Ed King and Billy Powell on piano+keyboards, the
single "Free Bird" with its superb three-guitar finale became
a national radio hit but entered the Pop Singles chart two years later.
Pete Townshend invited the group to open for The
Who on their Quadrophenia tour, soon after Lynyrd Skynyrd returned
to the studio and recorded their biggest hit single "Sweet Home Alabama"
which peaked at #8 in U.S. Pop Singles chart and pushed "Second Helping"
into the top 20 of The Pop Albums chart, which subsequently went multi-platinum.
Before the year's end the new drummer Artimus Pyle replaced Burns and
King left the group shortly afterward; "Nuthin' Fancy" came
out in 1975 and climbed the Pop Albums chart ranking into the top 10,
its single "Saturday Night Special" peaked at #27 in the national
chart. 1976's "Gimme Back My Bullets" failed to enter the top
10 and the single "Double Trouble" scored a modest #80 in the
U.S. Pop chart; the group's line-up was enlarged that same year by arrival
of the guitar player Steve Gaines and a trio of female backup singers,
in Atlanta they recorded the double-live set "One More From The Road"
that ranked in the top 10 of The Pop Albums chart selling one million
copies. Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded their fifth studio album, "Street
Survivors", in October of 1977 and then tragedy struck. A plane crash
took the lives of Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and his sister Cassie,
the album reached the #5 in U.S. chart and the single "What's Your
Name" peaked at #13 in Pop chart, followed by "You Got That
Right" and "That Smell". The next year saw the release
of "Skynyrd's First And...Last" which consists of group's earliest
recordings, it reached the #15 on The Pop Albums chart. After the crash
the band broke up, in 1980 Rossington and Collins formed a new band which
featured other ex-Skynyrd members but two years later they decided to
go their separate ways. In 1986, Allen Collins, was involved in a car
accident which killed his girlfriend and left him paralyzed; a year later
the name Lynyrd Skynyrd was revived for a tour featuring Rossington, Powell,
Pyle, Wilkeson and King, with Ronnie's brother Johnny Van Zant on vocals
and Randell Hall on guitar; "Legend" a compilation of group's
'70s songs, was issued in October '87 and generated "Truck Drivin'
Man" that peaked at #12 on Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. In January
of 1990, Allen Collins died from pneumonia, the next year the re-assembled
Lynyrd Skynyrd began recording a new material and issued "Lynyrd
Skynyrd 1991", it spawned "Keeping The Faith" and "Smokestack
Lightning" which peaked at #10 and #2 respectively on The Mainstream
Rock Tracks chart; two years later the single "Good Lovin's Hard
To Find" reached the top 10 in the same chart, it was taken from
the album "The Last Rebel". Followed in 1997 "Twenty"
and its Mainstream Rock hit "Travelin' Man", two years later
appeared "Edge Of Forever", like its three predecessor albums,
was a modest success on The Billboard Top 200 chart, this album generated
the top 20 Active Rock hit "Workin'". Another tragedy struck
when the founder member Leon Wilkeson was found dead on July 27, 2001
in a hotel room in Florida. Two years later Lynyrd Skynyrd returned with
"Vicious Cycle", which peaked at #30 on Billboard's Top 200
Albums chart.
Lynyrd Skynyrd biography is an exclusive of 100xr.com
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