Lynyrd Skynyrd: Their Life and Legacy
By: Julia Rose Harmon
Tags: Music, Rock And Roll, Southern Rock, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rock

Early Years (1964–1973)

Photo Credit: Reduto

The Formation

To put things into perspective, the Beatles landed in America for the first time on February 7, 1964, the same year that the earliest version of Lynyrd Skynyrd formed as My Backyard. It would be another eight years before the The Marshall Tucker band formed and another fifteen years before the Allman Brothers formed.

It was summer in Jacksonville, Florida when Ronnie Van Zant, Bob Burns, and Gary Rossington first played music together. The three had met while playing baseball. Zant had hit a line drive into Burns’ head, and his first words to a horrified Gary Rossington were: “I think it’s funny as hell!” After the incident, some afternoon later, the three somehow ended up in Burns’ parents garage after deciding that they wanted to play music together. They ran through a popular Rolling Stones song and realized that they weren’t bad. The band that defined southern rock had just formed, although, they weren’t quite finished, they still needed to recruit second guitarist, Allen Collins, and bassist Larry Junstrom. Recruiting Collins had not been an easy task though.

“Van Zant and Burns both had a reputation for trouble, and Collins fled on his bicycle and hid up a tree when he saw them pull up in his driveway.” (From Wikipedia)

But after the situation was explained, Collins agreed to join the band. Larry Junstrom also joined, completing the original lineup.

Photo Credit: YouTube

Where Does the Name Lynyrd Skynyrd Come From?

Originally, the band called themselves The Nobel Five, but this didn’t stick, and they had changed it to The One Percent by 1968. Wikipedia writes that they dropped the latest name because Zant became “tired of taunts from the audiences that the band had “1% talent.”” Bob Burns was the one who suggested the name Lynyrd Skynyrd (originally spelled Leonard Skinnerd) because of both the song “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh” by Allan Sherman and their gym teacher who they intended to mock, Leonard Skinner, by adding a ‘d,’ making Skinnerd. Skinner had a reputation for hating rock and enforcing a policy with an iron fist that said boys attending Robert E. Lee, the high school that the boys attended, could not have long hair. Rossington actually dropped out because he was tired for his teachers giving him trouble for his hair. Later though, Skinner and the Skynyrds became friendly and he was even invited to one of their concerts. Skinner also allowed the band to use a picture of his Realty sign for the inside of their third album, Nuthin’ Fancy. The picture above shows Skinner holding the album. It was in the early 1970s that the spelling morphed from Leonard Skinnerd to Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Replacements and New Additions

By 1972, Leon Wilkeson (bassist) had taken a brief break from the band due to having reservations about their rising fame. Ed King, a former member of Strawberry Alarm Clock, had joined in 1973, right in time to fill the bass part for (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-’nérd ‘Skin-’nérd)’s “Simple Man,” the only part not written for the song yet. When he returned, King moved to guitar, creating what the band called Skynyrd’s three-guitar army.