"Free Bird" is the closing track of Lynyrd Skynyrd's debut album and was traditionally the last song that Lynyrd Skynyrd would play at their performances before the 1977 plane crash. After the crash, Van Zant's brother, Johnny, was too emotional to sing it on stage, so the audience sang the lyrics as the band played on. Today, at the end of a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert, it's still a tradition for the concert to end with "Free Bird," but now the band plays it as an instrumental as the crowd sings its lyrics as a tribute to their lost members.