A love triangle, deadly accidents, and a disciplinarian with an unforgettable name are all part of the complicated and fascinating lore behind Lynyrd Skynyrd.
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00:00A love triangle, deadly accidents, and a disciplinarian with an unforgettable name are all part of
00:05the complicated and fascinating lore behind Leonard Skinner.
00:09Leonard Skinner was already making a name for themselves in the American South when
00:13songwriter and music producer Al Cooper happened to see one of their shows in Atlanta, Georgia.
00:17He then began a long persuasion campaign to convince them to sign with him, eventually
00:21winning them over with a $5,000 loan when their instruments were stolen.
00:25Eventually, though, when it came to actually working together, Cooper found himself in
00:29regular conflict with the group's leader, Ronnie Van Sant.
00:32Despite his inexperience in the recording studio, Van Sant was firmly in control of
00:36the band's creative vision.
00:37Both men were confrontational, and their arguments could get heated.
00:41But ultimately, Van Sant respected Cooper's input and his discipline, and Cooper could
00:45admit when he was wrong.
00:47In Leonard Skinner's early days, they practiced at the home of whomever's mother was willing
00:51to endure them.
00:52But neighbors and local police weren't always so accommodating.
00:55After one too many noise complaints, they decided to find somewhere more secluded to
00:58rehearse.
00:59It was one of those things that when you got together and you're like a garage band, you
01:04just play your music, you want people to hear it and appreciate it.
01:07The place they found became known as Hell House, an abandoned shed in the swamps near
01:11Jacksonville.
01:12It had a tin roof, no air conditioning, and was surrounded by wildlife.
01:16After a late-night robbery, members of the band took turns guarding their shed and equipment.
01:21Nevertheless, their first two albums were almost entirely written in Hell House.
01:24They also had some help from the local fauna.
01:26The band enjoyed tea brewed from mushrooms they found nearby.
01:29This led to some hallucinations, like floating keyboards and visible music notes.
01:35Like a lot of rock bands before and after them, Leonard Skinner drank together, did
01:38hard drugs together, and often fought together.
01:41Sometimes that meant that they went on stage with visible injuries and knocked out teeth.
01:45Their brawls happened ahead of gigs, on the road, and out in public.
01:48One particularly nasty scrape in a bar in Hamburg, Germany, ended with Gary Rossington's
01:53hands shredded by broken glass and Ronnie Van Sant getting his hands broken.
01:57As a leader of the band who was several years older than his bandmates, it fell to Van Sant
02:01to break up fights and administer discipline.
02:03But he was just as wild as the others when it came to drugs and drink, and just as violent.
02:08Van Sant eventually reconsidered some of his own rowdiness after accruing a few outrageous
02:12bills for damages and becoming a father himself.
02:15But even then, his partying days weren't completely over.
02:19Leonard Skinner produced several hit singles, but only Sweet Home Alabama ever charted on
02:24the Billboard Top 10.
02:25It's since been widely embraced by its namesake state, despite the band's previous lack of
02:29any connection to Alabama.
02:31The credited songwriters on that track are Ronnie Van Sant and Gary Rossington, both
02:35from Florida, as well as Ed King, who was born in Glendale, California.
02:39None of them had ever lived in Alabama.
02:41Are you guys from Alabama?
02:43They were inspired to write the song after they heard Neil Young's Southern Man.
02:47Van Sant was a fan of Young's, but he found the Canadian rocker's tune to be an unsophisticated
02:51caricature of the South's worst reputation, written by a non-Southerner.
02:55Sweet Home Alabama was, according to Van Sant, more of a joke than anything else.
02:59And it was a joke that Young actually appreciated.
03:02The animosity between Neil Young and Ronnie Van Sant may have been only for show.
03:07Drummer Bob Burns was with Leonard Skinner from the very beginning, and he indulged in
03:12all the usual temptations of the rock star life.
03:14Alas, he struggled to cope with all that excess and the professional demands of a touring
03:18rock band.
03:19When Leonard Skinner left for a European tour in 1975, Burns' mental health began to suffer,
03:24but neither he nor his bandmates were prepared to deal with the crisis.
03:27With no other obvious choice available, he left the band behind.
03:31I just told him to get another drummer.
03:34Burns was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which he managed with therapy and Prozac.
03:38Leaving Skinner didn't mean leaving behind his bandmates, who were childhood friends
03:42of his.
03:43Skinner stayed in touch with them over the years and even rejoined them for a one-time
03:46performance to mark their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
03:49The hedonistic life of a rock star eventually caught up to Gary Rossington.
03:53By 1976, he was regularly mixing alcohol and Quaaludes, and while under their influence,
03:59he got into a car crash in Jacksonville, Florida.
04:01His injuries threw off Skinner's touring schedule for the year, which the band fined him for.
04:06And while under the influence of various drugs himself, Ronnie Van Sant agreed with his bandmate
04:11Alan Collins that Rossington's accident merited a song.
04:14And so, the lyrics of That Smell acknowledged the negative effects of drinking and drug
04:18use while also referencing the crash.
04:21But That Smell didn't exactly snap Rossington, or anyone else in the band, out of their drug
04:25use.
04:26Nevertheless, Rossington did eventually achieve sobriety.
04:30One of the greatest tragedies in the history of rock and roll is surely the October 20,
04:341977 Leonard Skinner plane crash.
04:36The band had just released their fifth album, Street Survivors, and were flying to their
04:41next tour date when the accident happened in Mississippi.
04:43The casualties included the pilot and co-pilot, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, guitarist
04:48Steve Gaines and his sister Cassie, and Ronnie Van Sant.
04:51Van Sant had regularly predicted that he wouldn't live to see 30, so his family and surviving
04:56bandmates weren't as shocked as they might have been at his death.
04:59But his passing nevertheless shook the group.
05:01His fate wasn't immediately disclosed to the survivors, all of whom suffered their own
05:05injuries.
05:06Gary Rossington and Alan Collins also ended up with survivor's guilt.
05:10Only one member was fit enough to attend Van Sant's memorial.
05:12Every night, I have some kind of weird dream about it.
05:16Without Van Sant, the survivors saw no future for Leonard Skinner.
05:20And so, Rossington, Collins, and Van Sant's widow, Judy, entered a formal legal agreement
05:24to dissolve the band.
05:26Two years after the plane crash, guitarist Alan Collins did his best to get the music
05:29playing again.
05:31Along with Gary Rossington, he formed a new group, the Rossington-Collins Band.
05:34The new outfit was a success, but there were lingering issues and fresh tragedies.
05:39Rossington's wife, Kathy, died suddenly during the band's first promotional tour.
05:42And then he and Rossington fell out over their competing affections for their lead vocalist,
05:46Dale Krantz.
05:47She ultimately chose Rossington.
05:49Krantz and Rossington married in 1982 and remained together until Rossington died in
05:532023.
05:54But the year that they wed was also the year that the Rossington-Collins Band disbanded.
05:58Collins went on to form the Alan Collins Band and kept playing for a few years.
06:02But then a car crash in 1986 left him paralyzed from the chest down and unable to play.
06:08On the 10th anniversary of the Leonard Skinnerd plane crash in 1987, the band's old record
06:12label, MCA, wanted to commemorate it in some way.
06:16Several of the surviving members were in hot financial water at the time.
06:19Alan Collins was a joint rights holder to the Skinnerd name, so he used his former bandmates
06:23Leon Wilkson and Billy Powell as intermediaries and reached out to Gary Rossington about putting
06:28something together.
06:29The new Leonard Skinnerd was led by Rossington and featured Ronnie Van Sant's brother Johnny
06:33as the lead vocalist.
06:34Kendall Hall took over on the guitar for Collins, who wasn't in shape to do more than come out
06:38on stage for a few quick words.
06:41Old and new faces filled out the rest of the roster.
06:43A brief tour during 1987 completely sold out.
06:46But the reconstituted band violated an agreement that Collins and Rossington had made with
06:50Van Sant's widow Judy to retire the Skinnerd name for good after his death.
06:55So Judy took the band to court, and the complicated settlement gave her a significant financial
06:59stake and a strong decision-making presence that wasn't always appreciated.
07:04The name Leonard Skinnerd is inextricably associated with the American South, but their
07:07connections to the region have sometimes been controversial.
07:10The original Skinnerd emerged during a time when Southern states were trying to heed the
07:13civil rights movement and find a new identity.
07:15The band has been considered a force in that movement, even though their concerts and promotional
07:19materials have made extensive use of the Confederate flag for years.
07:23The lyrics to Sweet Home Alabama, specifically its reference to segregationist Alabama Governor
07:27George Wallace, have been interpreted various ways.
07:30Meanwhile, Ronnie Van Sant claimed that the band had no deliberate or consistent political
07:34stance.
07:35In the ensuing decades, interpretations of Skinnerd's politics and their representation
07:39of the South have remained confused.
07:40They've been called conservative, though they've also responded to fan protests and largely
07:44abandoned Confederate imagery.
07:46You know what?
07:47The flag's been associated with so many hate groups, you know, and we can understand that.
07:54The current iteration of Leonard Skinnerd doesn't feature any members of the original
07:581969 lineup.
08:00Ronnie Van Sant died in the 1977 plane crash, Alan Collins died in 1990 of pneumonia, and
08:05Bob Burns died in a car accident in 2015.
08:09For a while, the only founding member still playing was guitarist Gary Rossington.
08:13By 2020, with multiple members getting older, Skinnerd prepared a farewell tour meant to
08:17end their lengthy treks around the country, while still leaving the door open for new
08:21records and the occasional live show.
08:23But Rossington's health was failing.
08:25He required quintuple bypass surgery in 2003 and struggled with heart trouble afterwards.
08:30Even before the farewell tour began, shows were canceled due to his medical issues.
08:34He died at his home on March 5, 2023.
08:38Two founding members of what would become Leonard Skinnerd didn't set out to be rock
08:41stars.
08:42Vocalist Ronnie Van Sant and guitarist Gary Rossington instead had dreams of a diamond.
08:46Growing up, both of them played baseball for local teams in Jacksonville, Florida.
08:51Rossington told his family that he wanted to head north and join the New York Yankees,
08:54while Van Sant was on the cusp of playing minor league ball when he shifted his career
08:58goals.
08:59In the summer of 1964, Van Sant was playing a game attended by Rossington and his friend
09:03Bob Burns, when he hit a line drive that beamed off Burns' head and knocked him out.
09:07This led to a friendship, and a rock band, with Burns as the drummer.
09:10They were soon joined by another guitarist named Alan Collins.
09:14He wasn't really into baseball, but he was determined to play rock music.
09:18Leonard Skinnerd may be one of the most iconic rock band names of all time, but that wasn't
09:22what these Southern boys were always known as.
09:24The group originally formed in 1964 as My Backyard, which was soon changed to The Noble
09:29Five.
09:30A string of other monikers that followed that included The Wildcats, Conqueror Worms, Sons
09:34of Satan, and The Pretty Ones.
09:36They settled on 1% after they saw a group of bikers sporting the phrase and took a shine
09:40to it, but that didn't last long either.
09:42They eventually found inspiration from the Alan Sherman novelty song, Hello Mudda, Hello
09:46Fodda, which mentions a Leonard Skinnerd, who got tumaine poisoning last night after
09:50dinner.
09:52Skinnerd also happened to be the name of Gary Rossington's high school gym teacher, a strict
09:55disciplinarian who regularly chastised Rossington for his long hair.
09:59The real Skinnerd didn't recognize his name or his former student when the band took off,
10:03and he never liked rock and roll anyway.
10:05But he eventually befriended some of the band members and even introduced them at a concert
10:09in Jacksonville.
10:10After a while, we just quit school and said, no, we're not doing it, and grew our hair
10:14and played in the band, but now you kids stay in school.