Talk:Ronnie Van Zant

Free bird as Tribute
The song was not written as a tribute to Duane Allman, only later did Van Zant begin the song by mentioning his deceased friend.

The article makes it seem as if the song was written with him in mind, which is not the case.

++++++++++++++++ No, it clearly says Ronnie would often tribute the song to him.

Free Bird was first written and played in early 1970. Duane Allman died on Oct. 29, 1971. This song was not written as a tribute, but after Allman's death, it was often performed in memory of him. I've corrected the entry to reflect that. Redland19 (talk) 15:19, 29 June 2008 (UTC

Freebird was NOT written as a tribute to Duane Allman. The part of the song that was added in tribute to Duane was the Slide guitar played by Gary Rossington. If you listen to the Muscle Shoals recordings, which were recorded before Pronounced Lynyrd Skynyrd, you can clearly tell that the song Freebird lacks slide guitar.

Duane Allman's guitar style sounded like a bird, it was a high pitched ringing sound, his nickname came from BB King who told him to use very thin guitar strings to reach a certain refran - this was the same lesson BB King gave Billy Lee Gibbons which is why ZZ top songs sound the way they do - I also see no mention of the fact that the name lynyrd skynyrd was  from their High School Gym Coach. Free Bird - lessons in the chords of life- Bird Man - Free bird - Duane Allman. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jwbird (talk • contribs) 21:45, 1 January 2017 (UTC)

old pictures of ronnie van zant
please send me old pictures of ronnie van zant the one i am looking for he is in the woods flanell shirt it is brown and white

Judy Van Zant
Why does the page for Judy Van Zant direct here, since this page doesn't mention her at all? Mrwhizzard 17:57, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Van Zant or Van Zandt
The article has both Van Zant and Van Zandt, please clean it up. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 149.55.30.100 (talk) 01:48, 21 February 2007 (UTC).

Neil Young
Is it true Neil Young was an honorary pall bearer at Ronnie's funeral?

I never heard of such a thing until some years back, when I heard the Drive-By Truckers album Southern Rock Opera and such a scenario is talked about in the track "The Three Great Alabama Icons." RadioKAOS (talk) 05:08, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

how can we find out for sure whether he was born in 1948 or 1949 ?
both dates seem to exist all over the internet, IMDB and his main wiki page being wrong could easily be responsible for perpetuating a false birthdate. It doesn't seem right that he'd be older than Robert Plant for some reason. Stephen&#39;s black friend 02:23, 28 April 2007 (UTC)


 * The sources now seem to back up 1948, and on the "technically unverifiable" side, my mother was close friends with him and that is indeed his birthdate. Mike H. Celebrating three years of being hotter than Paris 20:18, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

I've verified his birth year (1948) against the social security death master index and added the search results as a reference. Redland19 (talk) 15:43, 29 June 2008 (UTC)

quotes
i dont think that song quotes should be included here because in his lyrics the speaker in the song may not be expressing the opinion of van zant himself; for example im sure van zant would argue that a van zant as southern man may need neil young because neil young is that good of an artist and van zant was a fan but in that particular lyric he is not expressing his own opinion just defending the south from a southern perspective, which he did share, but that lyric, especially, was probably meant mostly in jest because of this i dont think lyrics should be included in the quotes section

URGENT
THIS PAGE NEEDS A PICTURE PLEASE GET ONE ON HERE.. I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO

"Shirt off his back" quote
There's a line in the article "Many of his bandmates said of him that "he would give the shirt off his back to anyone".[citation needed] "... RE: the "citation needed" - this quote is made by one of the band members (Artimus Pyle, maybe?) in the documentary film "Freebird" produced by Cabin Fever. I won't be back home til Oct 2009, and will have to watch it again to know for sure which bandmember said it. But the quote is in the film for certain. Anybody else have a copy? Engr105th (talk) 03:13, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Removed section
I have removed the following section. Firstly, it has no references. Secondly it reads more like a press release than an encyclopedic article, and thirdly it seems to cover far more ground about the band than Van Zant. It smells horribly of fancruft to me. Any suggestions ?

Derek R Bullamore (talk) 16:02, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

''The Bands 'first' recordings were taped in 1971 at Muscle Shoals Studios with Jimmy Johnson and his production crew 'The Swampers'- The 'album' included the first ever version of 'Freebird' and others songs which would later surface on their album 'pronounced' in 1973. (The album did get an official release on MCA in 1998 titled 'The Complete Muscle Shoals Album'). In 1972 the band was discovered by musician, songwriter, and producer Al Kooper of Blood, Sweat, and Tears, who had attended one of their shows at a club in Atlanta. They changed the spelling of their name to "Lynyrd Skynyrd", (pronounced 'lĕh-'nérd 'skin-'nérd) and Kooper signed them to MCA Records, producing their first proper album the following year. 1973's pronounced featured the anthem "Free Bird" which received national airplay and reached #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

''Lynyrd Skynyrd's fan base continued to grow rapidly throughout 1973, largely due to their opening slot on The Who's Quadrophenia tour in the United States. Their 1974 follow-up, Second Helping, was the band's breakthrough hit, and featured their most popular single, "Sweet Home Alabama" (#8 on the charts in August 1974), a tongue in cheek response to Neil Young's "Alabama" and "Southern Man." (Young and Van Zant were not rivals, but fans of each other's music and good friends; Young even wrote the song "Powderfinger" for the band, but they never recorded it). The album reached #12 in 1974, eventually going multi-platinum. In July of that year, Lynyrd Skynyrd was one of the headline acts at The Ozark Music Festival at the Missouri State Fairgrounds in Sedalia, Missouri.

''In 1974, Burns left the band and was replaced by Kentucky native Artimus Pyle on drums. Lynyrd Skynyrd's third album, Nuthin' Fancy, was released the same year, though guitarist Ed King left midway through the tour. In January 1976, backup singers Leslie Hawkins, Cassie Gaines and JoJo Billingsley (collectively known as The Honkettes) were added to the band. Lynyrd Skynyrd's fourth album Gimme Back My Bullets was released in the new year, but did not achieve the same success as the previous two albums. Van Zant and Collins both felt that the band was seriously missing the three-guitar attack that had been one of its early hallmarks. Although Skynyrd auditioned several guitarists, including such high-profile names as Leslie West, the solution was closer than they realized.

''Soon after joining Skynyrd, Cassie Gaines began touting the guitar and songwriting prowess of her younger brother, Steve. The junior Gaines, who led his own band, Crawdad (which occasionally would perform Skynyrd's "Saturday Night Special" in their set), was invited to audition onstage with Skynyrd at a concert in Kansas City on May 11, 1976. Liking what they heard, the group also jammed informally with the Oklahoma native several times, then invited him into the group in June. With Gaines on board, the newly-reconstituted band recorded the double-live album One More From the Road in Atlanta, Georgia, and toured the UK with The Rolling Stones.

''Both Collins and Rossington had serious car accidents over Labor Day weekend in 1976 which slowed the recording of the follow-up album and forced the band to cancel some concert dates. Rossington's accident inspired the ominous "That Smell" - a cautionary tale about drug abuse that was clearly aimed towards him and at least one other band member. Rossington has admitted repeatedly that he's the "Prince Charming" of the song who crashed his car into an oak tree while drunk and stoned on Quaaludes. Van Zant, at least, was making a serious attempt to clean up his act and curtail the cycle of boozed-up brawling that was part of Skynyrd's reputation.

1977's Street Survivors'' turned out to be a showcase for guitarist/vocalist Steve Gaines, who had joined the band just a year earlier and was making his studio debut with them. Publicly and privately, Ronnie Van Zant marveled at the multiple talents of Skynyrd's newest member, claiming that the band would "all be in his shadow one day." Gaines' contributions included his co-lead vocal with Van Zant on the co-written "You Got That Right" and the rousing guitar boogie "I Know A Little" which he had written before he joined Skynyrd. So confident was Skynyrd's leader of Gaines' abilities that the album (and some concerts) featured Gaines delivering his self-penned bluesy "Ain't No Good Life" -. The album also included the hit singles "What's Your Name" and "That Smell". The band was poised for their biggest tour yet, including fulfilling Van Zant's lifelong dream of headlining New York's Madison Square Garden.''

Barefoot
Something I read, but don't have a handy reference for, might be a helpful addition to the page. I read that Van Zant sang on stage barefoot, and gave his reason as being that it was his way to feel the crowd and also feel the electricity in the room. RadioKAOS (talk) 05:11, 3 September 2010 (UTC)

Quotations
I have removed several quotations, which are all unsourced. Please read Verifiability - particularly the line "All quotations and any material challenged or likely to be challenged must be attributed to a reliable published source using an inline citation". Thanks,

Derek R Bullamore (talk) 10:29, 24 April 2011 (UTC)

Jewish?
Is the van zant family descendants of jewish people? Zant is a jewish surname that means sand. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.103.129.149 (talk) 00:29, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion: You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 01:52, 23 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Ronnie Van Zant wearing a cowboy hat, circa 1973.jpg