I did get in a car wreck, but we got a good song out of it.
Gary Rossington
I sound like an old bullfrog when I sing.
I could write a dozen different songs with the same three or four chords, but they'd all be entirely different.
Nothing in the past is as important as the future.
In Lynyrd Skynyrd, we always got our recognition.
Jacksonville back in the 1960s was kind of a redneck town. There were only two or three places where you could play our kind of hard rock - or 'hippie music' as it was called back then. You had to go to Georgia or some place else.
We travel all over the world, and it seems like the South is the place where the people are nicest and they think of the fellow man more.
Old-school rock bands, and blues bands, too, are kind of a dying breed.
We're not really for anything but a better America, a stronger country. And we do support our soldiers.
All we lived for was playing and being out on the road. That was our dream, and it came true.
We used to travel through Alabama a lot and get onto back roads and just marvel at how pretty it was and how nice the people were.
With life and grandkids and the whole thing, every day is busy, but I'm so thankful to God that I'm still here.
I think that 'God & Guns' turned out a little more 'country' than we wanted it to be.
Keith Moon was the funniest guy around. The stuff he did was insane. He was like somebody straight out of the movies.
I've always used the Peavey Mace equipment. I've got a few of them. They're kind of like Marshalls. You know, we used to use Marshalls, but Peaveys just seem to last longer and push the sound better.
I'm feeling real good and trying to take care of myself and living healthy. As good as I can feel.
Our parents helped us, or we wouldn't be here. Lacy Van Zant and my mother used to sign for amps or loan us money to get to the gig or take us in their car. It's just like little sports guys - Little League and football players - whose parents help them. That's why they get good.
We didn't have much money when I was younger, so I had to collect Coke bottles and cash them in and get a paper route to afford a guitar. That guitar from Sears came with a case and an amp and everything all in one. It was really cool.
We want to challenge Marilyn Manson and the rap people with the bad lyrics to write some positive songs.
Our redneck reputation back then was originally just because we had long hair. Back in the '60s and the early '70s, in the South that was kind of a no-no. At all the Army and Navy bases we'd play, we would get into fights with the soldiers over our hair. But I think our music overshadowed everything else.
Man, I love Limp Bizkit, Johnny Lange, many people.
You go through stuff, and you keep going.
Everybody's got a right to their own opinion, you know?
We loved Neil Young and all the music he's given the world.
Buffalo Springfield had three guitar players, and we thought they were so cool. So we started doing the three-guitar thing, and people started calling us the 'guitar army' and all this stuff.
We wore blue jeans and T-shirts. Our music was our gimmick.
If Marilyn Manson would write a song that says, 'Do your damn homework,' it would make the world a better place, and it wouldn't hurt him at all. And if he doesn't like it, to hell with him. He can come fight us - by the bicycle racks.
Through the years, people like the KKK and skinheads kinda kidnapped the Dixie or Southern flag from its tradition and the heritage of the soldiers.
Sometimes music isn't the way to talk politics, you know?
I've got two lives. Weekends, I go out and play rock star. Weekdays, I play granddad. You can't beat that.
As long as the fans keep wanting to hear new records from us every few years, we'll keep making them.
We wanted to be America's Rolling Stones, to be the biggest band over here.
We were kinda rebels. From the wrong side of the tracks. Down where we were raised, it was a tough town.
It's really weird when we're out of the country, whether we're in Brazil or Greece or some crazy place like France or Germany. When you hear your song on the radio or in a store, and you're in a different country, it's really freaky and surreal.
I love Eric Clapton and what he did with Cream; 'Spoonful' and 'Crossroads,' those are probably the coolest solos.
Jimi Hendrix's 'Electric Ladyland' and 'All Along the Watchtower,' those solos are just so cool.
I've had some heart problems, and I'm on the straight and narrow.
I don't know if anybody will ever be as good as Hendrix again.
We're a rock n' roll band. We're more music and rock n' roll than politics.
For one reason or another, the good God has left me on this planet; surely, I will not sit around and not do what I do naturally.
'Freebird' is an anthem, and 'Simple Man' is a very nice song.
If we do not play 'Alabama,' our fans would kill us.
We know what the Dixie flag represents and its heritage; the Civil War was fought over States rights.
There's only seven chords, so you got to use the same ones over and over. It's all in what you do with them.
The more wild experiences you have, the better songs you can write.
I think people who really want to do something do it. No matter what. And they won't quit until they do it.
The first time we ever used the Dixie flag for our backdrop was actually when we went over to Europe in 1970. It looked good, so we all liked it. We never meant any racial things by it.
The only reason we used the Confederate flag was just because we were from the South, and we were proud of that.
You have to learn to live with the hard things in life and go on.
I just take every day on faith.
