Before the band was called Lynyrd Skynyrd (LS), Allen Collins married Kathy Johns in 1970. Allen Collins was one of three high school buddies - along with Ronnie Van Zant and Gary Rossington - who formed a series of bands with names like "My Backyard", "The Noble Five", and "One Percent".
Ronnie, Allen and Gary eventually released five albums as a band [Billboard peak](names of popular songs)
1973 - Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd [27](Gimme Three Steps, Simple Man, Free Bird)
1974 - Second Helping [12] (Sweet Home Alabama, Don't Ask Me No Questions, Call Me The Breeze)
1975 - Nuthin' Fancy [9] (Saturday Night Special, On The Hunt)
1976 - Gimme Back My Bullets [20] (Title Song)
1977 - Street Survivors [5] (What's Your Name, That Smell, I Know A Little)
The band members, especially Ronnie, were notoriously heavy drinkers and fighters with rumors of Ronnie being capable of lashing out at any time. As one would expect this led to problems and, in my opinion, is the root of their "bad luck".
Lynyrd Skynyrd as a band broke up for awhile but then was resurrected. It was never the same after the plane crash. Allen and Gary formed the Rossington-Collins band while Allen's wife Kathy was pregnant with a third child. Kathy died of hemorrhage during the pregnancy.
I've always had this theory that most great bands only have three maybe four good albums in them. I'm not sure if they run out of ideas or maybe the environment that produced such rich artistry dissipates, but for some reason three to four is usually it.
If you look at their five albums, their best stuff was on the first three. I rank their best songs as Simple Man, Free Bird, Call Me The Breeze, Sweet Home Alabama, Gimmee Three Steps (in that order). And they didn't write Call Me The Breeze - it was written by J.J. Cale of Escondido, CA.
So to my eye, it appears the band was running out of ideas already - the loss of future musical classics was probably not that great.
But the personal losses certainly were. Mostly due to bad behavior it seems, with one very unfortunate pregnancy complication and one bad decision to fly on a plane with known problems. I surely wish none of these things had happened to them.
Now, the feud with Neil Young. I've poked into this a bit, and I've found it is urban legend. No such feud existed. There are interviews with both Ronnie and Neil Young and they both say there was no feud.
Ronnie claims the Sweet Home Alabama lyrics were written in jest and that many of the lyrics are misinterpreted. Looking at the evidence presented on multiple websites, I would have to agree.
Let's start with the song Sweet Home Alabama. It contains the lyrics:
In Birmingham they love the Governor
(Boo, boo, boo)
This refers to the black children killed in the Birmingham church bombing and the racist governor George Wallace who helped fuel the situation. The "boo, boo, boo" voices LS's displeasure with the situation and helps point out that while Sweet Home Alabama expresses fondness for the south and Alabama, the band members knew there were certainly problems with the south too. Ronnie even stated that his problem with Young's "Southern Man" was not the thoughts expressed, but that it made it sound like all southern men were that way. They were not then and are not now.
If that's not proof enough that the feud did not exist, consider that Ronnie is wearing a Neil Young t-shirt on the cover of the last album Street Survivors. This was a failed attempt to quash the feud rumor once and for all. The Skynyrd-Young feud myth continues to this day.
Jason, your research I think is very accurate. It is sad that no one in the overall Skynyrd family has taken the opportunity to write/publish more about theses young men and their personal lives. As fans for decades we have had to rely on the same recycled urban legendary stories. A few books have been published but are limited to largely well know facts and spin.
ReplyDeleteRonnie and Allen (Steve and Cassie too) obviously died too young. Bad luck had little to do with lives. In fact they were blessed with ultra-good luck in some ways. I find it to be an unfortunate reality that the children of Ronnie and Allen have not done something to promote a deeper legacy of the their fathers. Ronnie's music lives on as does Allen's, however their dark side killed them, selfish and suborn they were at times. Their lack of education, personal issues, coupled with their success is the true story. A true lesson for the young and reckless among us today.
Artimus is a bitter man over his issues and the selfishness of his existing ex-band mate, and others closely associated with the "Skynyrd Family." To me, Ronnie's ex, his daughters, and many others should step up to the plate and round-out the deeper story and legacy of their lives. The good parts have been told, the deeper selfish side engrained by emotionally abusive fathers, the aftermath of the same would go a long way to build the bridge so many of those who not just served the band but suffered from the fame and lack of parenting. These guys were not role models. In the public domain it appears some of the off-spring have followed in the same pathetic footsteps. Ronnie nor Allen, if alive today, would have wanted that. No doubt Allen knew he ruined his life with his behavior, he literally sat in his waste by product as a result. Ronnie had a good heart, he was a mean drunk (where did he get it from? I have a good guess). Gary readily admits they had next to no education, they had egos that came with success and a domineering boss, who based in part on lack of education, got onto the plane with the rest following like lemurs. It wasn't the first rock-star plane crash or the last but it was totally avoidable. There lies the untold story. Boys coming out of no-mans land and making it to the top of the heap and no sooner getting there and it all taken away. Sadly, those who shared their lives with Ronnie and Allen are either dead, or in several individual cases, are too self-absorbed in keeping a façade on the legacy the benefits they reap to do the courageous thing and tell the true story of what happens when kids are raised without guidance needed to make it to true adulthood. Many of them were emotionally abandoned as kids, they left the same for their own.
I totally agree. Many fans would love to know more about the bandmates when not on tour. As well as the families they left to grieve for them.
Delete"I rank their best songs as Simple Man, Free Bird, Call Me The Breeze, Sweet Home Alabama, Gimmee Three Steps (in that order)."
ReplyDeleteMust disagree. Not a bad song on Street Survivors. For my liking I chose the songs on this album. The songs you list are great...but BEST is a big word. My 2¢
Google brought me here. Reading up again about Lynyrd Skynyrd as a group and its members. Decided to look into the death of "debra jean watts jacksonville" (that's the search term used) and your site was the first hit. Good job!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the effort to write this blog entry. The pics are a nice inclusion. Sadly, I found the Find-a-Grave entry for Debra Watts and there were no "flowers" placed at her on-line "grave." I would have left one but some weirdo moderator at Find-a-Grave banned me from leaving "flowers" years ago for some bizarre reason I could never determine. Maybe one of your readers here can leave the dead-too-young lass a "flower" at her on-line "grave."
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/169042187/debra-jean-watts
I stood in front of Steve the night before they were killed coming out of Greenville .. it would be their last show. I looked at Steve all concert he would look back probably think he has to play guitar he's watched every chord I fret. They were amazing that night. It's a thought in My memory forever. I was a huge Allen Collins fan but got pushed to left side of stage and stood right in front of Steve Gaines with Ronnie to my right. Ill always miss them. We had seen them earlier that year May in Columbia and had to see them after Street Survivors was released with Steve Gaines.
ReplyDeleteSteve G would have gone on to be a guitar hero he was off the hook, Steve W how lucky you were to see them that evening Wow!
ReplyDeleteI just finished a road trip from Nashville to California, taking route 66 most of the way, then up to Tacoma WA. I stopped in the Sequoia forest to see a Bur Oak tree I planted on 30 October 1977. I was amazed it was still there and the size after 46 years. It was 4 years old when I planted it so it 50 years old now. I was more surprised at how much I still miss him. I wanted something that stood out alone among giants. That's what he wanted his band to be before LS, the biggest among giants. It hit me at the funeral what he said years ago, so I picked a Bur Oak , Oak for obvious reasons but Bur Oak amoung the giant redwoods? That surely should stand out amoung giants and it does, just like Ronnie did. It was tagged in 1991 with a brass ½" tag by a forester. I wonder now what theories they have how a golf ball size nut made its way to the Sequoia's.
ReplyDeleteI head back Monday by way of a burger bar in Utah Ron, and I ate elk burgers one day years ago. I can't believe how long it's been. We wrote a song together and told him to keep my name out of it, I'm glad now that I made that choice. Someday my book will come out after I'm dead and then people will know who I am and how to find that Bur Oak in California.