![]() ![]() ![]() Without that change of style, would Skynyrd have been successful in the ’80s? Probably not.”īill Bentley, author of “Smithsonian Rock and Roll: Live and Unseen,” which comes out next week, said he thinks the band’s talent would have taken it to new heights in the ’80s and ’90s. “I don’t see Skynyrd changing their style like those other bands did. ![]() “Skynyrd’s attitude was always ‘This is our style, we don’t compromise,’ ” said Harrison, who lives in Riverside and plays guitar in three bands, Raven Cain, Glutton and the Tommy Harrison Group. Tommy Harrison, professor of music, business and technology at the University of Central Florida, said he can’t imagine Skynyrd changing its sound to fit the styles of the day. I think there would have been some lean years in the late ’80s and into the ’90s, when they might have experienced a resurgence of popularity and achieved kind of an iconic status.” “But even if they had managed to turn that into a successful run, I think it would have been short-lived because that kind of rock didn’t last. “Maybe they would have adapted and transformed themselves into something that was closer to mainstream arena rock, which was becoming the rock flavor of the day,” Reish said. 38 Special and Molly Hatchet, both also from Jacksonville - managed to transition into the ’80s by changing their sound and bringing in outside writers. Southern rock was on the wane by the late ’70s and disco, electronic music, hair metal and MTV were just around the corner. Had the plane crash never happened, Skynyrd might still be around and playing sold-out shows, but getting there wouldn’t have been pretty, said Gregory Reish, director of the Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University. If you need further evidence of the band’s continuing popularity, just watch the crowd light up at a Jaguars game when they play “Sweet Home Alabama” over the stadium PA system. Bands as diverse as Uncle Kracker, Alabama and Cheap Trick have appeared on Skynyrd tribute albums, and jam band Phish and country rocker Eric Church both covered Skynyrd’s “The Ballad of Curtis Loew” during recent Jacksonville shows.ĭISCOGRAPHY | The music of Lynyrd Skynyrd Lynyrd Skynyrd was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. The band is widely respected in the music world. They’ve played more than 1,500 shows since re-forming in ’87. Augustine Amphitheatre just last week and has played more than 50 concerts this year. The band played a sold-out show at the St. Skynyrd’s albums don’t sell like they used to - the band’s first five albums all went gold or platinum none of the subsequent studio releases have - but they can still sell tickets. Drummer Artimus Pyle is still alive and playing, but estranged from the band. ![]() Guitarist Allen Collins, bass player Leon Wilkeson and pianist Billy Powell survived the crash but died years later. If the plane had not crashed, what might have become of Lynyrd Skynyrd? What if Van Zant and Gaines had not died and the band continued to build on the momentum that took it to the top of the rock heap? Would Skynyrd’s popularity have grown or would egos have driven them apart? Would they have changed their sound to fit in during the MTV ’80s? Would they have embraced country? Twenty others onboard were badly injured. Singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines and backup singer Cassie Gaines, plus the band’s road manager and the two pilots died in the crash. Forty years ago today, the band was flying from a show in Greenville, S.C., to the next stop on the tour, in Baton Rouge, La., when their chartered Convair CV-240 ran out of fuel and crashed in the Mississippi woods. They already were kings of the Southern rock scene, they’d added a new hotshot guitar player to the lineup and their new album, “Street Survivors,” had just been released. Forty years ago, things were looking up for the Jacksonville boys in Lynyrd Skynyrd. ![]()
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