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Neil Young’s opinion on Lynyrd Skynyrd
.Besides being one of the most successful and influential musicians of all time, Neil Young also was mentioned in songs by other artists. Obviously, the most famous one is "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd.
"Well, I heard Mr. Young sing about her. Well, I heard old Neil put her down I hope Neil Young will remember. A Southern man don't need him around, anyhow," the lyrics said. Over the decades Young talked about that famous track and the band Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Neil Young's opinion on Lynyrd Skynyrd
Neil Young actually likes Lynyrd Skynyrd and even said they were the greatest Southern Rock band of all time. "Lynyrd Skynyrd was the greatest Southern Rock band ever. Amazing band and they were so great, it was such a disaster when they died in that plane crash. (I didn't know them personally), they were looking for a song (once). I sent them 'Powderfinger' and I think they really liked it. They wanted to do one of my songs that everybody knew, that was like ok (there was no bad blood between us)."
"(There was) a lot of respect as far as musicianship and everything, it's just the roles we played, you know. I said what I said and they were from the south and they loved the south. They are talking about 'Sweet Home Alabama' and everything. It's ok, I mean, it's part of the world we live in. It was good (to have this dialogue through our music), Neil Young said in an interview with Howard Stern in 2014.
Sweet Home Alabama" was inspired by two Neil Young songs: "Alabama" and "Southern Man." It was written by Lynyrd Skynyrd as a response to those songs, which criticized racism and social injustice in the South. The band felt that Young's lyrics were too broad and unfair to the region, as not everyone was like he described in the songs. But there was never an animosity between the artists, both were fans of each other.
Young said "Sweet Home Alabama" is one of his favorite songs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p8GXZcdrIk&pp=ygUSc3dlZXQgaG9tZSBhbGFiYW1h
Talking with Rolling Stone magazine in 1979, he revealed that "Sweet Home Alabama" was one of his favorite songs of all time. “I’d rather play ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ than ‘Southern Man’ anytime. I first heard it and really liked the way they played their guitars. Then I heard my own name in it and thought, ‘Now this is pretty great,'” Neil Young told Cameron Crowe (future movie director) in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in 1979.
Talking with Mojo magazine in 1995, Young once again praised the song, even saying he played it live a couple of times. "Oh, they didn't really put me down! But then again, maybe they did! (laughs) But not in a way that matters. Shit, I think Sweet Home Alabama is a great song. I've actually performed it live a couple of times myself."
The Canadian-American musician even performed the song live, adding a small part of it to his own track "Alabama" in 1977, as a tribute to the band, who had recently suffered a tragic plane crash. "Sweet Home Alabama" was part of the band's album "Second Helping" released in 1974. As a single, the track peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. At the time, the band was formed by Ronnie Van Zant, Gary Rossington, Allen Collins, Ed King, Leon Wilkeson, Bob Burns and Billy Powell.
Ronnie Van Zant was wearing a Neil Young shirt on their final album
https://youtu.be/xCd43ntfxB0
The airplane crash happened only a few days after Lynyrd Skynyrd released the album "Street Survivors", the final one with the classic line-up. Curiously, the late vocalist Ronnie Van Zant was wearing a Neil Young shirt from "Tonight's The Night" record. He also used it during concerts in order to show fans that they were fans of Neil's work.
"We wrote Alabama as a joke. We didn't even think about it. The words just came out that way. We just laughed like hell, and said 'Ain't that funny'... We love Neil Young, we love his music," Ronnie Van Zant said in an interview featured on Skynyrd's "The Box Set" collection.
The guitarist Gary Rossington, who survived the plane crash and was the band's guitarist also in their new line-up until his death in 2023, told Sirius XM in 2018 that they really liked Neil.
Gary Rossington said:
(Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) "We love Neil Young, always did, still do. We just heard 'Southern Man' and 'Alabama', his songs kind of putting the south down. 'Sweet Home Alabama' was a magic song, it just toured through all the back roads of Alabama. It's beautiful, 'Big Wheels Keep on Turnin'' is just about us travelling through Alabama and loaded," Gary Rossington said.
The tragic airplane crash happened on October 20, 1977, in a wooded area in Mississippi when they were going to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The aircraft ran out of fuel and tried to land but struck trees and broke apart. Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, Dean Kilpatrick and both pilots sadly passed away.
The band was reformed in 1989 with Ronnie's younger brother Johnny on vocals and is still active. But the current line-up doesn't have any original or classic members, since Gary Rossington passed away in 2023. According to Johnny and Rickey Medlocke, Gary told them to keep going, preserving the band's legacy.The post Neil Young’s opinion on Lynyrd Skynyrd appeared first on Rock and Roll Garage.