Freebirds

by BRANT, MARLEY

• ISBN13: 9780823083213
• ISBN10: 0823083217
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2002-01-01
• Publisher: Billboard Books

Summary

A biography of the roots, evolution and eventual emergence of rock and rolland, Lynyrd Skynyrd. Though plagued by personal tragedy, numerous personnelhanges and the untimely deaths of some of its founding members, Lynyrdkynyrd has continued to record, tour and produce albums. This volumeeatures in-depth biographies and inside stories of intricate inter-bandelationships, charges of manslaughter and broken contracts. There arenterviews with Charlie Daniels, Gregg Allman, Warren Hayes and Allen Woody.

Table of Contents

Beginnings	8	(7)
One Percent	15	(14)
On to Muscle Shoals	29	(22)
Mister Yankee Slicker	51	(12)
Pronounced	63	(18)
Second Album, Second Helping	81	(22)
Nuthin' Fancy, Just Skynyrd	103	(15)
Bullets Returned	118	(14)
One More from the Street Survivors	132	(13)
A New Beginning but the End of the Line	145	(13)
Sadness and Memories	158	(11)
Picking up the Pieces	169	(8)
Starting Over	177	(14)
The Price of Success	191	(8)
The Last Rebels	199	(17)
The Beat Goes On	216	(19)
Coming Home	235	(9)
Selected Discography	244	(1)
Bibliography	245	(5)
Photo Credits	250	(1)
Index	251

Excerpts

Beginnings

Jacksonville, Florida, is similar in many ways to almost any other seaboard metropolis. Although waterfronts will always have their share of lovers and muggers, in recent years a major renovation of the waterfront along the St. John's River has brought a yuppie affluence to the Jacksonville of old. Jacksonville has widespread appeal to a variety of industry and tourism interests. It is a vital American city, with a vibrant social scene. That scene was in its infancy in the 1970s and has continued to develop into the new century.

For reasons difficult to determine, in the seventies a coterie of musical talent from this coastal environment erupted and flowed throughout the music world. The Allman Brothers Band's roots were somewhat based in this southern city, as were those of Blackfoot, Grinderswitch, .38 Special, and a band of ostensible misfits that called themselves Lynyrd Skynyrd. What was it about Jacksonville that bred so worthy a group of longhaired musical rebels? "I think the water or something," says Blackfoot and future Skynyrd guitarist Rickey Medlocke. "I used to ask my dad this stuff. 'Dad, there are a lot of bands here. What is it down here?' We really attributed it to Florida being a very transient state. Jacksonville [is a] big Navy town. You got Mayport, you got the Naval Air Station, Cecil Field, you got all these big naval bases there. So, first of all, you got a lot of people that lived in the military. You had the Jacksonville shipyards that brought in a lot of families. Jacksonville was a blue-collar kind of town. I believe it was because of all these roots [in country and bluegrass music] that just happened to be in and around the north Florida/south Georgia area, and it went all the way up into Nashville. The Allman Brothers were from Daytona [and later Jacksonville], and Dickey Betts and all them guys were from Sarasota. You had the Outlaws like Hughie and all of 'em ... they came out of Tampa. Lynyrd Skynyrd comes out of Jacksonville, Blackfoot comes out of Jacksonville, the Allmans hung out in and around Jacksonville, Grinderswitch, all these bands. There were a lot of 'em. Wet Willie was from around the south Georgia, north Florida area. And I attribute it to all the transients that came in around [that] area."

Skynyrd's current lead vocalist Johnny Van-Zant says he doesn't know why so many rock bands came out of Jacksonville. "Maybe nothing else to do," he laughs. "That or jail. Just a bunch of good people got together and played music. I think it just got on a roll, kind of like the Seattle scene."

The fact that these bands started out attempting to plant their feet in New York and California's musical monopoly created a certain camaraderie that also reinforced the Jacksonville influence. "We used to loan each other gear and stuff like that, and help each other out, man," says Medlocke. "Whereas today I don't see that. It's like me, me, me, you know what I mean? Like a self-indulgence thing."

Back in the sixties, many of the people who lived in Jacksonville found the small city fairly routine and uninspiring. It was primarily a naval city, complete with bases, harbors, and the associated small industry that the military usually brings with it. Jacksonville was a transient city, yes, but the communities within it consisted of a variety of societies. There were the "Navy people," the thousands who toiled to make a living from the analogous industry, those who coordinated the city's commerce, and more than a handful of refugees from the Old South, looking to hang on to that age-old culture while accepting that, indeed, things were definitely changing. Jacksonville was growing and with that growth came many transformations.

At the onset of the sixties, it was too early in the game to determine just what those changes were going to be and how they would affect Jacksonville. So the everyday life of the average blue-collar Jacksonvillian, for the most part, just continued as it always had. For the average male, you got up, went to work, hung out, and went to bed. If you were lucky, you laughed with friends and you drank a little beer. You went to church, maybe you did a little fishing, or went to the dog track. It was a hard life but a good life.

Unbeknownst to one particular suburban family in "Jax," after the sixties, things would never be the same. Within the suburbs of Jacksonville was an area that came to be known as Shanty Town. Among the less fortunate living in the area was a solid base of hardworking blue-collar families. Among these was the family of Lacy Van-Zant. Lacy was born in 1915 in Nassau County, Florida, in a town called Evergreen, to logger George Van-Zant, Jr. and his wife Florence. One of eleven children, Lacy's name was a derivative of his grandmother's use of "lazy baby," given to him by his father. Lacy married his second wife, Marion Hicks, in 1947, after an earlier marriage and divorce, and in addition to Lacy's daughter Betty JoAnn by his first wife, the couple had five children of their own. Lacy held a variety of jobs, eventually settling on a career in trucking. He worked steadily and set a good example for his children as a hard worker and dedicated family man. A little fishing, a little hanging out with friends, a little beer....

It would be Lacy and Marion's first child together who would change their life. Born weighting just a little over five pounds, Ronald Wayne Van-Zant entered the world on January 15, 1948, at St. Vincent's Hospital in Jacksonville. Ronnie was the second of Lacy's six children, which included Betty JoAnn, Darlene, Marlene, Donnie, and Johnny. Ronnie was a happy baby and the apple of his parents' eyes. Ronnie entered first grade at Hyde Park Elementary School at the age of six. By the time Ronnie was in second grade, the family had moved to Woodcrest Road on the west side of Jacksonville, to a house where Lacy still lives today.

Ronnie VanZant, as he would later spell it, was a fairly precocious child, always inventive and extremely curious. Interested in math and history in school, he dove headfirst into the things that he enjoyed during his leisure time: baseball, fishing, singing, and friends. He was too young for the beer. Whatever it was that Ronnie devoted his time to, he had a driving need to be the best. He felt the limitations of his somewhat grandiose aspirations but knew from the get-go that if he put his mind to something, he would eventually find few limitations. According to his family, Ronnie felt destined to somehow dig his way out of the barrenness of his lower-middle-class neighborhood in the Shanty Town community. "It was rough," Ronnie told reporter Scott Cohen. "Particularly where I grew up. It was like the ghetto, black and white, and there was a lot of street fighting and a lot of adventure. It was a rough area of town, the Shanty Town." Ronnie wasn't quite sure how his escape might come about, but he never had any doubts that it would.

Ronnie loved to fish and would spend quite a bit of time with his line in the water. He was a good fisherman, approaching the sport with as headstrong a desire to succeed as he did everything else. Ronnie was often seen headed down to nearby Cedar Creek to go fishing either with his tight circle of friends or by himself. Ronnie would often return to fishing as a means of leaving behind the troublesome distractions of the outside world. Ronnie loved to fish and think about things. The two pastimes went well together.

Ronnie also possessed a darkly mischievous side and enjoyed spearheading pranks with other kids in the neighborhood. Future friend and bandmate Leon Wilkeson was told one such story by Ronnie's childhood friend, Gene Odom. "There was a gang that stole bicycles from them for years," Leon recalled. "I mean, they were so slick, Gene said, that they'd steal a radio and the music would still be playing. Well, him and Ronnie caught a bobcat, put him in a suitcase, set him out on the road for this gang to pick up."

In addition to taking on the kids of Shanty Town, Ronnie loved to sing. Lacy remembers him singing at the top of his lungs in the bathtub. It wasn't the squeaky voice of a developing adolescent but rather a lusty, heartfelt delivery. From an early age Ronnie had a knack for imitating singers he heard on his parents' radio or picking up a tune here and there from around the neighborhood. Ronnie especially liked country music. He had been exposed to it early and heard quite a bit of it during those times when he accompanied his father on some of his Atlantic Seaboard runs in the eighteen-wheeler.

"He loved country music," remembers his younger brother Donnie. "Merle Haggard was his favorite country artist. We actually grew up around that. That's what my mother and father listened to. We listened to Merle Haggard and Mel Tillis ... Roy Acuff and all of them. That's what we grew up around. We were big Elvis Presley fans too."

There were times when Ronnie's soulful renditions got him into trouble. One time his mother had to go down to Ramona Elementary School to counsel young Ronnie against singing "Beer Drinkin' Daddy" and "Ricochet Romance" in the classroom. Ronnie may have gotten a whupping, but he couldn't help himself. Ronnie was never one to let anything get in the way of a good song.

As his teenage years progressed, Ronnie became less known for his singing and more infamous for his short temper and bullying personality. "Ronnie was a very aggressive person," says Robert E. Lee High School classmate Charlie Faubion. "Ronnie had a violent part of him that was very real. Ronnie was a mean, aggressive-type person. He would never take anything from any stranger or any person. If you crossed him, he would take care of you. That's the way he was in high school. He actually went out of his way to seek out confrontation. In high school, he was a bad person."

Ronnie was the first to recognize the badass components of his character. Although he knew fighting and mouthing off didn't endear him to a certain element of his day-to-day society, he did little to change his approach. He'd simply acknowledge his shortcomings and shrug. "I'm a boy only a mom could love," he'd often say.

When he was fourteen, Ronnie heard through the grapevine that a group of his fellow students at Lakeshore Junior High were putting together a band. They named their venture "Us" and held auditions for a singer. Ronnie didn't believe in pulling any punches. He appeared at the auditions and told the band they need look no further-he was their new singer. Ronnie had a well-earned reputation as a no-nonsense man of the fist. When he made his declaration, the band quickly huddled and decided that he was in. Ronnie VanZant would be Us' new vocalist.

Ronnie kept busy during his mid-teen years. In addition to going to school and singing with Us, Ronnie also started his first after-school job. He managed to land a position bagging groceries at the local grocery store. Ronnie also met Virginia-born Nadine Incoe while he was in high school and the two soon became more than friends. According to Lacy, Nadine was one hundred percent behind her boyfriend's ambition to perform as a singer.

Ronnie liked singing in the band and felt that it was something he could do well. Heck, singers in bands made good money. If he was as good as he thought he was, maybe he could make money too. That beat bagging groceries. By the time he started thinking of singing professionally, Ronnie declared himself a serious fan of the melodic rock ballads sung by Free's Paul Rodgers. "Ronnie idolized the man," Leon Wilkeson would later say. While others were turning to guitars and drums, Ronnie began to feel strongly that he might have something unique and dynamic to offer as a vocalist. Ronnie saw little difference in the deliveries and drive of Paul Rodgers and Ronnie VanZant. If serious music lovers appreciated Rodgers, why wouldn't they appreciate VanZant?

"What he liked about [Rodgers] so much was just that singing ability," says Donnie Van Zant. "He loved the group Free to begin with, the way their music was to begin with. I think Skynyrd got some of the influences from that, 'cause they had a bluesy sort of feel to 'em."

"There's a history that Ronnie's favorite singer was Paul Rodgers," says Charlie Faubion. "I think he learned to like him later on. To me, his early idol as a singer was probably Mick Jagger."

"I don't think [Ronnie] was influenced by Paul's singing," says Ronnie's widow, Judy VanZant Jenness. "He never really tried to put that into his voice. He thought Paul Rodgers was one of the best singers in the world. He truly thought Paul had a great voice. I think mostly the Free sound that I could hear [from Skynyrd] would be in the guitars. The drive that Free and Bad Company had in their songs. The heavy bass and the guitar. That's really where that Free thing came in. But [Ronnie] really thought Paul Rodgers had an incredible voice, which he does. I wouldn't say the Stones were one of [his] top groups. When I first met the guys in the band, they were listening to groups like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Illinois Speed Press, Cream, stuff like that. [But] Ronnie didn't move near as much as Mick does."

Regardless of whom he was influenced by the most, Ronnie started to think about fronting his own band. He had a plan. He would surround himself with the best musicians he could find and through hard work, something that Ronnie was very familiar with through family ties and Southern roots, that band would have every reason in the world to succeed.

It is likely that Ronnie was so driven mostly because of his association with his father. Lacy Van-Zant had a strong influence on Ronnie throughout his life. Ronnie and Lacy had a very deep but complex relationship. While Lacy was extraordinarily supportive of Ronnie and his musical career, Ronnie gave the impression that he felt that he could never live up to Lacy's expectations, whatever they were. Ronnie would often point out that while all of his other siblings graduated, which made their father quite proud, he was a high school dropout. Yet it is doubtful that Lacy ever made Ronnie feel bad about not finishing school. Lacy was quite satisfied with his son's success in other areas.

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Excerpted from FREEBIRDS by Marley Brant Copyright © 2002 by Marley Brant
Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.