![]() The definitive story about the band’s name… “It took their breath away to see how well we went over and how we broke their only rule: don’t go out on the tongue.” At the climax of a rousing set, Ronnie encouraged his guitarists to solo on the stage’s extending ramp – in the shape of the Stones’ famous tongue logo. Years later, Ronnie pissed off Mick Jagger when Lynyrd Skynrd opened for the Rolling Stones in 1976.Īfter smoking pot with Jack Nicholson, according to Gary Rossington, the band was especially loose for their opening slot with the Stones at Knebworth Park in the U.K. Newly introduced to Burns, Van Zant, with guitarists Gary Rossington and Allen Collins, assembled that afternoon at Burns’ carport and jammed to the Rolling Stones’ “Time Is on My Side.” “It caught me behind the shoulder blades and took out every breath I ever had my whole life,” says Burns, who died in 2015, in archival footage. The band owes its formation to an errant line drive hit by Ronnie Van Zant.Īs a member of the Green Pigs baseball team in Jacksonville, Florida, Van Zant nearly killed drummer Bob Burns with a hard hit baseball to the temple or the back, depending on who’s telling the story. While the film awaits a wider release – it’s currently screening at film festivals – here’s 10 things we learned from If I Leave Here Tomorrow. “But Ronnie was the one who said when it’s our time to go, you can kiss my ass good bye.” “Things were going wrong with the plane a little bit,” says Rossington about the apparent shoddiness of the aircraft. ![]() That now legendary and near mythical crash – which killed Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, Honkettes backup singer Cassie Gaines, assistant tour manager Dean Kilpatrick and the pilot and co-pilot of the Convair 420 – frames If I Leave Here Tomorrow. But the film does break new ground, especially via fresh interviews with guitarist Gary Rossington – the sole original member of the current Skynyrd incarnation – who opens up like never before on the persona of singer Ronnie Van Zant, the band’s hardscrabble beginnings and the fatal 1977 plane crash. ![]() The movie steers clear of the rebirth of the group, currently on its farewell tour, and Kijak said at a recent screening at the Nashville Film Festival that he wants to make a second part. Director Stephen Kijak’s excellent documentary If I Leave Here Tomorrow: A Film About Lynyrd Skynyrd doesn’t claim to be an exhaustive history of the Southern rock band. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |