lynyrd skynyrd reunion tour

“People go, ‘How can you write another Free Bird?’ And I go, ‘You can’t.’ Nobody could ever fill Ronnie’s shoes”: The unlikely second coming of Lynyrd Skynyrd

Lynyrd Skynyrd reunited a decade after the plane crash that killed Ronnie Van Zant to launch their second act

“I never have, and I never will, because only one man can sing this song on stage, and that’s my older brother Ronnie Van Zant. So you guys sing for us tonight, OK? Can you let him hear you in rock’n’roll Heaven?”

Placing Ronnie’s Hi-Roller hat on a spotlit mic-stand, Lynyrd Skynyrd ’s Johnny Van Zant leaves the stage. The band that remains strike up the instantly recognisable opening chords, and Free Bird rings out. It’s 1987, and with those chords, and an audience singing Ronnie’s words in full voice, Skynyrd returned…

As resurrections go, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s is one of the more surprising. And successful. A full decade after the crash that decimated them and seemingly confined them to the annals of rock’n’roll history, the South rose, phoenix-like, from the flames…

The Starwood Amphitheater, Nashville, Tennessee was jam-packed for Charlie Daniels’ Volunteer Jam, an annual event hosted by the country star to raise funds for muscular dystrophy. Guitarists Gary Rossington and Ed King, pianist Billy Powell, bassist Leon Wilkeson, drummer Artimus Pyle and Ronnie Van Zant’s kid brother Johnny regrouped with the idea of paying tribute to Ronnie and the band he had led. 

Time has obscured whose idea it actually was, but it was Gary Rossington who galvanised everyone into action. “That was hard, you know?” he admits, a quarter of a century on. “We didn’t wanna go back out ’cos we didn’t have Ronnie, but I thought Johnny was around singing, and I thought he could sing and sounded like Ronnie. We thought if we could go out and do the tribute to Ronnie with Johnny, we could sound like ourselves. And that’s the way that it went.”

The person who would need most convincing, however, was Johnny. Although he’d released a few albums in his own right at the start of the decade, by the mid-80s he’d reached a pivotal point of his own. Turning his back on the record industry, Johnny was making a sound living being his own boss, freighting goods across the US. Music was in his blood though, and he couldn’t quite let it go. He was still writing songs and recording demos, and the stars would align so that he was on the verge of signing a major recording contract to the tune of a quarter of a million dollars with Ahmet Ertegun and Atlantic Records. Then the phone rang. It was Gary Rossington.

The Atlantic deal was offered on a Monday, remembers Johnny, and it was all in the hands of his lawyers. “On the Friday, Gary called me about being in Lynyrd Skynyrd,” he says. “Within one week, it went boom-boom-boom. That was kind of overwhelming. I was like, ‘Holy crap, I’m just a truck driver!’”

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A truck driver, maybe, but one with music in his soul and very deep familial ties to Lynyrd Skynyrd. It was a huge ask: Ronnie was, after all, irreplaceable. Not only in the public’s eyes, but in Johnny’s too. 

“I said, ‘I gotta talk to my dad. Then I gotta talk to my brother, my sisters and my mom. I gotta see what everybody thinks.’ Because after the plane crash happened, we were like, ‘This is the end of Lynyrd Skynyrd.’” 

Following an emotional meeting of the surviving bandmates and spouses in Bay Meadow in Jacksonville, everyone realised that they didn’t want the plane crash to be the last word in the Skynyrd story. They believed there was a big demand from the fans who wanted to see them play again. The consensus in the room was that they believed Ronnie would’ve wanted them to do it, so the Van Zant family gave their blessing to their youngest son for the one-off tribute tour. But how, and even whether, it would work, was still unclear.

That Skynyrd were getting back together was a surprise for everyone involved, and even more surprisingly, the old magic was still there. “It was fun to start playing again,” Rossington told Classic Rock in 2012. “We had [original Skynyrd guitarist] Allen Collins and Leon [Wilkeson] and Billy Powell. We got everybody left that was alive. And we had our old crew. It was fun to see everybody again.”

The previous year, guitarist Allen Collins had been in a car accident that not only claimed his girlfriend’s life, but also left him wheelchair-bound. But even he was along for the ride, acting as musical director while Randall Hall, his colleague from the Allen Collins Band, stood in for him on stage. 

“Allen did the tribute tour with us,” Rossington said. “He had his own bus and it broke his heart, and ours, that he couldn’t come up to play. It was very hard emotionally for him to do that, but we wanted to show the people that we weren’t doing it just for money.

“It was very hard to see him like that, and for him to travel around. He was giving us the OK to do it – he wanted the name and the music to be heard and for us to go about our business. He travelled with us until he just couldn’t anymore. But that was really hard on the band.

Immortalised on vinyl as the double live album Southern By The Grace Of God : Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Tour , the rejuvenated band began to realise that there might be more life in the old dog than just playing some shows. 

“It just felt sad breaking up the family again after that one tour,” says Johnny. “Plus, the fans wanted it. So we made a new record and hit the road, and we’ve been at it ever since.” 

Carrying on wouldn’t be without its difficulties, though. “It got hard after we started playing and doing a tour,” admitted Rossington in 2012. “Everybody had grown apart and separate, and was kind of grown up. We were only in our early 20s when the plane crashed, so after 10 more years you kind of grow up a little more and mature. Things change. So it was harder then. There was a lot of hard feelings and stuff.”

It wasn’t easy for Johnny, either, living up to the spectre of his brother – leading his band, taking control, remaining steadfast for the original members who were relying upon him. Being in the media spotlight, and handling the sometimes insensitive comparisons and critical appraisal, took its toll. But he (and the band) never gave up.

“Probably about the first three or four years, I was very… I don’t want to say uncomfortable, but I still didn’t know if we were doing the right thing,” Johnny says. “But people kept coming and saying how much Skynyrd affected their lives.” It truly was the power of the fondly named Skynyrd Nation that kept them going.

An early obstacle would be the loss of Allen Collins. Having done his best to support the band, he’d never truly recovered from the car accident, and succumbed to pneumonia on January 23, 1990. 

“It was a bad time all round for the band. We were still drinking a lot and doing drugs,” said Rossington. “The songwriting was kinda stifled.”

Assuming a songwriting role for Skynyrd was also initially problematic for Johnny. “I admired what they did – they wrote fantastic songs,” he concedes. “I’ve always had people go, ‘Well, how can you write another Free Bird or Sweet Home Alabama ?’ And I go, ‘You can’t. That was back then. This is now.’ I never tried. Nobody could ever fill Ronnie’s shoes.” 

Of course they couldn’t, but following Collins’ death, the band felt ready to think about entering the studio. Randall Hall remained on guitar in Collins’ stead, and this would be the first time that Johnny would sing for the band in the studio. Released in the summer of 1991, Skynyrd’s first album appearance in 14 years kept it simple. Entitled Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991 , it was fairly warmly received, and served as enough impetus to keep the band going. 

Touring continued apace until the band reached Canada in August. At which point, drummer Artimus Pyle would be the next to leave the Skynyrd fold, citing issues with drugs and alcohol. There would be animosity from the former drummer in later days, but still Skynyrd found the energy to carry on, with Kurt Custer taking over on drums for the first half of the 1990s.

The Last Rebel came in 1993, and while it was greeted with positive reviews in the rock press, it was decidedly more country-like in tone. But the next pivotal change to Skynyrd would come as Free Bird: The Movie was released. Consisting of footage from a live show shot at 1977’s Day On The Green in Oakland, interspersed with interviews, home movies and documentary material, it highlighted Skynyrd at the height of their powers. It also served as the catalyst for the final piece of the Skynyrd jigsaw falling into place for the new millennium. Rickey Medlocke was now best known as Blackfoot’s lead singer and lead guitarist, but he’d also passed through Skynyrd’s ranks in the very early days, occupying the drum stool back in 1970.

It was a chance encounter that would change the course of Medlocke’s life and significantly contribute to Skynyrd’s upward trajectory. “In 1995 I saw the Lynyrd Skynyrd guys at the premiere for the Free Bird movie in Atlanta, Georgia,” he remembers. “We did an all-star jam, and then in 1996 Gary called me up, I sat down and we played some, and he said, ‘Do you wanna do this?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ And this was 16 years ago.”

There was no hesitation in Medlocke agreeing to rejoining the band he’d left behind over two decades earlier. “I was looking for something different in my life. So this was really cool,” he says. He kept his commitment to Blackfoot through 1997, but called it a day with the band he’d founded shortly thereafter. 

“It was incredible!” exclaims Medlocke about being back in the Skynyrd fold. “You know, I’d missed those guys. I’d always enjoyed playing with that band, so it was great to come back and be playing guitar, because I was the drummer the first time around. To come back in as one of the main guitar players was very gratifying and just an honour.”

It was as if Medlocke had never been away. “We had rehearsed for about a week-and-a-half, two weeks, and the very first gig was in West Palm Beach, the Verizon Amphitheater, in May of ’96,” the guitarist says, proudly. “It was dead on, man. Spot on. It worked. And it’s still workin’.”

Bolstered by Medlocke’s songwriting contributions and renewed enthusiasm, Lynyrd Skynyrd rode out the rest of the 90s with two more albums, the self-explanatory Twenty (referencing two decades since the fateful plane crash) and 1999’s Edge Of Forever , but who could ever have predicted that the dawning of the 21st century and its first decade would see the rejuvenated Lynyrd Skynyrd reach the height of their powers? 

As with seemingly everything Skynyrd-shaped though, it wouldn’t be easy ride. The first blow would come on July 27, 2001, when Leon Wilkeson – the band’s stalwart bassist since 1972 – was found dead in his Florida hotel room, chronic liver disease and emphysema claiming him at the age of 49. 

“I’m disappointed in Leon,” Johnny told Classic Rock shortly afterwards. “He lived through a plane crash, how can he let booze screw it all up for him?”

Sadly he did, but it didn’t stop Skynyrd. If anything, the loss made them stronger as they headed into the new millennium. Vicious Cycle – an album with an eerily prophetic title given the benefit of hindsight – would drop in 2003, and by mid-decade the band were finally given their due credit as they were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

Kid Rock – who has never been shy of proclaiming his love for the Florida band – took to the stage at New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel on March 13, 2006, to induct them alongside Black Sabbath , Miles Davis, Blondie and the Sex Pistols. The touring version of Skynyrd – joined by Bob Burns, Artimus Pyle, Ed King and Honkettes JoJo Billingsley and Leslie Hawkins – tore through spirited versions of Sweet Home Alabama and Free Bird .

It was really 2009’s God & Guns that once again marked Skynyrd out as a force to be reckoned with. But, as is seemingly always the way with this band that defies the odds, it was yet another album to be beset with tragedy. 

“I’ll be perfectly honest with you. Number one, it’s the best record I’ve done since I’ve been back with this band, and number two, I think this is the best material the band has written,” Rickey Medlocke told Classic Rock at the time of its release. “I think this is the best record since the original band. And it wasn’t easy to do. It was heavy stress, heavy thoughts every day. We lost members while we were making this record. We had to talk to our bass player, who was too sick to play, on the phone. And it was just killing us. I’m glad we got it out for those boys. And they’re very missed right now.”

They were. Guitarist Hughie Thomasson (who had replaced long-timer Ed King) had left the fold in 2005, but he was still very much a part of the greater Skynyrd family, contributing to the songwriting for God & Guns . A heart attack would take his life in 2007. 

And that was far from the end of it. Ean Evans, the man brought in in 2001 in place of Wilkeson, would lose his hard-fought battle with cancer on May 6, 2009. And finally, brutally culling Lynyrd Skynyrd’s original members to Gary Rossington alone, a heart attack would take the life of keyboard player Billy Powell.

“We went through a lot putting God & Guns together,” Van Zant says. “You know, I was there a few minutes after Billy died. I pulled up to his condo, and the paramedics were walking down the stairs. I said, ‘What’s going on up there?’ They said, ‘Who are you?’ I told ’em I played in a band with Billy, and they told me he just passed away. Talk about surreal. I drove home feeling completely numb. I was not expecting it. With Ean, he had cancer. He put up a great fight, and he was a very religious guy. They both were, so at least I know they’re both in a better place now. 

“But it was our determination: we really set out to finish this thing. We started the record last year and we said, ‘We’re not just gonna finish it, we’re going to make it something those boys would be proud of.’ And I guarantee you that they would be.”

In 2012, they released a new album, Last Of A Dyin’ Breed - a title that was a poignant as it was defiant. As of today, it’s the last record to bear the Skynyrd name. Gary Rossington - the sole remaining founder member, and a survivor in every sense of the word – passed away in 2023, leaving Johnny Van Zant and Rickey Medlocke to carry the torch without him.

“I’m the last original member, so I feel like it’s my job to keep the legacy alive,” Gary Rossington said in 2012. “All my old buddies, all the original guys – Ronnie and everybody – we had a dream to make it big and be heard, and that’s all I’m tryin’ to do, to just keep it going.”

Originally published in Classic Rock Presents Lynyrd Skynyrd: Last Of A Dyin’ Breed

Classic Rock editor Siân has worked on the magazine for longer than she cares to discuss, and prior to that was deputy editor of Total Guitar. During that time, she’s had the chance to interview artists such as Brian May, Slash, Jeff Beck, James Hetfield, Sammy Hagar, Alice Cooper, Manic Street Preachers and countless more. She has hosted The Classic Rock Magazine Show on both TotalRock and TeamRock radio, contributed to CR’s The 20 Million Club podcast and has also had bylines in Metal Hammer, Guitarist, Total Film, Cult TV and more. When not listening to, playing, thinking or writing about music, she can be found getting increasingly more depressed about the state of the Welsh national rugby team and her beloved Pittsburgh Steelers.

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Lynyrd Skynyrd Will Officially Continue Touring in 2023

By Jon Freeman

Jon Freeman

Lynyrd Skynyrd ’s music will continue to be a live attraction following the March death of the band’s last original member, Gary Rossington . The remaining members of Lynyrd Skynyrd and family estates released a statement on Monday announcing the group’s plans to continue as a touring outfit, including a summer trek with ZZ Top this year.

Rossington’s widow and longtime Skynyrd backing singer Dale Rossington offered a statement on coming to grips with his loss and his considerable body of work with the band.

Singer Johnny Van Zant, who stepped into his late brother Ronnie’s role when the band reformed to tour in the Eighties, touched on the importance of the Skynyrd concert experience.

“Gary, along with my brother Ronnie and Allen, started this band and left us all a legacy of music that has stood the test of time, and crossed three generations of fans,” he said. “The music they created, and the music we created, together since 1987, was always meant to be experienced live.”

The final performance of Gary Rossington with Lynyrd Skynyrd took place at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium in November 2022. A recording of that performance will air in August on PBS.

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The Official Site of Lynyrd Skynyrd

Lynyrd Skynyrd & ZZ Top The Sharp Dressed Simple Man Tour

Two titans of American classic rock  ZZ Top  and  Lynyrd Skynyrd  have announced their first co-headlining tour –  The Sharp Dressed Simple Man Tour  – taking over twenty-two cities in North America this summer. Produced by Live Nation, the tour kicks off on Friday, July 21 at iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, FL, and continues with stops in Fort Worth, Phoenix, Chicago, and more before wrapping up in Camden, NJ at Freedom Mortgage Pavilion on Sunday, September 17.

The 50th Anniversary An Exclusive Concert Film Experience!

July 8-14, 2023.

Unbranded Events presents “The 50th Anniversary of Lynyrd Skynyrd,” the band’s captivating final show with founding member Gary Rossington . This exclusive concert film event will premier in July for a limited week-long run at drive-ins, indoor theaters and outdoor venues. The performance, recorded at the famed Ryman Auditorium in Nashville , showcases Lynyrd Skynyrd at their absolute best, delivering an unforgettable rock 'n' roll experience!

Big Wheels Keep on Turning...

As  Lynyrd Skynyrd  approaches the  50 th  anniversary  of the band’s critically acclaimed debut album  ‘Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd’  in 2023, they resonate as deeply with their multi-generational fan base today as when they first emerged out of Jacksonville, Florida in 1973. Today, Lynyrd Skynyrd rocks on with a current line-up featuring  Johnny Van Zant, Rickey Medlocke, Mark “Sparky” Matejka, Michael Cartellone, Keith Christopher, Peter Keys, Carol Chase  and  Stacy Michelle . 

The Legacy. The Legend.

Few ensembles have had the deep impact in creating a lifestyle as Skynyrd has. The band travels forward with a primary mission of celebrating a legacy that honors all whom have had a resonating contribution to the lives of hundreds of millions of fans globally. Former members  Ronnie Van Zant, Allen Collins, Steve Gaines, Ed King, Billy Powell, Bob Burns, Leon Wilkeson  and  Hughie Thomasson  alongside others will forever remain significant contributors to this indelible repertoire and the band’s colorful history.

The rock and roll powerhouse continually tours. With a catalog of over 60 albums, billions of streams, and tens of millions of records sold, Rock & Roll Hall of Famers Lynyrd Skynyrd remain a cultural icon that appeal to all generations.

We’re still standing, still keeping the music going. We wanted to do the guys who aren’t with us any more proud, and keep the name proud, too. -Gary Rossington

It’s about the legacy of Lynyrd Skynyrd, and what it stands for, what the fans are all about. There’s nothing like getting out there playing a great show with Skynyrd and seeing people love this music. Johnny Van Zant

Last of the Street Survivors Farewell Tour Lyve!

Deluxe two cd + dvd edition..

Lynyrd Skynyrd: Last of the Street Survivors Farewell Tour Lyve! Was recorded at the band's hometown performance in Jacksonville, Florida, on September 2nd, 2018 during the venerable Southern rock groups' farewell tour. The DVD - directed by multi-award-winning director Shaun Silva and Tacklebox Films - not only features the 2018 Jacksonville show but also includes an intimate interview with the band about their experiences on tour and what performing together has meant to them.

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Lynyrd Skynyrd Setlist at Reunion Arena, Dallas, TX, USA

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• Workin' for MCA Play Video
• I Ain't the One Play Video
• Saturday Night Special Play Video
• The Needle and the Spoon Play Video
• That Smell Play Video
• I Know a Little Play Video
• Gimme Three Steps Play Video
• Swamp Music Play Video
• Call Me the Breeze ( J.J. Cale  cover) Play Video
• Gimme Back My Bullets Play Video
• Comin' Home Play Video
• You Got That Right Play Video
• What's Your Name Play Video
• Sweet Home Alabama Play Video
• Simple Man Play Video
• Free Bird Play Video

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Songs on Albums

• Gimme Three Steps
• I Ain't the One
• Swamp Music
• Sweet Home Alabama
• The Needle and the Spoon
• Workin' for MCA
• I Know a Little
• What's Your Name
• You Got That Right
• Gimme Back My Bullets
• Saturday Night Special
• Comin' Home
• Call Me the Breeze by J.J. Cale

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• Oct 30 1987 Mississippi Coast Coliseum Biloxi, MS, USA Add time Add time
• Oct 31 1987 The Summit Houston, TX, USA Add time Add time
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• May 14 1988 Pensacola Civic Center Pensacola, FL, USA Add time Add time
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Southern by the Grace of God: Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Tour 1987

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Lynyrd Skynyrd’s First Time Reuniting After The 1977 Plane Crash Was This Epic 13-Minute Instrumental Performance Of “Free Bird” With Charlie Daniels In 1979

There aren’t many songs that are more iconic than “Free Bird.”

Written by Allen Collins and Ronnie Van Zant, both founding members of the legendary southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, the song was included on Skynyrd’s debut album, (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd),  and quickly helped the band cement their place as one of the most iconic southern rock bands of all time.

It obviously became one of Lynyrd Skynyrd ‘s signature songs, and when the band released a live version of the song two years after it was first released, “Free Bird” once again entered the charts and peaked inside the top 50 for a second time.

But shortly after the song’s second stint on the chart, tragedy struck Lynyrd Skynyrd.

The tragic plane crash in October 1977 that took the life of lead singer Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines, as well as background singer Cassie Gaines and the band’s assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, brought Skynyrd’s meteoric rise to a halt as the surviving members dealt with the tragedy and determined what the future of Lynyrd Skynyrd should look like.

But just two years after the plane crash, Lynyrd Skynyrd would once again take the stage for the first time since their plane crash – and for the first time without their lead singer.

The band reunited in Nashville in January 1979 for the first time since the tragedy, making an appearance at Charlie Daniels’ annual Volunteer Jam.

And it was only fitting that they would perform their most iconic song.

Without a lead singer, and joined by Daniels and members of CDB band, Skynyrd took the stage to thank the fans on behalf of the families of Van Zant and Gaines before launching into an epic 13-minute instrumental version of “Free Bird.”

Of course the crowd loved every minute of it, and as the audience delivered a standing ovation, drummer Artimus Pyle hopped on the mic to sum up everybody’s feelings about that moment:

“Everybody in the band, we know who you’re yelling for. It’s Ronnie and Steve and Cassie and Dean. Thank you very much.”

It would be another 8 years before the surviving members of Lynyrd Skynyrd would reunite on stage again for a full-scale tour.

But for one night in Nashville in 1979, the world got their first glimpse of one of the greatest southern rock bands of all time as they recovered from the tragedy of the October 1977 plane crash.

And it was absolutely epic.

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Watch Lynyrd Skynyrd Joke About Next Reunion Tour: Exclusive Premiere

Lynyrd Skynyrd members Johnny Van Zant, Gary Rossington and Ricky Medlocke can be seen joking about staging a reunion tour following their current farewell run in an upcoming episode from the fourth season of the Speakeasy music chat show.

In each episode, artists are twinned with the interviewer of their choice to discuss their careers. The fourth season features Joe Elliott , Billy Gibbons , Sting and Lenny Kravitz , with full episodes available at speakeasytalks.com and various public TV stations, along with World Channel.

In the exclusive premiere clip below, Van Zant tells host Rob Tannenbaum about a conversation with his colleagues: “I was talking to the guys and they said, ‘You know the the best part of a farewell tour?’ I said, ‘No, what's that?’ They said, ‘The reunion tour!’

"We had a blast doing Speakeasy ,” Rossington said in a statement. “We’ve been reminiscing a lot on our farewell tour this year and it was so cool to sit down with fans in such a small theater and share some of those memories with them. And Rob Tannenbaum did a great job with the interview. We could have talked all afternoon! Look forward to everyone seeing the episode.”

“In our fourth season of Speakeasy , we are really defining what sets this series apart,” said the show's executive producer Don Maggi. “It’s as much fun for the artists to participate in our format as it is for our viewers to sit in on that conversation.”

Skynyrd’s farewell tour continues on Mar. 2 in Ottawa, with dates confirmed until July 20 in Walker, Minn. In a recent interview, Rossington confirmed the band had plans beyond the end of the road trip.

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Thunderstruck: AC/DC, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Alabama football’s crisis-time choice

I was caught in the middle of a railroad track (thunder)/ I looked ‘round/ And I knew there was no turning back (thunder)

Nick Saban was Alabama football . Everything the program was, internally and to the world watching it, was an image of the ornery West Virginian who Mal Moore talked away from the NFL in 2007.

When Crimson Tide players walk on the field at Bryant-Denny Stadium, they’re greeted with the opening of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck. It’s a song about trains and guns and wild Texas nights and breaking rules and playing fools and it makes listeners feel like they’re building with the band to a life-changing moment.

It’s Alabama’s intro song because of Nick Saban. It started when a media guest on “Hey Coach” asked the coach what his theme song would be before the Ole Miss game in October of 2008.

“What was the name of that song that we (like)?” Saban asked his son Nicholas. “Hey, Nicholas is here. Thunder what? What is it? ‘Thunderstruck.’ Yeah, I like that song. It gets me fired up. I wish they’d play it in the stadium. They do sometimes. I like that.”

“Thunderstruck” has been Alabama’s intro music ever since. Saban’s successor, Kalen DeBoer, made clear in a TV interview that it’s sticking around, though whoever was in charge of the music at A-Day bungled the presentation, accidentally combining the song with “Thunder” by Imagine Dragons.

Wait. Pause for a second. Let’s acknowledge the weird. Saban’s successor . The doomsday clock finally struck midnight in Tuscaloosa.

“I was always preparing,” UA athletics director Greg Byrne said after hiring DeBoer. “Hoping that I’d never have to execute the plan.”

It took acts of God to beat the Crimson Tide during Saban’s peak. UA battered and outmuscled the country early in his career, then spread things out and won three more championships with offenses that looked as much like Bear Bryant’s as Bryant’s looked like E.B. Beaumont’s. Then, Saban retired on a January afternoon.

My mind raced/ And I thought, what could I do? (Thunder)/ And I knew/ There’d be no help/ No help from you (thunder)

AC/DC was almost there entering 1980. The band, which toiled as a critical punching bag and beloved live act for years, had just released Highway to Hell , the album that launched the rowdy Australians into the U.S. charts.

Atlantic Records mandated the band bring in a new producer for the record. Enter Mutt Lange.

Lange heard the rough edges of AC/DC’s sound, led by the Young brothers Angus and Malcolm on lead and rhythm guitar, and the vocals singer Bon Scott once described as “A weasel on heat,” and sharpened them to razors in the studio.

Scott wrote the band’s lyrics and was a key element to the live show. The band had a singer before the Scotsman, but the glam rock sound it had with Dave Evans was pedestrian, nothing like the instantly-recognizable screech of Scott.

The band didn’t make retirement money off Highway to Hell , but with Lange ready to produce its successor, plus the Young brothers and Scott hard at work writing, the future was obvious. Off the strength of its next album, AC/DC was going to achieve permanent rock stardom.

Then on a February night in London, Scott drank himself to death.

And I was shaking at the knees/ Could I come again please?

“Thunderstruck” isn’t the only song played before Alabama games. Before the Crimson Tide takes the field, as fans file in and anticipation grows, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” fills the air.

It’s a 1974 response to Neil Young, an artist the band loved but felt had painted the South with too broad a brush on songs like “Southern Man,” and “Alabama.” It’s vintage Skynyrd, the sound of a band at its creative three-guitar peak, with singer Ronnie Van Zandt clearly the leader of a white-hot rock and roll attack.

Three years later, Skynyrd faced a critical decision. The Florida natives were on a tear, already enormously successful and reaching for the stars again with the addition of guitarist Steve Gaines for the Street Survivors record.

Then, the band’s charter flight from Greenville to Baton Rouge fell out of the sky into the woods of Mississippi. Van Zandt was killed, along with Gaines and his sister Cassie.

The rest of Lynyrd Skynyrd first decided not to carry on at all. Skynyrd barely played for 10 years, only reuniting once in 1979 for an instrumental version of “Free Bird,” at one of Charlie Daniels’ Volunteer Jam shows.

Finally, five of the pre-crash members decided to try the band again in 1987 for a tribute tour, with Van Zandt’s brother Johnny singing. Continuing after that prompted lawsuits from Ronnie and Gaines’ widows, who eventually came to an agreement with the musicians.

Lynyrd Skynyrd was never the same. After Street Survivors climbed to No. 5 on the Billboard 200, the band’s first two post-reunion albums each only got to 64th, before ensuing releases fell even further.

The group, still fronted by Johnny Van Zandt, features zero members from the band’s prime era. It can still draw a nostalgia crowd to an amphitheater, especially when packaged with other classic rock acts, but Lynyrd Skynyrd has made nothing of cultural importance since the plane crash.

Things worked out differently for the band’s classic rock compatriots.

The rocket had fallen off the AC/DC spaceship somewhere in the mesosphere, and the Young brothers had to find another while in flight.

After the concept of breaking up the band was dismissed, Angus and Malcolm had to audition singers quickly. Brian Johnson of the almost-moderately successful band Geordie caught their ears in his first audition.

He was two hours late for his second after singing for a vacuum cleaner commercial on the same day. After he finally made it and secured the job, there wasn’t much time to celebrate.

The Young brothers had just made the decision that would define their careers, either getting them over the edge of superstardom, or plummeting them back to grinding through club gigs in Fort Lauderdale.

Anyway, Back in Black turned out pretty well.

It jumped to No. 1 on the British charts and No. 4 in America. It would remain in the top 10 for over five months, and the band would stay in the upper echelons of rock stardom for the rest of its days.

You’ve been/ Thunderstruck

Byrne didn’t have the 38 days it took Mal Moore to hire Saban. He didn’t have the few months before returning to the studio AC/DC had and he didn’t have the decade off Skynyrd took.

He had 72 hours. At least, that’s how long he had asked Alabama players to wait before entering the transfer portal after Saban’s retirement.

Byrne has spent his career making good hires. Still, he and everyone in the country knew this was the only one that would matter for his legacy.

“You better have somebody that’s comfortable in their own skin,” Byrne said of what he was looking for. “And that looks at this as a challenge and an opportunity, not as a detriment.”

He did the right thing on paper, stopping the clock at 49 hours of mystery. DeBoer took Washington to the national championship last year and has won at every stop of his career.

And it still may not work. For every AC/DC, there’s a Lynyrd Skynyrd.

For every Nick Saban there’s a Mike Price and dozens of Mike Shulas. Byrne and DeBoer could fail spectacularly, a human possibility for football coaches and rock stars and athletics directors and sports journalists.

Dwelling on that risk wasn’t an option. In the 72 hours after the unexpected, a career-defining, sport-shaking choice was going to be made, whether Byrne and company wanted to mourn Saban or not.

While fans covered the base of the retired coach’s statue with oatmeal cream pies, bottles of coke and a single slice of pepperoni and sausage pizza, Byrne made the call. Until DeBoer and the Tide take the field, there’s no way to judge whether it was the right one.

“Thunderstruck” wasn’t on Back in Black .

It came 10 years later, when AC/DC made The Razor’s Edge . By then, the Johnson addition had worked out.

AC/DC was huge, about to play in front of a dubiously estimated 1.6 million people at the Monsters of Rock concert in Moscow, alongside Metallica, The Black Crowes and Pantera.

“Thunderstruck” is what can happen when the critical decision in a time of crisis is the exact right one.

Two possible paths forward will play over the Bryant-Denny speakers before Alabama enters to face Western Kentucky on Saturday. One, a remembrance of something brilliant but lost. The other, a promise of a beautiful future.

A future not quite the same as before, but equally worth striving for.

Yeah, it’s alright/ We’re doin’ fine/ Yeah, it’s alright/ We’re doin’ fine/ So fine/ Thunderstruck

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