TAKE FIVE: The IMPROBABLE SURVIVAL OF LYNYRD SKYNYRD

Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007 | 7:08 a.m.

Who: Lynyrd Skynyrd

When: 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday

Where: The Joint at the Hard Rock

Tickets: $62 to $122; 693-5066

"Sweet Home Alabama" (1974)

"Free Bird" (1974)

"Saturday Night Special" (1975)

"Double Trouble" (1976)

"Gimme Back My Bullets" (1976)

"What's Your Name?" (1977)

"You Got That Right" (1978)

"Down South Jukin' " (1978)

"Truck Drivin' Man" (1987)

"Swamp Music" (1988)

"Keeping the Faith" (1991)

"Smokestack Lightning" (1991)

"Born to Run" (1993)

"Good Lovin's Hard to Find" (1993)

"Bring It On" (1997)

"Travelin' Man" (1997)

"Preacher Man" (1999)

"Workin' for MCA" (1999)

"Red White and Blue" (2003)

Neil Young and Lynyrd Skynyrd appreciated each other's music but briefl y locked horns lyrically in the '70s.

1970: Young releases "After the Gold Rush," a quiet recording featuring mostly lonesome country songs such as "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" and spare piano ballads such as "Birds." One of the record's few outright rock 'n' roll songs, "Southern Man," was the Canadian songwriter's indictment of racism in the South, sung over a primitive if powerfully insistent rhythm section. In it he sings, "Southern man / better keep your head / don't forget what your Good Book said," before making references to "cotton" and "bullwhips."

1972: "Harvest" scores a hit for Young with the single "Heart of Gold." But on the sludgy rock of "Alabama," Young couches the same themes of "Southern Man" in hazier and less incendiary imagery.

1974: Skynyrd releases "Second Helping," with the top 10 hit "Sweet Home Alabama." In the response to Young's two songs, the band sings, "Well, I hope Neil Young will remember / a Southern man don't need him around, anyhow." Interestingly, none of the song's three composers Ed King, Ronnie Van Zant and Gary Rossington is from Alabama. Van Zandt and Rossington hail from Florida. And King? California.

Through triumph and tragedy, the definitive Southern rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd keeps making music.

The creators of the classics "Free Bird" and "Sweet Home Alabama" bring their distinctive sound to The Joint at the Hard Rock on Friday and Saturday, part of the lineup of entertainment in Las Vegas during the National Finals Rodeo.

1.) The members

The band formed as My Backyard in Jacksonville, Fla. The original members were singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarists Gary Rossington and Allen Collins, bassist Leon Wilkeson and drummer Bob Burns.

Only Rossington is still with the band.

The current lineup also includes vocalist Johnny Van Zant (Ronnie's youngest brother), drummer Michael Cartellone, keyboardist Billy Powell, bassist Ean Evans and guitarist Rickey Medlocke - who played drums with Skynyrd for a short time in 1971. Dale Krantz Rossington and Carol Chase sing backup.

In all, 22 musicians - plus eight background vocalists - have performed with the band over the past 40 years.

2.) The name

Here's the band's story of how it came up with its name: Leonard Skinner was a gym coach at Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville who was known for punishing long-haired students - including Gary Rossington and Burns. The musicians eventually dropped out of school, but remembered the hassles. In 1970, the band - then calling itself the One Percent - had a gig at a local club and Ronnie Van Zant called out to the crowd, "Hey, we're Leonard Skinner and we're gonna play for y'all tonight." Since most of the crowd had run into Coach Skinner at one point or another, the name stuck. Eventually, the vowels were changed "to protect the guilty" - as Rossington says.

3.) The plane crash

On Oct. 20, 1977, the band's rented tour plane - nicknamed Free Bird - crashed in the swampy woods near Gillsburg, Miss., killing band members Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines (Steve's sister and one of Skynyrd's backup singers) as well as road manager Dean Kilpatrick and the two pilots.

Twenty others were injured - including band members Gary Rossington, Powell, Wilkeson, Leslie Hawkins and Collins.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board report, the pilots miscalculated the amount of fuel onboard and the turboprop was experiencing mechanical difficulties that required the pilots to operate the right engine in the "auto-rich" position, which burned fuel at an excessive rate. When the plane began to run out of fuel, the pilots changed course but never made it to an airport near McComb, Miss.

4.) Other tragedies

In September 1976, Gary Rossington was badly injured in a car accident in Jacksonville. The next year he survived a plane crash.

In 1986 Collins lost control of his car near his home in Jacksonville. His girlfriend was killed and he was paralyzed from the chest down. He died in 1990 of respiratory failure caused by pneumonia, a complication of his paralysis.

Wilkeson, Skynyrd's bassist since 1972, was found dead in his hotel room in 2001. His death was attributed to liver and lung disease.

In September, Hughie Thomasson - a guitarist and vocalist with Skynyrd from 1996 to 2005 - died of a heart attack. At the time of his death he had re-formed his band, the Outlaws, which he had led from '72 to '95.

5.) The triumph

Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" became an anthem, and the Alabama State Militia made the band honorary colonels in the '90s.

The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 13, 2006, along with Miles Davis, the Sex Pistols, Black Sabbath and Blondie.

Nine members of the band were inducted into the hall: lead singer Ronnie Van Zant; guitarists Collins, Steve Gaines, King and Gary Rossington; keyboard player Powell; bass player Wilkeson; and drummers Burns and Artimus Pyle.

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