That resulted in so many trips to the principle's office, and so many suspensions, that eventually the boys quit school. But they had to shower after gym, and their coach, Leonard Skinner, often caught them literally with their hairĭown.

To comply with the dress code, they would slick it back with vaseline for class, and comb it out after school. It was still long enough to get them in trouble at school. Influenced by the British bands - the Beatles, the Stones, the Yardbirds - the boys grew their hair long, which in those days meant barely brow-or ear-length. That was how it started.'įor the next few years, under a variety of names (The Noble Five, The Wildcats, The One Percent, among others), the new band played teen dens, church socials, and local juke joints. They took his amplifier over to the Burns' garage, where, according to Rossington,'We stuckīoth of our guitars in the bright channel, and Ronnie put his microphone in the normal, so we were all three on one amp, and Bob played drums. Realized that they just wanted to talk, he was so relieved that he agreed to try playing with them. He ran from them, and they had to chase him down. When they found him he was afraid that Van Zant, who had a reputation as a brawler, was going to beat him up. He was good, you know.' So they went looking for him. We knew this little skinny kid, Allen Collins, who had a big amp and knew barre chords. So if Ronnie wouldn't have hit that foul ball, there wouldn't be no Skynyrd.'Īfter a while, the group decided that they needed another guitar player because, as Rossington put it, 'I didn't know barre chords real good, and the little amp built into my guitar just wouldn't cut it. Rossington said,'That was it, that was the start of Lynyrd Skynyrd. They introduced themselves, went over to Burns' house - still in their uniforms - and played some songs together. After the game Van Zant looked them up to be sure Burns was all right. One day when Rossington and Burns were watching the older boys play, Van Zant hit a line drive that caught Burns in the head and knocked him out. The story of their original meeting is a fitting one for a band that carried a reputation as roughnecks throughout their career. Rossington and Collins were about 14, Van Zant two years older. Van Zant was singing with a band called 'Us', and Collins played guitar in a band called the 'Mods'. At the time, Rossington (guitar) was in a band called 'Me, You, and Him' with Bob Burns (drums) and Larry Junstrom (bass). It was in the summer of 1964 that Gary Rossington, Allen Collins, and Ronnie Van Zant began playing together for the first time. Enjoy! (Argus & Coyote Red for 'Skymarshall Productions') With all the information and graphics contained on this single page you can expect a long time for everything to load in properly, but it's worth it. There are a lot of graphics and some animation on this page, most never seen before. The intention here is to give a clear and un-biased picture of one of the truly great bands of all time. This is not the ususal M-File, because it takes on a band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, that is hardly an unknown quanity.

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