Lynyrd Skynyrd: An Oral History

In true rock & roll bad-boy fashion, they were a bunch of tough kids who scraped their band together, and even decided to name it after a hated high school gym teacher. But once their searing triple-guitar attack roared out of the South at the apex of Dixie rock, Lynyrd Skynyrd was no longer following rock history; they were making it, with such classics as "Free Bird," "Sweet Home Alabama," and a string of live performances that brought audiences to their feet everywhere they played. This is the story of how a group of Southern men (and women) turned themselves into one of the world's greatest rock & roll bands, told in the words of the people who were there, both before and after the horrific 1977 airplane crash that claimed three band members' lives.

Lee Ballinger weaves historical and current interviews with every member of Lynyrd Skynyrd together with the perspectives of their friends, collaborators and chroniclers, including musicians Charlie Daniels, Jimmy Hall and Al Kooper, journalists John Swenson and Cameron Crowe, producer Tom Dowd, and many more - even that immortalized teacher, Leonard Skinner. The result is an intensely personal backstage history of euphoric triumph and calamitous tragedy, your best look ever at a group of rugged street survivors and their earthshaking effect on rock & roll.

With rare photos.