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St. Pete Catalyst: Ronnie\u2019s been gone for nearly 49 years now. Every time you step up to the mic, is he with you?<\/p>\n
Johnny Van Zant: Oh hell, yeah, most definitely. And I know that he\u2019s been behind this whole process. I was a Skynyrd fan just like every Skynyrd fan out there. I loved the music and I loved what they were doing. Back in \u201987, when the guys asked me to be a part of this, it actually took me a lot of soul-searching and talking to family members to step up to that mic the first time.<\/p>\n
You come to a Skynyrd show, it\u2019s a spiritual thing. It really is. I\u2019m a very spiritual person. I\u2019ve been a sinner my whole life, but I still believe! So I know he\u2019s here with us, definitely.<\/p>\n
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As the years passed, and we lost one original guy after another, did it ever reach a point where you said \u2018We should stop\u2019?<\/p>\n
When (keyboard player) Billy Powell passed, we were doing an album called God & Guns. There\u2019s a song on there called \u201cGifted Hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
You gotta realize that back in \u201987 these guys were all young, they all loved this music they had created, and it was taken away in one second. And to be able to bring it back and play it for people, and the fans that loved the band, was a gratifying thing for them. So as they one by one \u2013 I guess that\u2019s the only easy way to say it \u2013 passed on, those of us who were left were going \u201cWe\u2019re doing the right thing. This is what they loved. This is what they wanted to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Believe me, I\u2019ve had a lot of grief over the years from people, \u201cYou\u2019re not Ronnie. You\u2019re just ridin\u2019 the coattail.\u201d No, it\u2019s more than that to me, man. It\u2019s friggin\u2019 family. It\u2019s legacy. It\u2019s everything, you know? And I poured my life into it.<\/p>\n
I never wanted to be in Skynyrd, man. I went to see B.B. King one time, and there was a guy who\u2019d come out with a red Solo cup and a towel. He\u2019d hand him whatever he was drinking in that red Solo cup. And B.B.\u2019d wipe his face.<\/p>\n
And I thought to myself \u201cI coulda done that for Ronnie.\u201d<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t that I ever wanted to be in Skynyrd, but as I grew into being a part of it, it really took a hold of me, and I\u2019m so proud that I\u2019ve been able to go out there and have new generations experience the music live.<\/p>\n
Along with the older ones. Myself included!<\/p>\n
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Gary Rossington once said \u201cSkynyrd music is bigger than me or any one person.\u201d In other words, it\u2019s all about serving the songs and respecting the legacy. Is that how you look at it?<\/p>\n
I know that whenever I\u2019m gone, and we call it quits here and everything, there\u2019s going to be some kid skipping school, trying to learn \u201cSweet Home Alabama\u201d on the guitar.<\/p>\n
The music is honest. It\u2019s raw, it\u2019s honest. I think most people can relate to it. They wrote about life in general, and Ronnie was the master of it. You know what, God gave him a short time here on earth, and boy did he use it. He was way ahead of his age.<\/p>\n
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Let\u2019s talk about Rickey Medlocke for a second. In a way, he\u2019s a link to the past, isn\u2019t he?<\/p>\n
Yeah, he was there! He\u2019s on the First and Last album, their very first album that they cut with Jimmy Johnson. He actually sang a couple of songs; his voice was real high back then.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s a wonderful guy. He\u2019s been in the band a long time now, again. Me and him never look at each other and go \u201cLet\u2019s phone it in.\u201d We always go \u201cLet\u2019s go get \u2018em.\u201d And that\u2019s the way you should be.<\/p>\n
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Final thoughts?<\/p>\n
You know, Skynyrd\u2019s been through many, many hardships, should I say, but there\u2019s been many, many great times, too. There\u2019s nothing like being onstage going into \u201cSimple Man\u201d and seeing the audience, which is a mixture of ages, singing the words to those songs. Again, the words just hit home to people.<\/p>\n
And I always tell people: If my brother could come back and say a few words, he\u2019d say \u201cI told you so.\u201d That we had something.<\/p>\n
Ronnie used to always say \u201cSkynyrd is a live band. We\u2019re live. We make records because we have to, but we\u2019re a live band.\u201d And to go see the live show is just an amazing thing.<\/p>\n
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Lynyrd Skynyrd today. Doltyn Snedden\/publicity photo.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No rock \u2018n\u2019 roll band met as much adversity head-on as Jacksonville\u2019s Lynyrd Skynyrd. When the musicians\u2019 private…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-336652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=336652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}