Lynyrd Skynyrd News

This is one concert where it's OK to shout out "Free Bird!"

Lynyrd Skynyrd is kicking off a tour with Kid Rock in New Orleans on Thursday, and while the long-haired southern rockers have recorded more than 60 albums and cut hundreds of songs, they know the songs that fans really want to hear include classics like "Free Bird" and "Sweet Home Alabama."

"It's like sing-along with Skynyrd night," said guitarist Gary Rossington, one of the original members of the band that launched to stardom more than three decades ago.

Rossington, 56, said he's grateful people still appreciate the group's music after all these years. The band first performed "Free Bird" in public in 1970 in Jacksonville, Fla., where the original band members grew up and got their start.

"To see fans singing our songs and loving them and dancing or crying to some of them, it feels like the first time you ever played it," he said. "It really gets to you, like day one."

The band was one of the most popular rock groups at the time of the Oct. 20, 1977, plane crash near McComb, Miss., that claimed the lives of six people, including the band's lead singer Ronnie Van Zant.

Rossington was among those on board.

"After the crash, we just couldn't play," he said.

It was 10 years before the group decided to hit the touring circuit again. They launched a comeback tribute tour in 1987, and have since co-headlined tours with ZZ Top, Bad Company, Free and others. It would be another four years before the group made it to Baton Rouge, their destination at the time of the crash.

Rossington said one of his most memorable tours was before the plane crash — with The Who in 1973. Rossington's birthday (Dec. 4, 1951) fell during the tour, and The Who's guitarist Peter Townshend smashed a cake in his face just before he was to take the stage.

"I had to get on stage with cake all over me," he said, laughing.

Rossington said the decision to launch the summer tour in New Orleans stemmed from the group's history with the city and desire to help its recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

"We're not the kind to come in and start building houses and stuff, but we're bringing our music there," he said. "In our early days, that was one of our favorite places to play and eat red beans and rice. With everything that's happened, it just seemed a great place to start off."

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