Lynyrd Skynyrd vocalist Johnny Van Zant has been a Bad Company fan for as long as he can remember, so he was happy to help lobby for the English rock legends to be inducted into the Rock Hall.
“Paul Rodgers’ wife, Cynthia, reached out to me when they were nominated and said, ‘Hey, spread the word. I was like, ‘Heck, yeah!’,” he tells UCR. “I’m so proud of them and you know what? Paul was my favorite singer of all time. So for him to get in there, what a great, great thing. Now, I feel really good about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”
In the years before he started playing his own shows with the Johnny Van Zant Band and eventually, Lynyrd Skynyrd, he went to see a lot of concerts. His first Bad Company show was at Skateland, a local roller rink in Jacksonville. The next time he saw the group, they had moved up to a larger venue, the Jacksonville Coliseum, where they played a headlining gig with Kansas opening, in 1976 on the Run With the Pack tour.
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By that time, Van Zant was on a mission. “I actually was behind the stage. My buddy Sidney Drashin was a promoter [for the show]. I went up in the balcony so I could see Simon Kirke playing the drums,” he remembers. “You know, that’s what the heck I wanted to be was a drummer. I love Simon’s playing and I watched him break like three snare heads that night. I just thought, ‘What a cool thing.’ He’s just pounding the crap out of the kit. And when Paul went to sit down behind the keyboard, I was just blown away. So I’ve been a fan of them forever.”
“I was a fan of Free as well. When they started Bad Company, that just kind of evolved from the Free days and [Bad Company guitarist] Mick Ralphs was a really good friend of mine. We did a whole European tour with those guys years ago,” he continues. “We rode on each other’s buses and would stop at the truck stops at four in the morning and get some kind of chips while the buses were fueling up. So there’s a lot of history between Bad Company and Lynyrd Skynyrd.”
Simon Kirke has his own humorous memories of Lynyrd Skynyrd that go even further back. “They invaded our stage when we played Wembley Arena,” he shared in a separate conversation. “I didn’t really know them very well, but obviously, they liked us. Somehow, they got past security. Ronnie Van Zant, Artimus Pyle and I believe, Gary Rossington, managed to [sneak in] and they came on stage waving bottles of champagne as we were about to do our final number. We thought, ‘Who the fuck are these guys?’ Paul knew them and they went up to the microphone. Ronnie said, ‘These guys are the best.’ That was the beginning of a love affair with those guys. They’re great. We love them.”
Lynyrd Skynyrd are set to release Celebrating 50 Years: Live at the Ryman June 27. The live release commemorates the band’s final concert in 2022 with co-founder Gary Rossington, who passed away the following year after battling numerous health issues.
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Many have shared their thoughts on possible induction.
Gallery Credit: Ultimate Classic Rock Staff
