Lynyrd Skynyrd

When I was about 14, my first job was selling t-shirts at the Canadian National Exhibition during their annual late August run. Back then customers got to choose the t-shirt and the decal that goes on it along with what ever message they wanted pressed on the back. I'd slide the shirt onto a rubber pad, centre the decal and then lock the iron press in place. Voila! A brand new customized t-shirt.

Most of what we sold that summer were Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper T's. But a few times a week I'd get a request for that one weird logo with the skulls and guns for a band called Lynyrd Skynyrd. I had no idea who the band was and I certainly couldn't pronounce the name. The summer ended and I got paid which was all I cared about (though it was much less than I thought I would get).

A couple of years later I started working for CPI handing out their Cheap Thrills magazine at concerts. The big perk was getting into concerts for free! One night the Doobie Brothers headlined Maple Leaf Gardens and Lynyrd Skynyrd opened the show. By the time the final notes of the triple guitar solo at the end of "Free Bird" melded with the din of the audience, I was already out of the arena and on my way to sam the Record man to by the band's latest record, One More From The Road. I hopped on the subway and headed home. I never saw the Doobies that night.

Once I got the record home I put it on the stereo and immediately became a huge fan. I got out my guitar and started to learn "Saturday Night Special," "Gimme Three Steps," "Sweet Home Alabama" and, of course, "Free Bird." I became one of those people that tried to spread the gospel. The next summer, on the eve of the release of Street Survivors, I headed to Rich Stadium where the original line-up performed on one of those giant bills (Ted Nugent, Blue Oyster Cult, Starz, Aerosmith).

I made sure I bought Street Survivors the day it came out. When tickets went on sale for the band's first Maple Leaf Gardens headlining show, I made sure I had tickets in hand. And then came the painful news of the crash that killed Ronnie Van Zandt, Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines. Just like that, Lynyrd Skynyrd was through.

In the ensuing years I bought or paid attention to whatever music came from each of the surviving members. Some of it was good and some of it wasn't so good. None of it captured the original magic of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

In the late 80's the band reformed and started touring but I was looking for the real thing and didn't pay too much attention. That was until the early 90's when Warner became affiliated with the band through Capricorn Records. They came to Toronto to play the Kingswood Music Theatre and I finally had a chance to tell the band my story. At the end of the story they invited me to watch the show from the side of the stage which is, to this day, one of the great highlights of my rock 'n' roll life. To be standing next to Gary Rossington's amp during "Free Bird" is priceless.