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Lynyrd Skynyrd's History With the Confederate Flag and Guns
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12/10/2024
Lynyrd Skynyrd's History With the Confederate Flag and Guns
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00:00
We go in there and look, but we still, uh, Johnny has the flag around, the Dixie flag
00:06
around his microphone for Alabama, and we have a whole flag over the piano."
00:11
Skynard, the Southern rock legends currently riding off into the sunset on their farewell tour,
00:16
is a far cry from the gritty, rebellious band that Ronnie Van Zandt helmed in the
00:20
Mercies. Once the epitome of Southern defiance and swagger, today's Skynard
00:25
feels like a band that traded in its edge for a comfortable seat on the nostalgia train.
00:29
Back in their heyday, Skynard wasn't just a band, they were an idea, an unapologetic voice
00:34
of the New South, daring to rock their way through an era trying to reconcile its past.
00:40
But, oh, how the mighty have mellowed. What began as a fiery blend of country, blues,
00:45
and hard rock became, over time, a saga filled with reinvention, controversy,
00:51
and more Confederate flag debates than a Civil War reenactment group.
00:56
Let's rewind to that fateful October 20, 1977. When a plane crash tragically claimed the lives
01:03
of Van Zandt, guitarist Steve Gaines, vocalist Cassie Gaines, and others, it seemed like the
01:09
ultimate mic drop for a band so tied to the tumultuous spirit of the South. The crash wasn't
01:14
just a tragedy, it was the punctuation mark on a story of a band that had somehow bottled the
01:19
essence of the 70s South, a land caught between old habits and new horizons. But,
01:25
Lynyrd Skynyrd, as we all know, didn't stay gone. Oh no, they came back, and boy, did they bring
01:30
baggage. Contrary to what sweet home Alabama might have you believe, Lynyrd Skynyrd hailed
01:35
from Jacksonville, Florida, a detail that somehow is overlooked as the fact that the song itself was
01:40
more complicated than a simple Southern pride anthem. Sure, they sang about loving the governor
01:45
of Alabama, but they also threw in some sarcastic boo-boo-boos for flavor. Context matters, folks.
01:51
The same can't be said for the band's infamous flirtation with the Confederate flag, though.
01:56
While they blame their record label for pushing the stars and bars imagery in the 70s,
02:01
let's not pretend the band didn't lean into it. T-shirts, mugs, belt buckles,
02:06
Skynyrd was practically the unofficial merchandiser of Southern rebellion.
02:10
That is, until 20, when they decided to retire the flag, mostly. Cue the fan outrage and a
02:17
backpedaling Facebook post where guitarist Gary Rossington clarified they'd still use it occasionally,
02:23
you know, alongside the American flag. Because we're all Americans now. Subtle, right?
02:29
The original Skynyrd had layers. Ronnie Van Zant, the band's iconic—and contradictory—front man,
02:36
was a guy who wrote anti-gun anthems like Saturday Night Special while keeping a .22 pistol
02:41
for hunting. He was progressive yet stubborn, a musical genius who may or may not have been a fan
02:46
of George Wallace, Alabama's segregationist governor. Yeah, that George Wallace. It's messy,
02:52
like much of the South's history, but that's what made the original Skynyrd so compelling.
02:57
They didn't fit neatly into any narrative. They embodied the chaos of their time.
03:01
Fast forward to the 21st century, and Skynyrd 2.0—or maybe 3.0, who's counting?—is a different
03:09
beast. Their 2009 song, God and Guns, is practically a love letter to conservative America,
03:16
a far cry from the Ronnie era's more nuanced takes. This shift wasn't just a change in politics,
03:21
it was a full-blown rebranding. Out went the rebellious New South, in came the traditionalist
03:27
South, wrapped in a flag and humming Sweet Home Alabama like it's a second national anthem.
03:33
Love them or hate them, Lynyrd Skynyrd's legacy is as much about cultural shifts as it is about
03:38
killer guitar riffs. The band of the 1970s soundtracked a South that was trying—however
03:44
imperfectly—to move forward. The Skynyrd of today? They're more of a monument to what was—a
03:51
band that leans on its history, even as it complicates it. Sure, they'll never recapture
03:56
the raw magic of pronounced Lynyrd Skynyrd or Second Helping, but maybe that's the point.
04:02
They're a living time capsule, contradictions and all, showing us how much—or how little—has
04:08
changed in the last 50 years. So as they bid farewell, performing in front of U.S. flags
04:13
instead of Confederate ones, we're left with a complicated legacy. Lynyrd Skynyrd isn't just a
04:19
band, they're a mirror for the South itself—messy, proud, contradictory, and utterly unforgettable.
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