By: Brad Gallagher
Did you know that Lynyrd Skynyrd started out as a cover band playing in clubs and at local events? It wasn’t until Ronnie Van Zant, founder and lead singer of the group, started writing his own songs that the band gained fame.
Ronnie was good friends with Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers Band. Actually, Gregg Allman was sort of a mentor to Ronnie and one day while Gregg and Ronnie were talking, Gregg suggested to Ronnie that he try writing his own music. That suggestion sparked something in Ronnie’s mind and not long after that Lynyrd Skynyrd’s first song was written.
As the story goes:
One day after the band had finished practicing, Ronnie, Gary, and Allen were driving home when Ronnie pulled over at a bar called The Little Brown Jug. He went inside and after a short time, a girl approached him and asked him to dance. They danced several different dances to a number of songs until a mean looking guy walked into the bar and confronted Ronnie. The guy told Ronnie that that was his girl Ronnie was dancing with. The guy was angry, and after some bantering back and forth, the guy pulled a gun out and pointed it at Ronnie. Ronnie told the guy that he was just having some fun and that he didn’t want any trouble. He turned around and told the guy that if he was going to shoot, he would have to shoot him in the ass. He then walked to the door and ran out to their car and drove away.
As they drove home from that bar, they wrote their first song, “Gimme Three Steps’. Surprisingly, “Gimme Three Steps” never made it onto the billboard charts, but many other Lynyrd Skynyrd songs did like “Sweet Home Alabama”, and “Free Bird”.
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