Johnny Van Zant

Van Zant maintaining Lynyrd Skynyrd tradition

Jimmie Van Zant will be the live performer taking the stage Saturday night at Veterans Memorial Park in Mount Airy — but the ghost of Lynyrd Skynyrd won’t be far away.

While Van Zant has become a classic Southern rocker in his own right, his name is so synonymous with the legendary band led by his late cousin Ronnie Van Zant that it’s often hard to separate them in the public’s mind. The same is true with a second group, .38 Special, co-founded by another cousin, Donnie.

All this means that fans attending Jimmie Van Zant’s 8:30 p.m. show here Saturday will be treated to a “mixture” of his own band’s material and old favorites from the others, he said during a telephone interview this week.

“I try to mix it up a little bit, but I try to keep the family heritage,” Van Zant said of the upcoming concert. “I’m looking forward to it.”

The outdoor performance by the Florida-based Van Zant and his group will be part of a weekend motorcycle rally based at Veterans Memorial Park called Run to the Ridge. It is being sponsored by a non-profit organization to provide food for Surry County’s needy.

“We’re huge biking enthusiasts — we do a lot of rallies all over the country,” Van Zant said of similar events including his band where bikers assemble and aid various charities, including in Sturgis, S.D., and Daytona Beach, Fla. “I just like being a part of it.”

He added that such involvement by motorcyclists has done much to offset a “Hell’s Angels” image of riders. “It’s not like the old days with Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson,” he said of actors who starred in what many consider the ultimate biker/counter-culture movie, “Easy Rider.”

Continuing A Legacy

Van Zant has performed in Mount Airy before in association with the B-52’s bar and grill.

“I love that area,” he said, which includes the local Mayberry tradition. “I’ve stood in front of the statue (of Andy and Opie) and had pictures made.”

But while Van Zant could walk away from that familiar landmark outside the Andy Griffith Playhouse, he can’t do the same regarding another entertainment icon of the South — the lingering spectre of Lynyrd Skynyrd. That’s even if he wanted to do so.

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"We're getting about to the end of the writing part," Van Zant tells Billboard.com, adding that what he's hearing so far is very much in keeping with what Skynyrd has always done best. "If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it. We write about things that we've done or things that have happened to people around us. It's for the common people, people who have made this great country of ours. That's what the heck I say we always write about."

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Van Zant is also hoping for a smoother and less dramatic recording process than "God & Guns," which was several years in the making and marked by some band tragedies. Scoping out an actual recording schedule is a bit more challenging, however. "It looks like we're going to push it back to November because we're gonna go out and do some more shows with ZZ (Top) ," Van Zant says. "It's a good year so far; everybody's healthy and we're getting a lot of work. So we'll probably take to it in November and then probably take off the middle and latter half of December and come back in January and finish it off." Van Zant is not expecting the band to road test any of the new songs this summer. "We haven't had a chance to work them up," he says. "These are in early stages, all the songs. We've done demos on a few of them, but we're just not prepared to take them out to play them live. Once we get back out before the record comes out next year, maybe we'll be playing some, but not 'til then." Skynyrd is also looking forward to the fall opening of the Lynyrd Skynyrd BBQ & Beer restaurant in Las Vegas' Excalibur Hotel & Casino. The spot will be designed to look like Hell House, the backwoods shack in Jacksonville, Fla., where the band forged its sound during the late 60s, and will also feature memorabilia and Skynyrd artwork on the walls. The band will perform there several times each year as well. "We're getting about to the end of the writing part," Van Zant tells Billboard.com, adding that what he's hearing so far is very much in keeping with what Skynyrd has always done best. "If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it. We write about things that we've done or things that have happened to people around us. It's for the common people, people who have made this great country of ours. That's what the heck I say we always write about.

Johnny Van Zant

Billboard

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