Skynyrd documentary busts myths

Rock band’s saga of love, tragedy airs on Showtime

Above the Mason-Dixon line, Lynyrd Skynyrd is a short story.

Below, the Southern rock stalwarts are a novel, an ongoing saga of love, tragedy and determination – “Gone With The Wind” with a three-guitar front line and minus the book’s unfortunate artifacts.

The band’s story aired on Showtime in “Lynyrd Skynyrd: If I Leave Here Tomorrow” Aug. 18 and is available on-demand and online.

The 90-minute documentary features recent and archival interviews, photos and home movies.

The centerpiece is a haunting recollection of the 1977 plane crash that killed three members of the band, including its founder and driving force, Ronnie Van Zant.

History starts with Ronnie Van Zant’s near-KO of Bob Burns

The two charter members met at a baseball game when Van Zant smashed a line drive into Burns’ head. Van Zant’s first words to the stricken drummer’s friend Gary Rossington were, “I think it’s funny as hell!”

They didn’t get their name from their high school gym teacher

Not entirely, though many think gym teacher Leonard Skinner was the inspiration for the band’s name.

Their decision was confirmed when they noticed a lyric from singer and satirist Allan Sherman’s early 1960s hit, “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadda” (“You remember Leonard Skinner? / He got ptomaine poisoning last night after dinner.”)

Van Zant’s nickname foreshadowed his death

Van Zant’s friends called him the Mississippi Kid. When asked why, he always replied that he had no idea. He eventually would lose his life in Mississippi when the band’s plane plunged into thick forest outside Gillsburg.

Van Zant died with dignity

As survivors recount in their recollections of the plane crash that would take his life, Van Zantexited his adventure as he had lived, knowing that the “tomorrow” he forecast in “Freebird” had come that day.

The Southern boys were no fans of guns

Although fiercely loyal to their Southern heritage, Lynyrd Skynyrd never identified with the region’s general support for gunowner rights. This comes through lin the furious lyrics of “Saturday Night Special” and in Van Zant’s comment about guns: “I think they ought to throw ’em all away.”

They loved annoying the Rolling Stones

Mick Jagger and his guys told Skynyrd to do whatever they wanted onstage except walk out on the prop tongue. Lynyrd Skynyrd did exactly that – to the crowd’s delight.

MCA ARCHIVES MCA ARCHIVES Members of Lynyrd Skynyrd in a photo taken for their 1977 album “Street Survivors.”