We ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches ’cause it was real cheap, or maybe McDonald’s once a day … and that’s about it. “It was $31 a week for two rooms.” “We didn’t have no money. “We used to stay in a hotel called Blue’s Truckstop,” recalled Gary with a grin, a fond memory drifting back through the years. “We borrowed the money to get up there and barely got to eat … turned in a lot of coke bottles, too,” added Allen. We played all our songs and they (producers Jimmy Johnson and Tim Smith) listened to ’em.” We went up there (Muscle Shoals) and did a demo all day. It took a lot of sweat and sacrifice to get that train out of the station, and Gary remembered as if it were yesterday. But they jumped on after the train was movin’.” They did their part when they jumped on, ya know, they carried their load. “We had the train rolling … they jumped on it. Billy was on the album, yeah, but he was our roadie then.”Īllen, his glass now dry, decides to join the conversation. “We’re not trying to be unfair, but we did this way back before we met them. “They weren’t there,” said Gary, not with malice, just matter-of-factly. What about the remaining Skynyrds- Billy Powell, Leon Wilkeson and Artimus Pyle? It’s just that (pause) the crash, and we waited a while to recuperate. It was the first album we ever recorded and the last one (pause) that Lynyrd Skynyrd will ever record.” “It was a big plan that after Street Survivors we were gonna put it out. “The name of it’s “Skynyrd’s First … And Last”. We went a couple of weeks ago to mix and master it and now we’re workin’ on the cover. “Allen and me just been sittin’ around, so we took on the project of putting this album out. Everybody had planned for it to come out after Street Survivors. Gary answered the question before he could be asked. I had heard them perform it countless times at teen clubs and honkytonks around town nearly ten years ago. The haunting lyrics and the funky Southern melodies of “Wino,” the lead cut, and possible single from the anthology, filled the room. Why so many made it rich, Why so many cried” Looks back on his childhood, Wonders the reasons why. Ain’t got nothin’ to say, Don’t got much to lose. “Wino in the streets, Drinkin’ a bottle of booze. After the usual greetings, a search for some rolling papers and a few opinions on the visitor’s music, Allen reached for his own cassette. When this writer arrived, Allen was immersed in a tape that a promising local band had brought over, and Gary was on the way into the kitchen for a Budweiser. This would be the Skynyrd anthology, and the last collection of songs that would fill the album racks under the name Lynyrd Skynyrd. There, along with producer and long-time friend, Jimmy Johnson, they mixed and mastered nine tunes that had been recorded and stored since 1970-71. The two had just recently returned from a short but fruitful trip to Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Their main concerns were next month’s bills, a family life that the road had all but taken from them, and just learning to hold a guitar again. Crossing the Buckman bridge, there is a slight chill in the night air.Īllen and Gary had remained reclusive and reluctant to discuss their future. It’s a long lonesome drive out to Allen Collins home on the southern tip of Jacksonville, Florida. For it was these two, along with Ronnie Van Zant, who made up the nucleus of Lynyrd Skynyrd. And the responsibility fell square on the shoulders of guitarists/ songwriters Allen Collins and Gary Rossington. In fact, the craziness, not the stories, had slowed considerably since Gaines’ entrance into the Skynyrd clan. They weren’t called survivors just because they wound up on top of 99 out of 100 bar room brawls they engaged in around the globe. Or Steve, that anonymous picker from Oklahoma who gave the band a needed kick in the Ass and either wrote or co-wrote half of Street Survivors?
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