The quintessential Southern rock band, Lynyrd Skynyrd was riding a major crest of popularity and success when tragedy struck. Founded in Jacksonville in the late 1960s, the band scored a record deal and released five studio albums and a double-live LP between 1973 and ‘77. But only three days after releasing Street Survivors, a plane carrying most of the group crashed in rural Mississippi. Six persons died in the crash including lead singer and founder Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and singer Cassie Gaines. The original band effectively ended then and there, and that could have been the end of the story.
But the legacy of Lynyrd Skynyrd continued to grow. Songs like “Sweet Home Alabama,” “Free Bird,” “Saturday Night Special and “What’s Your Name all made the Top 40 singles charts, and many songs from the band’s catalog became staples of FM rock (and later classic rock) radio. Surviving members launched the Rossington-Collins Band in 1979; that group released two albums and toured for three years. Ten years after the tragic crash, former members reunited to pay tribute to Ronnie Van Zant. Bringing the original lead singer’s younger brother Johnny on board, Lynyrd Skynyrd resumed recording and touring. With numerous lineup changes, the band has continued since then, releasing many live and studio albums and touring to the delight of a dedicated fan base.
In 2026 Lynyrd Skynyrd is once again in familiar territory: on the road. This summer the band is joined by another group that came to fame in the 1970s: Foreigner. The Double Trouble Double Vision tour takes the two beloved groups to 19 North American cities, including a September 25 date at Reno Events Center. Just ahead of the tour, lead singer Johnny Van Zant spoke with Rock On about his decades fronting the band, what keeps the group going, and the enduring legacy of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Rock On: In the 1980s, you had a successful career of your own leading the Johnny Van Zant Band; you released four albums with them between 1980 and ‘85. Tell me how you came to join Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Johnny Van Zant: Well, I had three records on Polygram. Then I did one album for Geffen [1985’s Van Zant], and then – honestly – in one week, I had gotten out of the music business. I was kind of like, “I just like writing songs.” I was driving a truck at the time. But a friend of mine said that Ahmet Ertegun [president of Atlantic Records] had heard some of my songs and liked them; he wanted to speak to me. And I thought, “Well, it’s a music business.” Ahmet signed me the next Monday.
And then that Friday, I got a call from [Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist] Gary Rossington: 10 years after the plane crash, they wanted to do a tribute tour. And I was like, “You know what? I just got signed to Atlantic! I got a deal there.” But these were Ronnie’s guys, so I wanted to go meet with Gary. My dad and I went to a hotel in Baymeadows here in Jacksonville. We walked into the room with all the guys who Ronnie had made all these great songs with. They had the Rossington-Collins band, but their hearts were still into Lynyrd Skynyrd. And they wanted to do a tribute to Ronnie. I thought me and Donnie, as brothers, could do it. I wanted Donnie to be a part of it, but 38 Special was really taking off, so he couldn’t.
So I said, “Let’s rehearse; let’s play some of the songs.” And from the moment that I started singing with those guys and seeing the smiles on their face, it was so awesome and so wonderful. I knew it was the right thing to do; I really did. So we said, “Let’s go for it.” And the rest is history.
Back in 2018, Lynyrd Skynyrd launched what was initially billed as a farewell tour. In 2020, the pandemic put a hold to that, and to everything else. Once the pandemic was over, you guys changed your mind. What led to that?
Gary called me up again. He said, “You know what? I had 15 months off in ‘20. And I figured it out: Musicians don’t retire; we do [fewer] shows.” After Gary decided he wanted to do this again, he got sick. But I was going to follow Gary no matter what, because he’s the one who made the call in the first place back in ‘86. All he ever wanted to do was carry on the legacy of Allen [Collins] and Ronnie and the boys. And he got sick and he said, “Hey, Bubba, I’ve been looking at the situation. Charlie Daniels is gone. Greg Allman’s gone. I’ve spent most of my years carrying on this legacy, and when I’m gone, I would like to see it carried on.” [Rossington died in March 2023.]
In recent years, the band has toured in tandem with some of your peers, fellow major acts like ZZ Top and Foreigner. What are the advantages of that kind of a tour?
There’s a lot of advantages when you bring two iconic bands together. I think it’s great, because ticket prices are so high these days. You’re getting a lot of music and a lot of hit songs whenever you team up with somebody like that. We’ve been doing it for a while – on and off over the years – with ZZ Top, and they’re just like family.
We’re hooking up with Foreigner this year. Years ago, we did a Canadian run when Lou Gramm was in their band, and it was a great time. And people were wondering, how do Foreigner’s “Urgent” and “I Want to Know What Love Is” go with “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Free Bird”? But it worked out so good that when this opportunity came, I was like, “Yeah! Let’s go out and do some shows with those guys this year.” And I’m looking forward to it. The crowds are going to have a night of hits.
You’ve been fronting Lynyrd Skynyrd for nearly 40 years now.
What keeps it interesting for you?
The love of the people who made the music, and the love of the fans. There’s not a night that I go out on stage and I’m not excited. Some people would call it anxiety, but I call it excitement. I never phone it in; we’re all giving it 110, 120%. Whenever we go into a song like “Simple Man” and see the audience’s response, it’s an amazing thing. And that keeps me coming back.
Lynyrd Skynyrd has been a household name for more than a half century.
What are people going to say about Lynyrd Skynyrd 50, 100 years from now?
Real songs, real people. My brother Ronnie was as down to earth as you could get, but when he hit the stage, he was a badass. And whenever he wrote a song, he wrote for real, hard-working people. I would hope that people would appreciate all the stuff that the band did – from the beginning until the very end, whenever it ends. There’s been a lot of heartache, and I think people love an underdog. When the band started, there was no American Idol. There was nothing for bands except for honkytonks and hard knocks. But you know what? That created the music of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Roger Daltrey is one of the most distinctive voices in rock. Lead singer for The Who, he has been the voice of one of the greatest rock bands of all time, delivering the words of guitarist and extraordinary songwriter Pete Townshend on albums and in live concerts from 1964 until present day. On breakthrough albums like The Who Sell Out and the double-album rock opera Tommy (both 1967), the juggernaut Who’s Next (1971) and 1978’s classic Who Are You, the band’s remarkable balance of power and depth showcased music that hit hard, connecting with both head and heart.
Countless classics have come out of The Who’s discography. From the anthemic “My Generation” in 1965 to “Behind Blue Eyes” (1971) and album rock classics like “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” The Who created the soundtrack for a generation. Leading the charge vocally, Roger Daltrey has been the band’s indefatigable front man. Today – more than 62 years after The Who’s first charting single – the band remains active, with Daltrey and Townshend fronting a lineup that features younger musicians.
And since 1973, Daltrey has also maintained a creatively rich solo career outside The Who. To date, the London-born singer has released nine studio albums. Beginning with his silver screen debut in 1975, Daltrey has also acted in many films and on television.
Knighted in 2025, today the 82-year-old Daltrey remains active; he’s currently gearing up for a solo tour with a band of his own. Ahead of that tour, Roger Daltrey spoke with Rock On about his life in and beyond music, and the other pursuits that keep him engaged.
What was the first song that Pete Townshend brought to The Who where you thought, “Hey, this is something special; he’s not just any songwriter”?
Probably [1967’s] “Pictures of Lily.” It was so left-field for me as a singer, because as you know, we came out of doing John Lee Hooker and Howlin’ Wolf songs. And then all of a sudden there’s this song with a kind of childlike quality to it. Because it was sung from the perspective of a child. And I thought, “Well, this is extraordinary. And it’s telling a story.” And then I thought, “There’s a lot of potential here!” And sure enough, look what happened. And then of course, he followed it with “I’m a Boy,” which in today’s world [laughs] could cause a lot of fights!
I just thought, “This guy has got an ability to reach people in the way most people can’t.” And I wasn’t proved wrong. So, how lucky did I get? But what a stretch! I really stretch myself; I try to live the words as a character in the song so that you are in the song, living it too, if that makes sense. It’s so difficult to talk about singing! But I try to connect every word so that it touches the spirit of that word to the listener.
For your current tour, you’re playing with an acoustic-based band…
Well, they call it an acoustic-based band because it’s got very different instrumentation. It’s got squeeze box, a harmonica player, guitarist, bass player, violin, mandola, and acoustic guitar player. And a drummer, of course. And a percussionist, Jody Linscott.
I do “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and I do “Baba O’Riley” [both from 1971’s Who’s Next], but not with a loop of tape doing the backing. We do it all on instruments, which allows us to stretch the songs, change the instrumentation on the solos. It’s a lot of fun. And what I’ve found is that when people hear it done differently like that, they’ve told me that it’s almost like hearing the song again for the first time ever.
I’ve been in one of the hardest-working, hardest-delivering bands of all time. There’s no cheating a Who show; it’s foot-to-the-floor, kick-ass, hard-nosed rock. And this is the opposite. This is about just coming out and having a good night out. And it’s all about having a good time; that’s all I want to do now. I wanted to call [the tour] A Bloody Good Night Out, which is a more English [way of saying it]. But unfortunately, it’s not quite American, is it?
When you first began acting, how did your experience as a singer provide a foundation for that?
Well, obviously quite a lot, because the first thing I ever acted in was [Ken Russell’s 1975 film] Tommy. Because it was all music, I was incredibly comfortable; I made the character up and I managed to hold the character through the whole film. So that was easy.
But it was when I got my first speaking part, I suddenly realized, “Oh, this is a whole new ball game!” Plus the fact that the dialogue that was written was so awful...
You did do some, um, unusual movies like Lizstomania…
Well, [laughs] yes, that was my second film. And I didn’t know my ass from my elbow; I didn’t know how to open my mouth and talk. [Before that] everything I’d done would have been sung, and all of a sudden someone took the backing track away!
Do you find that acting provides a different creative fulfillment for you than singing does?
It’s all part of the one big thing. I do enjoy acting very much, if I get a really good part that I can get my teeth into. But they’re few and far between; good product these days is extremely hard to find.
For many years now, you’ve been an advocate for nonprofits supporting work in the field of teenage cancer. What inspired you in that particular direction?
The original charity, which was in England, is called the Teenage Cancer Trust. It was started by my GP, my doctor. He asked me to be a patron; he told me what they were trying to do, and I suddenly realized that he was right. I thought about my childhood and how disturbing some of my teenage years were, growing up. They can be incredibly painful when you’re trying to find who you are in life. And I could imagine what it would have been like to be diagnosed with cancer [as well].
Of all the songs you sing, do you have a favorite?
Well, if any one I sing has an effect on an audience unlike any of the others, it would be a solo song that I did, “Giving It All Away” [from 1973’s Daltrey]. I don’t know why, but when you start singing that song, the opening chords – C to E minor to G – have an effect on people; you can hear a pin drop. It’s really weird. Even in the most rowdy audience, you start playing that song, and there’s this silence; it’s really strange. I don’t know whether it’s something in the top line of the vocal, the sound of the vocal, the chord changes. I don’t know what it is, but something happens. And I love playing that song.
For audiences who have seen you in the past with The Who – but have not seen one of your solo tours – what will they experience that’s different?
Everything. It’s very, very different. It’s a totally different band, different sound. I have a lot more rapport with the audience. I don’t mind answering questions. I take the piss out of them, and they take the piss out of me. And I love all that. That’s what life should be about: banter.
Roger Daltrey’s A Great Night Out tour comes to the Grand Theatre at Reno’s Grand Sierra Resort on September 5.