Gary Rossington tells the story of Free Bird.

Gary Rossington tells the story of Free Bird.
Allen had this song for 5 Years before Ronnie came up with the melody and lyrics! 🙂
Allen Wrote the song before Ronnie could write Lyrics, there was to many chords, Ronnie Said.
One day Ronnie said Hey Play those chords again! and BAM!
Free Bird was Born !
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“The whole long jam was Allen Collins himself,” Rossington says. “He was bad. He was super bad! He was bad-to-the-bone bad. When we put the solo together, we liked the sound of the two guitars, and I could’ve gone out and played it with him. But the way he was doin’ it, he was just so hot! He just did it once and did it again and it was done.
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Free Bird was a simple little love song about leaving a girl!
Allen came up with that song in High school! it was a slow song at first! When they started playing clubs they would jam on it so Ronnie could rest his Voice! sometimes up to 20 minutes.
Allen came up with the solo for the end of Free bird when he was 17 or 18 years old! (1969/70) - Gary Rossington.
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The First Known Performances of Free Bird:
Tom Markham says it was first performed publicly at the Jamathon, a benefit for the Jacksonville Art Museum on May 9, 1970. Then played in at Allen and Kathy's Wedding in October 10,.1970!
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Rock On! 🎵🎸🎶🎹☮️
The First Time that Free Bird and Lynyrd Skynyrd were Recorded!
Producer - Jim Sutton, Tom
Markham -
The Shade Tree Recordings were recorded at Norm Vincent Studios, Jacksonville, Florida in may, 1969.
The Shade Tree Version was First released in 2000 on Collectybles Album.
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Stand outs: Bob on drums and Larry on Bass!
No Piano
Larry's Bass
Gary's Slide, 18 years Old,
Allen is 17 years old!
Allen's Solo is different than later versions!
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“It’s about what it means to be free, in that a bird can fly wherever he wants to go,” Ronnie Van Zant said in the 70s. “Everyone wants to be free. That’s what this country’s all about.”
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“One day, Ronnie went: ‘Okay, play it again.’ He made Allen play it a bunch of different times. And finally he got a verse or a melody in his head. And he started practising that, playing Allen’s chords. He wrote the lyrics just laying on the couch.” - Gary Rossington.
Gary Rossington says that the band initially saw Free Bird as just another song.
“We didn’t even think much of it at first,” he says. But they swiftly realised they’d hit on something special the very first time the band played it live.
“It was at a place called the South Side Women’s Club in Jacksonville,” he recalls. “We played that song, but just the slow part. We didn’t have the jam at the end then. We ended it before the guitars came in, but everybody still got off on it. They clapped us so much.”
A demo of the song recorded in 1970 and included in the band’s 1991 box set lasts just four minutes. That’s how Free Bird sounded for a while. The band would play the first half of the song, fuelled by Ronnie’s sorrowful vocals, wrapping it up after four or five minutes. But Allen Collins and Gary Rossington gradually started to add a short guitar outro.
“Just a minute or so,” says Gary Rossington. “But one night we were playing a club and Ronnie said: ‘Play that a little longer, my voice is hurting, I need a break. So we played two minutes or three minutes. Then two days later his throat was all sore and he could hardly talk, and we ended up playing it ten minutes at the end, just jamming.”
Skynyrd’s label, MCA, were reluctant to put it out as a single. “They thought it was too long to be a hit,” says Gary Rossington. “Mind you, so did we.” But the song took on a life of its own on stage, and the record company changed their mind.
Free Bird was eventually a hit in 1974, more than a year after it was originally released.
“Jeez, most of our songs are about rolling down the road,” Gary Rossington says with a laugh. “Sweet Home Alabama, What’s Your Name?, Whiskey Rock-A-Roller, Travelling Man. But I guess Free Bird is the ultimate one, and that’s why it stuck.” - Gary Rossington.
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Rock'n'Roll! rb 010

[@robbycates1377]

Thanks for the stories! As a diehard skynyrd fan,I can never get enough of it!

[@robert.m4676]

I can still remember hearing this song back as a kid in the early 70’s. I couldn’t have been but around 8 in 74. I just thought this is what being an American is really about. Being a Freebird in the greatest country on Earth.

[@z2002marlene]

RIP Gary Rossington

[@MP-ju4ol]

What’s not to love about these stories? That is Skynyrd…….real!

[@byrdhilton]

R.I.P. Gary🌹

[@ethancarter3562]

R.I.P to my hero Gary Rossington

[@user-rr7kl9jz9o]

Was this an interview from the early 80s?

[@Betty-jb2ns]

Hell yeah Johnny boy loves Skynyrd, gimme back my bullets, Alabama loves Skynyrd...

[@RippinTheRoofOff]

When was this interview?

[@bilavefur]

1987

[@RippinTheRoofOff]

@@bilavefur thank you 😊