(Credits: Far Out / MCA Records)
Fri 2 January 2026 0:00, UK
When the members of Lynyrd Skynyrd first came together, they wanted to follow in the same footsteps as The Beatles. They might not have been a match in terms of talent, but their commitment soon introduced another feature that would establish them as one of the biggest forces in classic rock.
“We just had a dream of making it in a band, but we didn’t think we’d make it real big,” Gary Rossington said in a 2012 interview with Classic Rock. “But we started rehearsing and playing around town at parties and stuff, and when we got into writing we started trying real hard. Me and [Allen Collins] would battle for solos. We’d learn a song and whoever played lead the best got it.”
What ensued was a competitive environment where each would vie for the most attention, until focus shifted to developing their own unique sound, and venturing back into the styles that went into some of their favourite rock ‘n’ roll bands at the time. For instance, before bands like The Beatles, it was all about the blues – a genre that informed many of Skynyrd’s best and most career-defining hits.
According to Rossington, it was people like Paul Butterfield, John Mayall, Muddy Waters, Son House, and Howlin’ Wolf at first, not just in sound but in theme, which inspired the beginnings of songs like ‘Free Bird’, initially written about walking away from a relationship to enjoy the freedom of doing whatever you wanted.
When they were writing it, Ronnie Van Zant and Collins didn’t really feel like they were coming up with anything all that worthwhile. It was a simple tune, just an instrumental track at first, with a basic appeal that was neither here nor there. Over time, it evolved into what you hear on the recorded version, with added lyrics and piano parts from Billy Powell that went on for far longer in length.
At first, this was because Van Zant wanted a chance during performances to rest his voice for a longer period of time. And so, every time, he told the others to keep going, until once he told them to go on and on until he told them to stop. Obviously, by the time it came to recording an official version of the song, the label wasn’t best pleased about its run time, but the band pushed back, despite still believing that there was nothing especially hit-worthy about the track at all.
“When we went to record it, the record company and a lot of people who advised us said, ‘Man, they won’t play that, it’s too long,’” Rossington recalled. “‘Cause songs could only be like two or three minutes, like the old Beatles and Stones songs. But we said, ‘We don’t care! Truth is, we didn’t think it would be a big song.”
The song was initially released on their debut album, Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd, but was something of a sleeper hit until they went on the road with The Who for their 1973 Quadrophenia tour, a major moment that significantly boosted Skynyrd’s popularity across the US. ‘Free Bird’ was among the songs that experienced a belated surge, with more radio stations putting the track on heavy rotation.
It might not have gained the immediate popularity that bands crave, Skynyrd’s defiance and commitment to recording the material they had ensured its place among classic rock staples, as well as their positioning as one of the most edgy and competitive bands out there. And by this point, the song means much more than ditching a potential love interest. In the eyes of Van Zant, it meant being free, “in that a bird can fly wherever he wants to go”.
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