![\"I](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/22I-dont-like-my-words22-The-songs-Neil-Young-offered-Lynyrd-Skynyrd-to-apologise-Far-Out-Magazine-1.jpeg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ MCA Records \/ Analog Originals)<\/p>\n
Tue 3 March 2026 15:24, UK <\/p>\n
As one of the most outspoken men in rock music, it makes sense that Neil Young<\/a> may have also irked people with the content of his songs. The most prominent instance of this involves southern rock masters Lynyrd Skynyrd.<\/p>\n The situation started with the material of Young\u2019s\u00a0After The Gold Rush\u00a0classic, \u2018Southern Man\u2019, which was released in 1970. <\/p>\n The late frontman of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ronnie Van Zandt, was a big fan of Young\u2019s work and a friend of his, and he was even known to sport his T-shirt when playing live. However, he and his bandmates took the lyrics as a personal slight and an attack on their home culture, with sweeping generalisations such as: \u201cSouthern change gonna come at last \/ Now your crosses are burning fast\u201d.<\/p>\n Skynyrd weren\u2019t the only ones either; many fans from the American South were also enraged at being lumped in with the KKK. This resentment was stoked once more when, two years later, Young released what they saw as the incendiary \u2018Alabama\u2019. The track was like a lit match thrown on to a fuelled rag and the explosion was vast and pointed. <\/p>\n Young would later attempt to explain the stereotype of the South in his song \u2018Southern Man\u2019 by maintaining that the track was more about the civil rights movement than the region itself. In the liner notes for\u00a0Decade, he says: \u201cThis song could have been written on a civil rights march after stopping off to watch\u00a0Gone With The Wind\u00a0at a local theatre.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Van Zandt and the band were so incensed by Neil Young\u2019s generalisation of the South in both songs that a portion of the lyrics from their most famous hit, 1974\u2019s \u2018Sweet Home Alabama\u2019, is about the Canadian. Van Zandt sings: \u201cWell, I hope Neil Young will remember \/ A Southern man don\u2019t need him around, anyhow\u201d. <\/p>\n Using one of the most famous songs in American history to take aim at a fellow musician is bold, but it speaks highly of the disdain they felt towards Young\u2019s portrayal of their lands. One imagines if the band had taken a similar shot at Canada, Young would have felt the same. <\/p>\n Speaking to Rolling Stone<\/a> that year, the frontman explained: \u201cWe thought Neil was shooting all the ducks in order to kill one or two. We\u2019re southern rebels, but more than that, we know the difference between right and wrong.\u201d <\/p>\n![\"Lynyrd](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Lynyrd-Skynyrd-1973-MCA-Records-Far-Out-Magazine-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>(Credits: Far Out \/ MCA Records)<\/p>\n