Ronnie Van Zant

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Ronald Wayne Van Zant (born January 15, 1948 in Jacksonville , Florida , † October 20, 1977 in Gillsburg , Mississippi ) was an American singer who became known as a founding member of the southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd .

biography

Childhood and youth

He was born in Jacksonville, Florida to Lacy Austin Van Zant (1915-2004) and Marion Virginia (née Hicks) Van Zant (1929-2000), who both long outlived their son. The relationship also resulted in the younger sons Donnie and Johnny Van Zant . The first became known as the lead singer of the band 38 Special and the second took Ronnie's place after Lynyrd Skynyrd's reunion in 1991 and has been the lead singer of the band ever since.

Lynyrd Skynyrd

Van Zant formed the band in 1964 with Gary Rossington , Allen Collins , Larry Junstrom and Bob Burns, most of whom knew each other from school. The group gained fame in the early 1970s with their debut album "( Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd' Skin-'nérd )", which contains several songs that are still part of the standard repertoire at concerts today. The band's biggest hit, however, was Sweet Home Alabama from their second album " Second Helping ". Several more albums were released by 1977.

Private

Ronnie Van Zant had a daughter from each of his marriages. He was interested in baseball and, in his youth, in boxing and stock car racing.

death

On October 20, 1977, the plane chartered by the band crashed on the way from Greenville, South Carolina to Baton Rouge, Louisiana near Gillsburg, Mississippi. Van Zant died in the accident at the age of 29, along with other members of the band such as Steve Gaines , Cassie Gaines, road manager Dean Kilpatrick and the two pilots of the machine. He was buckled in his seat and looked uninjured, only a "coin-sized bruise on his temple" ( Artimus Pyle ) indicated a head injury. This had cost him his life. A later investigation contradicted the originally suspected lack of fuel as the cause of the accident and gave human error as the reason.

Texts

The band's best-known song "Sweet Home Alabama" was often understood as the proud American South's answer to the critical songs of Neil Young's "Alabama" and "Southern Man". In addition to a few other passages in the text, the line “Watergate does not bother me” was interpreted in this way, a reference to Nixon's Watergate affair . Even so, Van Zant contradicted the supposed advocacy of racial segregation in some interviews. In the song itself, this can be seen in the “Montgomery's got the answer” heard at the end. An allusion to the marches from Selma to Montgomery accompanied by Martin Luther King . There are a few other songs that don't match the cliché of the beer-loving patriotic rocker. Including “Poison Whiskey” from the first album, which describes how the father figure in the song perishes from excessive alcohol consumption. "The Ballad of Curtis Loew" describes how a boy, despite the threat of being beaten by his mother, repeatedly goes to an obviously colored blues musician to hear him play. And in “Saturday Night Special” the free possession of handguns is criticized, which is hardly denied in conservative America to this day. "Hand guns are made for killin ', ain't no good for nothin' else". Even so, Van Zant also owned several firearms.

Discography

Web links

Commons : Ronnie Van Zant  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ronnie Van Zant entry at allmusic.com
  2. ↑ Ernst Hofbacher: giants. The legendary builders of rock music. 25 rock musicians in portraits . Hannibal-Verlag, Höfen 2011, ISBN 978-3-85445-363-5 , p. 388.
  3. ↑ Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Sweet Home Alabama" in: The story of the hit on NDR 1 Lower Saxony from January 15, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Van Zant, Ronnie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Van Zant, Ronald Wayne (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American singer
DATE OF BIRTH January 15, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Jacksonville , Florida
DATE OF DEATH 20th October 1977
Place of death Gillsburg , Mississippi