A Quote by Johnny Van Zant

Everybody in Lynyrd Skynyrd loves different styles of music, and our minds are very open when it comes to writing our songs and making the band true to what the band is, but also stepping out and doing something current.
Lynyrd Skynyrd is not a political band, but you know what? We believe in this country. We have a soft spot for our military. We love the red, white and blue, and every night we dedicate a portion of our show to our fighting men.
The act of the being in the band has very little in common with writing songs. The songs come out of it, and the band is necessary for the songs to emerge, but the band doesn't exist just so the songs can emerge.
One of the reasons we survive as a band is that we are seen as a band of today. We don't want to be seen as a band that tours and plays old songs. We feel that we are making the best music of our careers.
I enjoy making music alone, and I like keeping my options open for how I release my own songs. But everybody in Grizzly Bear is full of ideas. So it's kind of boring to come to the band with a complete song and be like: "Here's what I want you to do." With this record, we wanted to make everything feel like everyone - music that we could never do on our own. That's a real gift, and it's one of the best things about being in a band like this.
When we are out on the road, running up and down the road playing shows, you have to be not only a member of a band but, especially with Lynyrd Skynyrd, you have to be a part of the Skynyrd nation. You have to be a part of the family.
I think a comedian has a more specific job. Whereas a musician can fall into different categories, you know, of making background music or doing a soundtrack or wanting to be in a band or writing the song, or writing your own songs. And then comedy is a very black and white thing. You want to make people happy.
I wouldn't call Super Furry Animals a political band, but we've all grown up in politically charged households, and we have a lot of political debates within the band. Obviously we don't think exactly alike, but we agree on a lot of points, and if something pisses us off, we're usually pretty open about it and very happy to share our views with other people. But I mean, we got together as a band because of our love of music.
Lynyrd Skynyrd has always been about writing songs and talking to people through them. That's what we do, and that's what we'll keep doing for as long as we can.
Rush is one of the common denominators in our band as far as a band that everybody loves and grew up with and was a big influence.
Everybody now who's playing in Unicorn band is deeply schooled in music. I'm the only one who's self-taught, which I think is a bit hilarious because I'm leading the band and writing the songs, but I'm surrounded by such overwhelmingly competent musicians.
There was a band very early on in our class, and I played in that band and as a teenager, I continued. It was more from my own relationship with the instruments at this time, figuring out the instrument and then having to learn different pieces that I really got into music. I really discovered the almost transcending power of music. And I think that is why I am so into it.
In our band, every member has input, but me and Steve do the majority of the writing. We start the songs, the rest of the band help us finish it.
I hope our legacy will be enduring and that people think of us as an important band. But I think Ricky's guitar playing, our style of writing, the fact that we had men and women in the band and gay and straight, I think it's an important band, and the way we wrote by jamming, we really had a different approach.
We're proud to be lifetime musicians and a band that lives like a band and loves the music and gives our lives to it.
My idea for our band is to be influenced by something different for every album. So it's almost like making a new band with every record we make I think. That's kind of the path we're headed down now anyway.
I remember when our first album came out. After one of our gigs, we went across the border to Mexico and the band in the bar where we were was doing covers of our songs. I don't think they understood a word they were singing but they did the songs perfectly.
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