Lynyrd Skynyrd embodies the very definition of a legacy act in the most noble sense of the term. Since the passing of Gary Rossington in 2023, the band’s last remaining original member, the mantle has fallen to Johnny Van Zandt and Rickey Medlocke to serve as the de facto custodians of Skynyrd’s storied history, a role they embrace with visible reverence. The band is a living, breathing tribute to the songs, albums, shows, and souls that have defined Southern rock for over half a century.
The audience isn’t here for deep cuts (though a lone ’90s track did sneak in), nor for radical reinterpretations or unexpected surprises. They’re here for the legacy: those iconic songs from Skynyrd’s classic era that defined a genre and a generation. And on that front, the setlist didn’t disappoint. These tunes aren't mere hits or classics, they’re cultural landmarks, artefacts woven into the fabric of American music and instantly recognizable to rock fans across the globe. They deserve to be played loud and proud, and no group is more qualified, or more entitled, to carry that torch than this one.
You can't to go wrong with a setlist centered around the classics from that legendary five-album run, and the band assembled to honor that legacy is up to the task at hand. Joining Van Zandt and Medlocke onstage is a seasoned and solid lineup: newcomer Robbie Harrington on bass, longtime drummer Michael Cartellone, the aptly named Peter Keys on keyboards, and guitarists Mark Matejka and Damon Johnson, formerly of Alice Cooper’s band complete the trademark three-axe attack. Backing vocals come courtesy of Carol Chase and Dale Krantz-Rossington, the widow of Gary Rossington. Together, this ensemble forms the most legitimate vessel to carry the Skynyrd legacy forward.
Van Zandt and Medlocke remain essential to this legitimacy. Van Zandt, of course, by looking and sounding eerily like his departed brother Ronnie, and Medlocke for having been an early contributor to the Skynyrd sound as well as a figure of independent renown in the Southern Rock canon. The continuity they bring to the band is musical and historical of course, but also personal. It elevates the performance beyond mere commemoration and into something almost metaphysical.
And nowhere does it all come together more vividly than during the encore of "Free Bird," as the rhythm section thunders, the guitars soar, and Johnny Van Zandt stands center stage, eyes closed, as the band locks into that sacred outro, sounding like a bird in flight. And this bird you cannot change...
