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Bummer, dude! Real Skynyrd isn't coming

The real Lynyrd Skynyrd isn't coming to Spotsylvania concert, just some former members of that band and other famous rock groups.

By BETTY HAYDEN SNIDER

Date published: 8/29/2003

Ex-members of 3 bands to team up

"Free Bird" and "Sweet Home Alabama" will be on the playlist at an outdoor rock concert in Spotsylvania County next month, but the band playing the songs bears only a slight resemblance to the one that made them hits.

Southern Rock Wood Stock will feature a band made up of former members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Black Foot and .38 Special who play a 21/2-hour set of those groups' greatest hits, said Steve Cantrell, one of the concert's promoters.

"You're really getting the original people, just not all of them," Cantrell said yesterday.

Spotsylvania County supervisors approved a special event permit for the concert Tuesday. The information provided to the board listed the three bands' names, but did not explain that they won't actually be there--just one band that includes some former members of those groups.

There is a touring band called Lynyrd Skynyrd, which includes two original members, but it is playing elsewhere that day.

The group's lineup has changed constantly over the years since it burst onto the scene with such hits as "Sweet Home Alabama." Three band members, including lead singer Ronnie Van Zandt, were killed in a 1977 plane crash.

Cantrell said he does not have the complete list of performers for the Spotsylvania concert yet, but he knows former Skynyrd drummer Artimus Pyle is among them.

The Sept. 20 show will run from noon to midnight and is expected to draw about 4,000 people to the Izaak Walton League's 120-acre park on Herndon Drive, off Brock Road. Other scheduled performers include The Atlanta Rhythm Section and Brian Howe, former lead singer of Bad Company. Radio personality The Greaseman will appear, courtesy of the event's radio sponsor, WGRX-Thunder 104.5 FM.

Regional bands on the bill include The Road Ducks, J.D. and the Players, Leadbelly, Homegrown and Jackson Cage.

The radio station has arranged for Country Music Television to have a VIP lounge on site. Budweiser also will have one there, and access to both will be given to door-prize winners, Cantrell said.

Other door prizes will include a guitar signed by all of the artists at the show, which Pickers Supply is donating.

Southern Rock Wood Stock concerts have been held for the past six years in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Georgia.

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Date published: 8/29/2003