Johnny Van Zant Quotes

Skynyrd just hasn't gotten its just due.

Whatever people want to say, we go out there every night, and we give tribute to the songs that my brother wrote, to Ronnie and Allen Collins and Steve Gaines and Leon Wilkeson and everybody. We pay tribute every night to those people who have gone on.

That's why 60,000 people go ape when the Stones play 'Satisfaction.' The songs are part of their legacy, and you fall back in love with them over the years.

Fifty years from now, people will still be listening to Led Zeppelin. They won't even remember me.

I came up in a time when Springsteen, the Stones, Dylan, and the Beatles were still dominant. For every magazine cover with a new band, there were five covers with one of those guys.

We're trying to have the band create something beautiful that hopefully one day, 20 years from now, can be picked up by a kid and hopefully have the same effect that Neil Young had on me, or Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath.

I know a lot of people who are not here anymore, and I wonder why I'm still here... Not a day goes by that I don't think about Sam Cooke. His presence is so strong and so convincing to me, a true artist, a true talent, who never talked down to people.

I don't think anyone can measure up to what my father had achieved. I'm just happy to at least play some of his music, but he is really the one who was the pioneer, the one who started all this. He's really The King.

I was one of the original drummers. What everyone likes to do is think of Lynyrd Skynyrd as the band that picked up again in '73. But I was one of the original members, and I was a big part of that.

Skynyrd's not just a band; I think it's a lifestyle. It's iconic.

I knew the guys in the Allman Brothers way back in the day, before they were famous.

I was a Skynyrd fan before I was approached to be a part of Skynyrd, and they always ended it with 'Free Bird,' so I've been watching it since I was a kid.

Robert Plant, Kenny Chesney, Mavis Staples, Taj Mahal, this incredible array of folks, all taught me a way to carry yourself with dignity.

I was interested in music since I was 14 years old. What really got me started was the first Led Zeppelin album... absolutely.

God bless classic rock. It's been very good to me; I'll tell you that.

We have to make a living, sure, but it's about the legacy of Lynyrd Skynyrd and what it stands for, what the fans are all about.

I thought The Doors were the greatest band for a while.

I think it's just that Skynyrd songs are timeless.

Yeah, Lynyrd Skynyrd, I knew all them guys.

I liked Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin and the Eagles. Those were some of my favorites.

We were either listening to jazz or Robert Johnson, the old blues man, but not to our peers.

The Seventies was a golden era. Back then we had some incredible talent with bands like the Undertones, the Rolling Stones and artists like Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney.

Every drummer I've ever spoken to or read an interview with - my dad is always in their top three. I'm honored to share his name and represent him all these years after he's gone.

I don't care if people even discuss what I did. But if anyone is ever sitting around the kitchen table talking about my career, I hope they say they enjoyed watching me play. That's good enough.

I was very humbled by the 'one-man Led Zeppelin' comparisons.