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Lynyrd Skynyrd is ready to serve up some more good ole southern-fried rock ‘n’ roll on their upcoming record, God & Guns. “The old saying is if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, so we didn’t step out too far,” frontman Johnny Van Zant, brother of original frontman Ronnie Van Zant, told Billboard.com.
God & Guns will be released September 29 on Loud & Proud/Roadrunner Records, which is a new home for Van Zant and the boys. “They’re a heavier record label, too, with Nickelback and Slipknot and Black Stone Cherry,” says Van Zant. “They got a lot of heavy stuff on there, and we don’t mind that at all. We finally found us a home that we thought would fit us.”
The album’s first single, “Still Unbroken,” will hit the airwaves later this month. One highlight of the album is a track called “Skynyrd Nation,” which is a tribute to late piano player Billy Powell. “I was on the computer right after Billy passed away,” Van Zant tells Billboard, “and was just seeing the messages that people were posting. Somebody said, ‘Will the Skynyrd nation go on?’ I thought, ‘Wow, I never thought of it as being a nation, but it really is.’”Powell passed away earlier this year of a suspected heart attack. Guitarist Gary Rossington is the only surviving founding member still playing with the band.
Lynyrd Skynyrd has seen a lot of lineup changes over the years, but that’s obviously not stopping them from continuing to write and play music. “We’re doing what we do and singing what we know about. I can tell you it’s great and there’s a lot of good stuff on there, but the fans will tell us if we did the job right,” Van Zant continued. “Some time in October we’ll know whether we did the record that we should’ve done.”
Lynyrd Skynyrd is currently on tour with Kid Rock.
