Lynyrd Skynyrd, Foghat, and Molly Hatchet

The earliest incarnation of Lynyrd Skynyrd, formed by friends Ronnie Van Zant, Allen Collins and Gary Rossington, performed under the moniker My Backyard, before switching to One Percent in 1968. Two years later the band thanks to headlining a series of local concerts and opening for several national acts, Lynyrd Skynyrd became a popular Jacksonville act, they honed their hard-rock, southern blues style and began to make their studio recordings.

As a result of a successful performance at an Atlanta club Funocchio, which caught to attention of producer Al Kooper, the band singed to MCA in 1972. The band’s debut album arrived in 1973 with members Van Zant on lead vocals, Rossington on lead guitar and rhythm guitar, Collins also on guitar, Ed King on lead guitar, Billy Powell on keyboard, Bob Burns on drums and Leon Wilkeson on bass. The single “Free Bird” from the album earned Lynyrd Skynyrd their first taste of national exposure, notorious for their three guitar attack.

It wasn’t long before the band developed a popular following, with the success of “Free Bird” and opening for the Who on their “Quadrophenia” tour. Lynyrd Skynyrd's sophomore album “Second Helping” was released 1974 featuring the hit single “Sweet Home Alabama”. The album has since been certified multi-platinum and was followed up by 1975’s Nuthin’ Fancy”. “Nuthin’ Fancy saw Burns and King leave the band and replaced by Artimus Pyle. The album was there first to break the Top 10 and performed much better than its successor “Gimme Back My Bullets” released in 1976.

The band maintained its devoted following through well-documented touring and the release of the double live album “One More from the Road”. Three days after the release of the band’s sixth studio album “Street Survivors” on October 17, 1977, the band’s privately chartered plane crashed outside of Gillsburg, Mississippi. Lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and his back-up singer sister Cassie all died in the crash with everybody else picking up manageable injuries. Due to the event and the media coverage, “Street Survivors” became one of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s biggest and most popular albums, however the band soon broke up after the crash.

In 1987 members Rossington, Powell, King and Wilkeson reunited Lynyrd Skynyrd with the addition of vocalist Johnny Van Zant and guitarist Randall Hall. The band toured relentlessly which can be heard on the double live album “Southern by the Grace of God/Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Tour - 1987”.

The band subsequently released a string of studio albums including “Endangered Species” in 1994, “Twenty” in 1997, “Edge of Forever” in 1999, “Christmas Time Again” in 2000, “Vicious Cycle” in 2003 and “God & Guns” in 2009. In 2012 Lynyrd Skynyrd released the album “Last of a Dyin’ Breed”, it was produced by Bob Marlette and recorded at Blackbird Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.

The band formed with Dave Peverett on guitar and vocals, Tony Stevens on bass, and Roger Earl on drums. Rod Price on guitar/slide guitar joined after parting ways with the Black Cat Bones in December 1970. Their success was mainly in the US, which is where the band relocated. The new line up was named “Foghat”, which was a nonsense word from a childhood game played by Peverett and his brother. Their 1972 album “Foghat” was produced by Dave Edmunds and had a cover of Willie Dixon’s “I Just Want to Make Love to You” which earned itself a lot of airplay especially on the FM stations. Their sophomore self-titled album was released in March 1973 and known by fans as Rock and Roll because of its cover depicting a rock and bread roll. “Energized” was their third studio album, released in January 1974, and was certified as an RIAA Gold Record in the United States. They released an album every year for until “Return of the Boogie Men”, which was their thirteenth studio album. The 1980’s saw the band go through numerous line up changes, including founding member Dave Peverett leaving in 1984 and returning to England. He was replaced with Earl Burgeson. The band continued performing as Foghat into the early 1990s.

In 1993, due to a request of producer Rick Rubin, the original line-up reunited. Rubin ultimately proved to be unavailable to produce their comeback, the group went ahead to release “Return of the Boogie Men” and then a live album entitled “Road Cases” in 1998.

Tragically, the 2000s saw the deaths of the founding members, Dave Peverett and Rod Price. The 2010 version of Foghat consisted of Roger Earl, Craig MacGregor, Charlie Huhn, and Bryan Bassett. At a concert during the summer of 2010 former Rainbow and Black Sabbath drummer Bobby Rondinelli had temporarily replaced Roger Earl while Roger was recovering from surgery.

The band have never stopped touring and recording. They released a single on July 9th 2013 called “The Word of Rock n’ Roll” a Christmas song on November 5th 2013, and a DVD in December 2013.

The band was first formed by Have Hlubek and Steve Holland and toured their local roadhouse and bar circuit until they caught their big break in 1975 when they signed with Epic Records. The signing resulted in a collaboration with producer, Tom Werman, who helped them establish the developing Southern Rock genre by combining boogie, blue and hard rock. By 1978 they recorded and released their debut album, “Molly Hatchet,” followed a mere year later by “Flirtin’ With Disaster.” The band followed each record with a tour, which really helped them gain a larger fan base.

With the addition of vocalist Jimmy Farrar in the early 80s, the band enjoyed a huge rise in popularity. In 1981 they took on a more straight rock style for the album “Take No Prisoners” and while their touring was remained a strong success, the album didn’t fare as well. After the release of their third album, and a series of lineup changes, the band released a pop/rock album entitled “The Deed Is Done” in 1984 followed by a double live album the next year. Despite the release of an album in 1989, however, the band announced retirement in 1990.

The retirement didn’t last long, as the band reunited in 1991 with a new lineup and a series of shows and tours. Band members came and went, and throughout the 90s not a single member of the original band prior to 1984 was part of the band, however, the band was still finding touring success. They released a new album in 2000 entitled “Kingdom of XII” and continue to tour as extensively as they can.