The legacy of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Neil Young feud begins in 1970 when
counterculture and social justice pioneer Neil Young criticizes the American south.
His target institutionalized racism and confederate traditions,
ideals that he thinks should be eradicated.
Neil Young in the beginning of 1970 got a taste for writing protest music and social commentary
when he wrote the song "Ohio" after the Kent State shootings.
All of a sudden he wanted to continue to make that kind of commentary,
so on the album After the Gold Rush, he did a song called "Southern Man".
And then on the next record, Harvest, he did a song called "Alabama".
Both of them were making reference to the south, the KKK, and slave owners.
But many southerners are outraged by Young's lyrics.
Their mores questioned, their culture threatened, a southern band named Lynyrd Skynyrd fights back.
Skynyrd felt that he was painting with a very broad brush.
They wanted to show that, "No the south isn't like that, we're here,
we don't need you to tell us about that."
Why would he say that?
A lot of people are like, "Man i ain't apologizing to nobody."
A lot of people interpret it differently,
I love all people and so did Ronnie but I also understand why people are pissed off.
Skynyrd's front man, Ronnie Van Zant, escalates the beef
with a personal and direct response to Young's anti-south songs "Southern Man" and "Alabama".
The result is the most famous diss track ever.
Lynyrd Skynyrd came back when they wrote "Sweet Home Alabama".
It's one of those things where it is definitely a song of the south, it's a southern rock anthem.
Did that whole verse about, "A southern man don't need him around anyhow."
In the song Ronnie Van Zant sounds pissed off.
He said, "We don't want to be lumped in, that all southern people weren't alike,
everybody is different and you know there's a lot of great people down here in the south."
Ronnie was a very highly intelligent man and a prolific songwriter but he was just saying to
Neil, "Hey man you're from Canada, don't judge all southern people on the racism of a few."
So people from the south really grabbed a hold of that and thought
that Skynyrd hated Neil Young after that and vice versa.
They thought there was this incredible rivalry that never let up.
The animosity between Neil Young and Ronnie Van Zant may have been only for show.
They definitely kissed and made up, they respected the hell out of each other.
It could just be a moment where, "Hey I'm going to take that and use that for
inspiration," and I think that's what happened with the Skynyrd Neil thing,
it was like that was like something that was inspired.
If you look on the last album cover Lynyrd Skynyrd did Street Survivors
before the tragic plane crash, Ronnie Van Zant, the lead singer of Lynyrd Skynyrd,
he's wearing a Neil Young "Tonight's the Night" shirt right under his jacket.
So the last message that he sent to us was, "I'm a Neil Young fan."
Ronnie told me that Neil Young and Ronnie were going to get together
and write a song but Ronnie was killed and so they couldn't.
I get goosebumps thinking about the song that Neil and Ronnie would have written.
I knew Ronnie and I knew that Ronnie loved Neil Young.
It's as simple as that.
He respected him as a singer, songwriter, he was just addressing the one issue which
is don't blame all southern men for a few that have racist views.
Whether the perceived feud is rooted in personal anger or regional pride,
the songs they provoke remain staples of classic rock.
Ronnie Van Zant with Skynyrd and Neil Young would
both go on to enshrinement in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.