Lynyrd Skynyrd are stretching their farewell tour to “Freebird”-sized proportions by adding dozens of new summer dates. The group announced its Last of the Street Survivors Farewell Tour last year, and will resume it this year with a set at the Stagecoach festival. Cody Jinks, Hank Williams, Jr. and Bad Company will each appear with them on select dates. Tickets will go on sale on February 8th at 10 a.m. local time.
“It takes a long time to finish a farewell tour when you’re like us, ’cause we’ve played everywhere,” guitarist Gary Rossington told Dan Rather in an interview last year. “I keep jokin’ it’d take ten years to do the farewell tour.”
Rossington, at this point, is the band’s only survivor. The tour’s lineup also features vocalist Johnny Van Zant (brother of the group’s late founding singer, Ronnie Van Zant) and guitarist Rickey Medlocke, who played mandolin and other instruments in the group in the early Seventies before rejoining to play guitar in the mid Nineties, among others. The group originally called it quits after an October 1977 plane crash killed Ronnie, guitarist-vocalist Steve Gaines, backing vocalist Cassie Gaines and members of the group’s crew. They regrouped in 1987 and have put out nine full-lengths, including a Christmas album, since then.
Late last year, the plane crash was the subject of a federal lawsuit. Heirs of Van Zant and Gaines sought to block the release of Street Survivors: The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash, which depicts the crash and features commentary by former drummer and crash survivor Artimus Pyle. The heirs argued that releasing the film violated a 1988 “blood oath,” in which band members allegedly agreed not to exploit the crash. A federal appeals court, however, deemed the film’s release legal.
Lynyrd Skynyrd Tour Dates
April 27 – Indio, CA @ Stagecoach *
May 10 – Tuscaloosa, AL @ Tuscaloosa Amphitheater +
May 11 – Arlington, TX @ KAABOO Texas *
May 17 – New Orleans, LA @ Smoothie King Center ^
May 18 – Lafayette, LA @ Cajundome ^
May 24 – Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena
May 31 – Gilford, NH @ Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion ^
June 1 – Bangor, ME @ Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion ^
July 13 – Canandaigua, NY @ Constellation Brands–Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center: CMAC
July 19 – Welch, MN @ Treasure Island Resort & Casino *
July 20 – Walker, MN @ Moondance Jam *
July 26 – Portland, OR @ Sunlight Supply Amphitheater #
July 27 – Seattle, WA @ White River Amphitheatre #
August 9 – Albuquerque, NM @ Isleta Amphitheater
August 16 – Las Vegas, NV @ T-Mobile Arena
August 17 – Wheatland, CA @ Toyota Amphitheatre
August 23 – Irvine, CA @ FivePoint Amphitheatre presented by Mercury Insurance
August 30 – Camden, NJ @ BB&T Pavilion ^
August 31 – Saratoga Springs, NY @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center ^
September 13 – Southaven, MS @ Bank Plus Amphitheater +
September 14 – Alpharetta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre +
September 20 – Salt Lake City, UT @ USANA Amphitheater +
September 21 – Denver, CO @ Fiddler’s Green
September 27 – Jackson, MS @ Brandon Amphitheater +
September 28 – Orange Beach, AL @ The Wharf Amphitheater +
+ with Cody Jinks
^ with Hank Williams Jr
# with Bad Company
*Previously announced U.S. dates.