Rival teams · Westside, JacksonvilleSummer 1964
Lynyrd Skynyrd in an MCA publicity photograph, 1976.
Three boys met playing for rival ball teams; a jam in a carport made them a band. Here are their places, round the bases from the Westside and home again.
Jacksonville’s Westside · 1964 to 1969
THE CARPORT · 1964
In the summer of 1964 Ronnie Van Zant, Bob Burns and Gary Rossington met playing for rival Jacksonville baseball teams.
A jam in the carport of Burns’s parents’ house led them to start a band; Allen Collins and Larry Junstrom joined later. They played as My Backyard, The Noble Five and The One Percent before settling on Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1969.
A private family home whose address is not published: named here, never mapped. Pictured: the Westside.
McDUFF AVENUE · LATE 1960s
He sent a group of long-haired students to the principal’s office for breaking the school’s rules on hair; those students went on to form the band, and named it after him.
Leonard Skinner was a gym teacher and basketball coach at Robert E. Lee High School in the late 1960s. In 2009 he told the Florida Times-Union that he did not much like long hair on men, but that the rule was not his. He later became friends with the band, who played at a Jacksonville bar he owned. He died in 2010, aged 77.
The Duval County School Board voted in June 2021 to rename the school Riverside High School.
A working public high school, not open to visitors: see the front from McDuff Avenue.
At bat · 1970 to 1987
Every clean hit sends the runner one base further: the woods, the studios, the stages, and home.
Step up to the plate. Press Pitch, then Swing as the ball crosses the plate.
First base · Peters Creek, Clay County · early 1970s
Tired of the police being called when they played round their homes on Jacksonville’s Westside, the band found an abandoned shed deep in the woods by Peters Creek.
It was cramped and had no air conditioning; Johnny Van Zant remembers a square, secluded room that was rightly named Hell House. Clay Today reports that “Free Bird”, “Gimme Three Steps”, “Tuesday’s Gone”, “Simple Man” and “Sweet Home Alabama” were written there.
The shack burned down in an electrical fire; the woods are now the Edgewater Landing subdivision, with streets such as Free Bird Loop and Tuesdays Cove. In 2023 new owners of the lot uncovered an original footing of the shack and said they would build a home there while respecting its history.
A private lot in a gated subdivision: named here, never mapped. Pictured: Black Creek at Green Cove Springs, nearby.
Second base · Sheffield, Alabama, and Doraville, Georgia · 1970 to 1973
1970
By 1970 Lynyrd Skynyrd were recording demos here.
The 1970 Sheffield tapes, shelved. Take the box down.
The tapes were shelved and did not become their first album; they came out in 1978 as Skynyrd’s First and… Last, and again in 1998. The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section set up their studio at 3614 Jackson Highway in Sheffield. The studio is owned and run by the Muscle Shoals Music Foundation, a nonprofit; tours take about 45 minutes.
Guided tours of about 45 minutes; book a time, and arrive ten minutes early.
Downtown Florence, Alabama · Book direct · 1 (256) 349-5464
Ten suites in downtown Florence, Alabama, some named for Shoals music history, Muscle Shoals Sound among them. A short drive from 3614 Jackson Highway. Pictured: the studio.
Check suites
1972 to 1973
“Sweet Home Alabama” was cut here in a session booked for one day, in three or four takes; Ed King’s solo on the record was his first try.
Al Kooper signed the band to MCA in 1972 and produced their first album, released in 1973. Studio One was built in Doraville, a northern Atlanta suburb, after Buddy Buie commissioned the engineer Rodney Mills to design it in 1970. Its live room was V-shaped and about 50 feet deep, with the control room set inside the V.
Ronnie Van Zant asking for more volume in his headphones was caught on tape at the top of the song, and Kooper kept it.
The studio building is not open to visitors and is not mapped here. Pictured: Doraville.
More from Jackson Highway: Paul Simon’s World · The Rolling Stones’ World
Third base · Atlanta and Hertfordshire · summer 1976
150,000–200,000
On 21 August 1976 Lynyrd Skynyrd played a day-long bill at Knebworth Park with Todd Rundgren’s Utopia and 10cc, under the Rolling Stones.
Ultimate Classic Rock puts the crowd at 150,000 to 200,000. Ronnie Van Zant sang, with Rossington, Collins and Gaines on guitars; the whole set was later released as Live at Knebworth ’76.
House, gardens and park open on selected days, March to September; gardens and the dinosaur trail only, 24–30 October 2026. Adults £22.50 online.
Knebworth, Hertfordshire · £275–£300 a night
Three bedrooms, sleeps six, inside Knebworth Park; dogs welcome. North Lodge at the park gates sleeps five. Pictured: the park on 21 August 1976.
See the cottages
7–9 July 1976
The live album One More from the Road was recorded here over three nights, 7 to 9 July 1976.
The band gave part of the takings to the campaign to save the struggling theatre. The album came out on 13 September 1976.
A working theatre; guided tours run about an hour.
Atlanta, Georgia
Live marketplace results for tours of Atlanta’s Midtown and its music history. The Fox runs its own guided tours of about an hour.
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Three guitarists were on stage, Allen Collins, Gary Rossington and Steve Gaines, with Cassie Gaines, Jo Billingsley and Leslie Hawkins singing backup.
Gillsburg, Mississippi · 20 October 1977
On 20 October 1977, three days after Street Survivors came out, the band’s chartered plane from Greenville, South Carolina, to Baton Rouge ran out of fuel and came down in woods about five miles outside Gillsburg.
Six people died: Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, the road manager Dean Kilpatrick, and both pilots. The others on board were badly hurt.
On 20 October 2019 a black granite memorial, 8 feet tall and 14 feet wide, was unveiled about 400 yards from the site, with six steps up to it, one for each person who died. A local man, Bobby McDaniel, one of the neighbours who helped the survivors that night, led the effort; fans gave money, and Van Zant’s and Gaines’s families came.
Free and open every day, at all hours. Not mapped here; the address is Easley Road, off Highway 568. Pictured: Liberty, the Amite County seat.
Home · Lake Asbury, Clay County · 1987 and now
Ten years after the crash the band came back for a tribute tour, with Ronnie’s younger brother Johnny Van Zant singing.
A public park in Lake Asbury, built in Ronnie Van Zant’s memory and paid for by fans and the band’s families. It has a softball field, a soccer field, tennis, pickleball and basketball courts, a disc golf course, a nature trail and a fishing pond with piers.
A public county park; check Clay County’s parks pages for hours.
2008 · Enterprise, Alabama
In 2008 the band played Bama Jam in Enterprise, Alabama, to more than 111,000 people, their biggest crowd.
Gary Rossington, the last founding member, died on 5 March 2023; the band and the Van Zant, Collins and Rossington families agreed to keep playing.
The 2008 festival ground is not mapped here. Pictured: the Boll Weevil Monument downtown.
The scorebook’s back page
5 places you can visit, from McDuff Avenue to Knebworth. The Burns family home and the Hell House lot are private: named, not mapped. Studio One, the Gillsburg memorial and the Bama Jam ground have no checked map position, so they are listed but not pinned; the memorial is at 7364 Easley Road.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working public high school, not open to visitors: see the front from McDuff Avenue.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public county park; check Clay County’s parks pages for hours.
1200 South McDuff Avenue, Jacksonville, Florida
Leonard Skinner was a gym teacher and basketball coach at Robert E. Lee High School in the late 1960s.
A working public high school, not open to visitors: see the front from McDuff Avenue.
Lake Asbury, Clay County, Florida
A public park in Lake Asbury, built in Ronnie Van Zant’s memory and paid for by fans and the band’s families.
A public county park; check Clay County’s parks pages for hours.
Stay
Suites in Florence for Jackson Highway, and a cottage inside Knebworth Park.
Downtown Florence, Alabama · Book direct · 1 (256) 349-5464
Ten suites in downtown Florence, Alabama, some named for Shoals music history, Muscle Shoals Sound among them. A short drive from 3614 Jackson Highway. Pictured: the studio.
Check suitesKnebworth, Hertfordshire · £275–£300 a night
Three bedrooms, sleeps six, inside Knebworth Park; dogs welcome. North Lodge at the park gates sleeps five. Pictured: the park on 21 August 1976.
See the cottagesGo there
The Shoals, Midtown Atlanta and the St Johns River.
Sheffield and Florence, Alabama
Live marketplace results for music-history tours of the Shoals. The studio also runs its own 45-minute tours; check each itinerary.
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Compare toursAtlanta, Georgia
Live marketplace results for tours of Atlanta’s Midtown and its music history. The Fox runs its own guided tours of about an hour.
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Compare toursJacksonville, Florida
Live marketplace results for Jacksonville city and river tours. None goes onto the private Hell House lot; check each itinerary.
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Compare toursWhat’s on
The Gillsburg memorial’s anniversary gathering is each October; nothing later was dated on 21 October 2026.
No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.
Take it home
The band’s story in a book, the Doraville album and the Fox nights.
Marley Brant
The band’s story from the Westside to the 1987 return.
Find the bookLynyrd Skynyrd · LP, MCA, 1973
The first album, produced by Al Kooper at Studio One, Doraville.
Live marketplace search · listings and condition change
Find a copyLynyrd Skynyrd · 2LP, MCA, 1976
Three July nights at the Fox Theatre, Atlanta.
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Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
10 of 10 places · 13 of 13 Moments
1200 South McDuff Avenue, Jacksonville, Florida
Leonard Skinner sends long-haired students to the principal; the band takes his name.
Westside, Jacksonville, Florida
Van Zant, Burns and Rossington meet playing for rival Jacksonville baseball teams.
A jam in the Burns family carport starts the band.
Edgewater Landing, Green Cove Springs, Florida
The band rehearse in a shack with no air conditioning by Peters Creek and write their early songs.
3614 Jackson Highway, Sheffield, Alabama
Demos at Muscle Shoals Sound are shelved; they come out in 1978.
Doraville, Georgia
Al Kooper signs the band to MCA and produces the first album at Studio One.
“Sweet Home Alabama” is cut in a one-day session, three or four takes.
660 Peachtree Street NE, Atlanta
One More from the Road is recorded at the Fox, and the takings help save the theatre.
Knebworth, Hertfordshire
The band play Knebworth Park on the Rolling Stones’ bill.
7364 Easley Road, off Highway 568, Gillsburg, Mississippi
The chartered plane comes down near Gillsburg; six people die.
A granite memorial is unveiled near the site, one step for each person who died.
Lake Asbury, Clay County, Florida
The band return for a tribute tour with Johnny Van Zant singing.
Enterprise, Alabama
Their biggest crowd, at Bama Jam.
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