“When Ronnie sang about Neil Young in that song, that was kind of a joke lyric about him. We loved Neil Young!”: The true story of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama

Ronnie Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

It sounded like a slap in the face. A stinging jibe from one great rock artist to another. But was Lynyrd Skynyrd’s hit song Sweet Home Alabama really an attack on Neil Young?

Guitarist Gary Rossington, one of the founding members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, set the record straight in a 2012 interview with Classic Rock.