Many executives at the label cautioned against putting such a long song on an album because it could not be played on the radio. They continued to work on the song while creating the album, and the nine-minute-long “Free Bird” made the cut. It ran seven and a half minutes long, but they still did not feel like it was finished. When the band recorded “Free Bird” for the first time in 1972, there were no guitar solos at the end.
It wasn’t anything heavy, just a love song about leaving town, time to move on.” Recording Process “After about 20 minutes, Ronnie started singing, ‘If I leave here tomorrow,’ and it fit great. “We were sitting around, and asked Allen to play those chords again,” Rossington recalled in an interview. When frontman Ronnie Van Zant heard Collins and Gary Rossington playing it one night, he ended up writing the rest of the lyrics. His girlfriend Kathy Johns actually asked him the question, If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me? He wrote her words down and used them as inspiration for the song.īye, bye, baby, it’s been a sweet love, yeah yeahĭespite the finality of the lyrics, Collins and Johns eventually got married in 1970.Ĭollins worked on the song for about two years before the band played it for the first time. These words were inspired by a real experience of Skynyrd guitarist and songwriter Allen Collins.
He expresses that he does not want to hurt her, but there are too many things he wants to do before committing to a relationship. The lyrics tell the story of a man leaving a woman because he cannot bring himself to settle down with her. While the band occasionally dedicated the song to Allman during performances, “Free Bird” was actually written years before his death. The guitar riffs at the end are reminiscent of Allman’s, causing people to believe it was about him. When “Free Bird” was released, some fans speculated that it was a tribute to Duane Allman, the Allman Brothers Band guitarist who passed away in 1971.
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