Johnny Van Zant on a possible new Lynyrd Skynyrd album: ‘We will leave that door open for the future’

When Gary Rossington, the last original member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, passed away in 2023, the band decided to continue on, and it turns out, that could mean new music in the future.

The band recently announced a new label deal with Frontiers SRL and in a new interview with Classic Rock magazine, frontman Johnny Van Zant suggests a new album isn’t out of the question. He says that in 2020 they put out a new song “The Last of the Street Survivors,” and there had been plans for more.

“We were headed to doing a new studio album, and then Gary’s health got really bad,” he says. “There are other songs written with Gary before he died that we could record. We will leave that door open for the future.”

He notes that it’s all a matter of if they have the time, sharing, “For me, Skynyrd always made great records, but it was a live band, and that’s still true today.”

“When I first joined [in 1987] we were all still into drinking and having a party on stage – just like the audience – but nowadays we soak that music up,” he says. “It’s become more of a spiritual thing, and we never, ever phone it in. That’s something I’m very proud of.”

Lynyrd Skynyrd will release the live album and DVD, Celebrating 50 Years – Live at the Ryman, on Friday. It’s a recording of the band’s historic 50th anniversary concerts, which took place in November 2022. They were the band’s last shows with Rossington before his death.

Skynyrd’s next concert is happening Friday in Barcelona, Spain. They return to the U.S. for shows starting Aug. 1 in Saratoga, California. A complete list of dates can be found at LynyrdSkynryd.com

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