We just laughed like hell and said, 'Ain't that funny.' We love Neil Young.

That's where, in 1964, five teenagers formed what would eventually become the iconic rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. 'We wrote 'Sweet Home Alabama' as a joke,' Van Zant clarified a few years following the release. 'Sweet home Alabama/ Where the skies are so blue/ Sweet home Alabama/ Lord, I'm coming home to you' The story of 'Sweet Home Alabama' begins not in Alabama but in Jacksonville, Florida. 'We're Southern rebels but, more than that, we know the difference between right and wrong.' In fact, those 'boos' are thought to imply that the band disagreed with Wallace's politics-and that bit about Watergate seems to be a pointed remark about the hypocrisy of the North, which had its own problems, too.īy all accounts, there was no real 'feud' between the artists. 'We thought Neil was shooting all the ducks in order to kill one or two,' Van Zant later said. The portion of the song referring to Governor George Wallace in particular made some believe that Lynyrd Skynyrd disagreed with desegregation, seeing as how the governor stood for ' segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever'.īut others interpreted the lyrics as a reminder to Young that not all Southerners are the same. 'In Birmingham they love the Gov'nor, boo boo, boo/ Now we all did what we could do/ Now Watergate does not bother me/ Does your conscience bother you?/ Tell the truth'

Lyrics to neil young song tell me why