How did the Southern Rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd get its name?
“Lynyrd Skynyrd” came from Leonard Skinner. Skinner was a gym coach at Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville who at some point in the 1960s disciplined Gary and Bob for letting their hair grow. The young musicians eventually dropped out of school, but remembered all the hassles. In 1970, the band — playing as the “One Percent” — had a gig at a local club called the Forest Inn and Ronnie called out to the crowd, “Hey, we’re Leonard Skinner and we’re gonna play for y’all tonight”. Since most of the crowd had run into Coach Skinner at one point or another the name was an instant hit and stuck. Eventually, the vowels were changed “to protect the guilty” — as Gary put it a few years ago.
