by Martin Popoff
Finally I had to get a sense from Donnie whether he ever got dismayed about trying to feed people the new music and not have them dwell on the old hits all the time.
"It actually has nothing to do with the band. It's just very tough today with radio being the way it is. I mean, we're having a problem here right here, right now, with Van Zant II. Even right here in our hometown, Jacksonville, Florida. They just play classic rock music. That's their format. That's what you're fighting against. I don't think it's the people. I think if you can get the musical there where people can hear it, I think they would respond to it. It's just hard getting in on the radio.
Yet, this IS classic rock. It just happens to be written this year. "Yeah! That was my point. I go to these guys, 'you've got two guys who have probably about 40 years experience between the two of them, how much more classic do you want!?'"
After the short tour, both Van Zants return to their respective camps to work on the next Skynyrd and 38 Special records, both to emerge on CMC. 38 Special will record in their home studio in Atlanta, and actually have some tracks already laid down. Curiously, both Donnie and Johnny are quite adamant the resulting product will be "edgier and heavier" with Johnny in particular quite sure the Skynyrd will be the band's heaviest yet.