Johnny Colt Reveals What He ‘Wasn’t Prepared For’ When Joining Lynyrd Skynyrd

“It Feels Like A Family.”

It’s one thing to grow up listening to your favorite band and dreaming of one day joining them onstage. As Lynyrd Skynyrd bassist Johnny Colt discovered in 2012, it’s another thing entirely to actually get to do it! Growing up a huge fan of the band, Johnny’s life would take him on a magical journey as a musician before his life came full circle as he became Lynyrd Skynyrd’s new bass player.

Surprisingly, getting along with his new bandmates wasn’t the hard part – in fact, in a 2013 interview with Guitar World Johnny revealed his thoughts on his new bandmates by saying, “Between Johnny, Rickey and Gary, they’re Southern in a way I grew up with. It kind of feels like I’m around my family. It feels like family.”

For Johnny, the hardest – and most rewarding – part of joining Lynyrd Skynyrd turned out to be realizing the emotional weight of being part of such a legendary band.

“I wasn’t prepared for the songs,” reveals Johnny. “Some Lynyrd Skynyrd songs are literally the backdrop of America. I wasn’t prepared for how emotional the crowd gets during the songs, I wasn’t prepared for how emotional I became playing them the first few times – nor was I prepared for the heaviness of the legacy.”

Even listening to “Free Bird” as a fan, it’s hard not to get a little emotional as you think of the legacy they forged on a baseball diamond over half a century ago – so we can only imagine how he felt the first time he looked out over the crowd and saw a sea of faces singing every word back to him, and we just love that Johnny is so proud to be part of one of music’s greatest legacies!

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd & Second Helping Live’ is available now on DVD, Blu-ray and digital formats – it’s the perfect gift for the Lynyrd Skynyrd fan in your life. Buy it here on Amazon!