Sweet Home Alabama
"Sweet Home Alabama" was written as an answer to two songs, "Southern Man" and "Alabama" by Neil Young, which dealt with themes of racism and slavery in the American South. "We thought Neil was shooting all the ducks in order to kill one or two," said Ronnie Van Zant at the time. The following excerpt shows the Neil Young mention in the song:
In his 2012 autobiography "Waging Heavy Peace", Young commented on his role in the song's creation, writing "My own song 'Alabama' richly deserved the shot Lynyrd Skynyrd gave me with their great record. I don't like my words when I listen to it. They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, and too easy to misconstrue".
Alabama Theatre (Myrtle Beach)
The Theatre has held concerts for about 24 years. In '95, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Billy Ray Cyrus played at the Alabama Theatre. Alabama (its namesake, since they started on the Bowery in Myrtle Beach) played there in '96 and '13. Kenny Chesney played there in 2000 (He filmed the music video for "Anything But Mine" in Myrtle). The Oak Ridge Boys played there in '03. Kenny Rogers played there for 2 nights in '07. Anne Murray from Canada was there in '08. Little Richard (from Macon) in '09, Canadian Gordon Lightfoot in '10, Aaron Tippin (from the Greenville area) in '12, Charlie Daniels Band (from Wilmington, NC) in '13, Merle Haggard in '13 (he died in '16), Three Dog Night in 14, Martina McBride in '14, comedian Bill Engvall in '14, Loretta Lynn in '15, and LeAnn Rimes in '16.