Since we’re heading through Alabama towards Tuscaloosa, you were probably expecting the title of this blog entry to be “Sweet Home Alabama” but instead I’ve chosen another track by the band that helped, along with Warren Zevon, give Kid Rock a hit this year with “All Summer Long” (both “Sweet Home Alabama” and and Zevon’s “Werewolves In London” are sampled for the song).

Strangely enough, Lynyrd Syknyrd originally came from Jacksonville, Florida not Alabama but how would “Sweet Home Florida” have sounded? Their name is a deliberate misspelling of Leonard Skinner, their old teacher.

Ronnie Van Zant (founder, singer and songwriter) was always predicting he was going to die young and “That Smell” is a song he wrote about dying whilst driving under the influence of drink and drugs; here’s how the song starts:

        Whiskey bottles, and brand new cars,

        Oak tree you're in my way.

        There's too much coke, and too much smoke,

        look what's going on inside you.

Sadly, Ronnie was right with his predictions and on October 20th 1977, just three days after the album Street Survivors came out (with a cover showing the band in flames) he died in a plane crash along with two other members of the definitive band.

Back to the journey then. We are now in Tuscaloosa, Alabama which means we have completed 9,508 miles, leaving 638 miles to go before we reach Houston.