"Mark Ribowsky has written one king hell of a book about one king hell of a band. Buy that man a drink!" —Mick Wall, author of When Giants Walked the Earth This book tells the intimate story of how a band of lost souls and self-destructive misfits clawed their way to the very top of the rock'n'roll peak, writing and performing as if beneficiaries of a deal with the devil—a deal fulfilled by a tragic fall from the sky. The rudderless genius behind their ascent was a man named Ronnie Van Zant, who guided their five-year run and evolved not just a new country/rock idiom but a new Confederacy. Whiskey Bottles and Brand-New Cars is based on interviews with surviving band members and others who watched them. It gives a new perspective to a history of stage fights, motel-room destructions, cunning business deals, and brilliant studio productions, offering a greater appreciation for a band that, in the aftermath of its last plane ride, has sadly descended into self-caricature as the sort of lowbrow guns-'n'-God cliché that Ronnie Van Zant wanted to chuck from around his neck. No other book on Southern rock has ever captured the "Free Bird"–like sweep and significance of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Mark Ribowsky has written twelve books, including widely praised biographies of Tom Landry, Howard Cosell, Phil Spector, and Satchel Paige. He has also contributed extensively to magazines including Playboy, Penthouse, and High Times. He lives in Boca Raton, Florida.

The first complete, unvarnished history of Southern rock’s legendary and most popular band, from its members’ hardscrabble boyhoods in Jacksonville, Florida and their rise to worldwide fame to the tragic plane crash that killed the founder and the band’s rise again from the ashes. In the summer of 1964 Jacksonville, Florida teenager Ronnie Van Zant and some of his friends hatched the idea of forming a band to play covers of the Rolling Stones, Beatles, Yardbirds and the country and blues-rock music they had grown to love. Naming their band after Leonard Skinner, the gym teacher at Robert E. Lee Senior High School who constantly badgered the long-haired aspiring musicians to get haircuts, they were soon playing gigs at parties, and bars throughout the South. During the next decade Lynyrd Skynyrd grew into the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful of the rock bands to emerge from the South since the Allman Brothers. Their hits “Free Bird” and “Sweet Home Alabama” became classics. Then, at the height of its popularlity in 1977, the band was struck with tragedy --a plane crash that killed Ronnie Van Zant and two other band members. Lynyrd Skynyrd: Remembering the Free Birds of Southern Rock is an intimate chronicle of the band from its earliest days through the plane crash and its aftermath, to its rebirth and current status as an enduring cult favorite. From his behind-the-scenes perspective as Ronnie Van Zant’s lifelong friend and frequent member of the band’s entourage who was also aboard the plane on that fateful flight, Gene Odom reveals the unique synthesis of blues/country rock and songwriting talent, relentless drive, rebellious Southern swagger and down-to-earth sensibility that brought the band together and made it a defining and hugely popular Southern rock band -- as well as the destructive forces that tore it apart. Illustrated throughout with rare photos, Odom traces the band’s rise to fame and shares personal stories that bring to life the band’s journey. For the fans who have purchased a cumulative 35 million copies of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s albums and continue to pack concerts today, Lynyrd Skynyrd is a celebration of an immortal American band.

During a time when toughskin blue jeans, button-down shirts, and flat-top haircuts were all the rage, Gene Odom and Ronnie Van Zant became best friends. Growing up on the same block, Ronnie and Gene fished, played football, and dreamed together. Years later, one of the boys would become famousand the other would stand by his side through thick and thin. This is the story of two young men from the same neighborhood, school, and world who together, discovered the meaning of true friendship. As Ronnies dreams of becoming a professional musician finally became a reality, Lynyrd Skynyrd began selling out arenas and became famous for not only their music, but also their substance abuse. After Ronnie offered Gene a job as a security officer for the band, he embarked on an unforgettable journey into a world like no other. But everything would change in October 1977 when the plane carrying the band plummeted from the sky. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ronnie Van Zant, and Me Gene Odom provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse of what it was like to be friends with one of the biggest rock stars of the 1970s and how a friendship between two childhood buddies stood the test of time.

Based on one-on-one interviews with members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, their families, friends, business associates, and fans, " Freebird: The Lynyrd Skynyrd Story "is the first narrative biography to fully examine the roots, evolution, and success of the most hard-rocking, hard-living band in rock 'n roll history. From "Freebird" and "Sweet Home Alabama" to "Saturday Night Special" and "What's Your Name," Lynyrd Skynyrd's driving, guitar-fueled, blues-inspired songs celebrate stoic independence and bar-hopping camaraderie. Evoking vivid images of Southern landscapes, raunchy good times, and reckless young romance, Skynyrd's classic catalog emphasizes the importance of home, family, and a spirit of fierce independence that defines American rock. Tenacious 'till the end, Lynyrd Skynyrd has kept on keepin' on--touring, recording, and producing hit records in the face of devastating tragedy and the ravages of life on the road. With this book, Marley Brant has given us a mesmerizing, behind-the-scenes chronicle of the group's history, struggles, and perseverance, with details about, Their formation and early days in Jacksonville, Florida Their ambitious climb to the peak of rock stardom The complexities of interband relationships and conflicts The truth behind stories of booze-fueled crime and broken contracts The origins of their songs And much, much, more "Freebirds" was culled from primary sources including interviews with past and present Skynyrd members Johnny Van Zandt, Ed King, Artimus Pyle, Billy Powell, Rickey Medlocke, Leon Wilkeson, and Hughie Thomasson, as well as family members, and fellow musicians like Warren Haynes, and producer Al Kooper. Also included are over 50 photographs from the personal collections of the band, and their friends and family. Marley Brant has been a Skynyrd fan since the beginning of their recording career, loving their raw and charismatic catalogue of insightful ballads and their pure, rock-ensemble attack. She has enjoyed friendships with various members of the band, the crew and their families, and is the author of nine books, which have been featured by "People" magazine, "The New York Times," VH1, A&E, The History Channel, TBS, CMT, The Biography Channel, and PBS. She has also produced a number of music-related programs for a variety of television networks.

In The Impossible Collection of Whiskey, bestselling spirits writer Clay Risen unpacks the history of this storied drink, inviting the reader to tour some of the world’s most famed distilleries and their finest bottles. From the best Scotch of the Scottish Highlands to Kentucky’s finest Bourbon, Risen’s selection of 100 unparalleled whiskeys come from age-old makers as well as trailblazers of the craft distilling movement that has swept across the globe. Here are whiskeys selected not only for their exquisite flavor but also for rarity, age, flavor, and innovation. Bottles from countries with nascent whiskey markets, such as India and the Czech Republic, sit beside old American classics like Pappy Van Winkle and some of the rarest, most coveted bottles on the market. Risen marvels at bottles like Ireland’s Midleton Very Rare 45 Year Old, the oldest, most expensive Irish whiskey in the world. Together, these 100 bottles comprise a collection of whiskeys so exclusive that no one could ever assemble them all under one roof. A must-have for the library of any true whiskey connoisseur, The Impossible Collection of Whiskey is a carefully crafted homage to a liquor long revered as the “water of life.”

Rock & roll has transformed American culture more profoundly than any other art form. During the 1960s, it defined a generation of young people as political and social idealists, helped end the Vietnam War, and ushered in the sexual revolution. In Dixie Lullaby, veteran music journalist Mark Kemp shows that rock also renewed the identity of a generation of white southerners who came of age in the decade after segregation -- the heyday of disco, Jimmy Carter, and Saturday Night Live. Growing up in North Carolina in the 1970s, Kemp experienced pain, confusion, and shame as a result of the South's residual civil rights battles. His elementary school was integrated in 1968, the year Kemp reached third grade; his aunts, uncles, and grandparents held outdated racist views that were typical of the time; his parents, however, believed blacks should be extended the same treatment as whites, but also counseled their children to respect their elder relatives. "I loved the land that surrounded me but hated the history that haunted that land," Kemp writes. When rock music, specifically southern rock, entered his life, he began to see a new way to identify himself, beyond the legacy of racism and stereotypes of southern small-mindedness that had marked his early childhood. Well into adulthood Kemp struggled with the self-loathing familiar to many white southerners. But the seeds of forgiveness were planted in adolescence when he first heard Duane Allman and Ronnie Van Zant pour their feelings into their songs. In the tradition of music historians such as Nick Tosches and Peter Guralnick, Kemp masterfully blends into his narrative the stories of southern rock bands --from heavy hitters such as the Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and R.E.M. to influential but less-known groups such as Drive-By Truckers -- as well as the personal experiences of their fans. In dozens of interviews, he charts the course of southern rock & roll. Before civil rights, the popular music of the South was a small, often racially integrated world, but after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, black musicians struck out on their own. Their white counterparts were left to their own devices, and thus southern rock was born: a mix of popular southern styles that arose when predominantly white rockers combined rural folk, country, and rockabilly with the blues and jazz of African-American culture. This down-home, flannel-wearing, ass-kicking brand of rock took the nation by storm in the 1970s. The music gave southern kids who emulated these musicians a newfound voice. Kemp and his peers now had something they could be proud of: southern rock united them and gave them a new identity that went beyond outside perceptions of the South as one big racist backwater. Kemp offers a lyrical, thought-provoking, searingly intimate, and utterly original journey through the South of the 1960s, '70s, '80s, and '90s, viewed through the prism of rock & roll. With brilliant insight, he reveals the curative and unifying impact of rock on southerners who came of age under its influence in the chaotic years following desegregation. Dixie Lullaby fairly resonates with redemption.

A portrait of the legendary American rock-and-roll band draws on exclusive interviews to track their career from 1969 to the present and is complemented by previously unpublished photographs and memorabilia.