Seven years after playing its “farewell” concert in Jacksonville, Lynyrd Skynyrd has booked another hometown show.
The band, which formed in the 1960s on Jacksonville’s Westside and went on to a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame career, will play Saturday, Nov. 8, at Daily’s Place. Tickets go on sale to the public at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 13. Jaguars season ticket holders and Daily’s Place club members will be able to buy tickets two days earlier. Ticket prices were not released.
The show is billed as Lynyrd Skynyrd Rocks the Red, White & Blue and is a benefit for St. Michael’s Soldiers, which supports U.S. military members and their families. Johnny Van Zant, the band’s lead singer, has organized benefits concerts at Orange Park’s Thrasher-Horne Center for several years, but Lynyrd Skynyrd hasn’t played at any of those shows.
The band last played Jacksonville in 2018, headlining an all-day show at what was then called TIAA Bank Stadium and concluding with its signature anthem, “Free Bird,” just after midnight. The Marshall Tucker Band, Blackberry Smoke, Charlie Daniels Band, Jason Aldean and Kid Rock also performed that day. The show was recorded and later released as an album and video, “Last of the Street Survivors: Farewell Tour.”
The band ultimately chose not to retire at the end of that tour and has played concerts around the world since. In a 2022 interview, Van Zant said he didn’t expect the band to ever play another show in Jacksonville.
“No, I don’t believe that will ever happen,” Van Zant said at the time. “I truly believe we went out on top in Jacksonville and I don’t want to see us play here again.”
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Sweet Home Jacksonville: Lynyrd Skynyrd books hometown benefit show
Reporting by Tom Szaroleta, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
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