Lynyrd Skynyrd's Johnny Van Zant Predicts Farewell Tour Will End In 2020

Lynyrd Skynyrd frontman Johnny Van Zant has addressed questions about his band's lengthy farewell tour.

In an interview last week with Q104.3 New York's Jim Kerr and Shelli Sonstein, the younger brother of late-band co-founder Ronnie Van Zant explained why Skynyrd's goodbye is rolling into its third year and when the band expects to finally arrive at retirement.

Van Zant was first asked about the challenge of accepting retirement after so many years with Skynyrd.

"...I've said it myself, 'God, they're still on their farewell tour?!' But when you do like 50 - 60 shows a year, you don't cover a lot of ground," he explained. "When we started out — what 2019 in West Palm Beach? — we said, 'Hey, we want to hit every place we've ever played and every place we didn't play before we say goodbye.' So you know we're going to be playing some next year, too. We want to go say goodbye to all of our fans."

Since announcing the farewell tour in January of 2018, Van Zant and his band mates began discussing the idea of doing a new album. Earlier this year, the band confirmed the new music was just about finished.

When pressed about an "end date" for the 'Last of the Street Survivors' tour, Van Zant and guitarist Ricky Medlocke acknowledged they don't have one set in stone. Medlocke referred to the time and place of Skynyrd's last show as a "roll of the dice," while Van Zant attempted to provide a loose timeframe.

"We're looking at probably the end of next year," Van Zant said, before expressing how the band has been struggling to reconcile fan demand with its ability to keep going. "...We went to Europe this year and before we ever left Europe, people were going, 'You didn't come to France! You didn't come to Finland! You didn't come to Denmark!'"

Medlocke added that fans in South America, Australia and New Zealand are also pressing the band to add shows in their countries.

Skynyrd recently unveiled a film, Lynyrd Skynyrd: Last of the Street Survivors Farewell Tour, documenting the first year of the tour, as well as the band's biggest show, in its hometown of Jacksonville, Florida, in front of 55,000 people.

Watch the full interview in the player above. Get all Lynyrd Skynyrd's tour dates here.

Photo: Getty Images

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