ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – The demand for tickets to see legendary southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd perform at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre in the fall is so high the band has added another concert date.
Lynyrd Skynyrd will now perform two concerts -- one at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5, and one at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 6.
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Tickets for the Friday concert went on sale July 21 at Ticketmaster.com, and a week later just over 100 seats of the 5,000-seat venue remained available. Prices range from $45.50 to $170.50.
Tickets for the Thursday concert go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, Aug. 4, at Ticketmaster.com and at the venue Box Office. Click here for more information.
Lynyrd Skynyrd, which emerged from Jacksonville, is approaching the 50th anniversary of the band’s debut album.
Related: Jacksonville’s historic role in the founding of Southern rock | Watch: The Legacy of Lynyrd Skynyrd
“It’s about the legacy of Lynyrd Skynyrd, and what it stands for, what the fans are all about. There’s nothing like getting out there playing a great show with Skynyrd and seeing people love this music,” said lead singer Johnny Van Zant.
The band said the late Gary Rossington continues to have a significant presence and influence on the group. Rossington, the last founding member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, died in March 2023 at age 71.
Related: Looking back at life of Gary Rossington
“It is with our deepest sympathy and sadness that we have to advise, that we lost our brother, friend, family member, songwriter and guitarist, Gary Rossington, today,” the band wrote on Facebook. “Gary is now with his Skynyrd brothers and family in heaven and playing it pretty, like he always does.”
Rossington helped write the classic answer song “Sweet Home Alabama” and played unforgettable slide guitar on the rock anthem “Free Bird.”
According to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s bio in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, it was during a fateful Little League game, Ronnie Van Zant hit a line drive into the shoulder blades of spectator Bob Burns and met his future bandmates. Rossington, Burns, Van Zant, and guitarist Allen Collins later gathered at Burns’ Jacksonville home to jam the Rolling Stone’s “Time Is on My Side.”
LINK: Grocery store that inspired Lynyrd Skynyrd song demolished
A 1977 plane crash killed Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines and backing vocalist Cassie Gaines and injured Rossington. The band reformed a decade later with Johnny Van Zant taking his older brother’s role. Rossington was among the returning members and, as the lineup continued to change, would remain.
Rossington once told “Rolling Stone” that he never considered Skynyrd to be a tragic band, despite all the band’s drama and death.
“I don’t think of it as tragedy — I think of it as life,” he said upon the group’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2006. “I think the good outweighs the bad.”