Florida and Detroit are quite a distance from each other, but it appears that Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd and Kid Rock are basically long lost brothers.
And according to Lynyrd Skynyrd's lead singer Johnny Van Zant, this current jaunt with Rock called the Rock N Rebels tour was not a question of if -- but simply when.
"Man, we've known Bobby (Kid Rock's name is Robert Ritchie) for a long time," Van Zant drawls from an Indianapolis hotel. "Actually, he was the one who helped Lynyrd Skynyrd get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We had done shows with him where we did two nights in Detroit with him years ago, which was great.
"So everything is good man, everything is great."
The tour, hitting the Molson Amphitheatre tonight, seems great timing considering Rock's single All Summer Long contains a snippet of Sweet Home Alabama, one of Lynyrd Skynyrd's signature hits.
But perhaps the biggest asset Van Zant sees by teaming up with Kid Rock is the wide range of ages appearing at the shows.
Well, that and a certain other demographic.
"Well we have a lot of little kids at our shows anyway but I can guarantee you this -- he opens us up to a lot of girls," Van Zant says with a laugh.
"Last night I was getting an eyeful, I was like, 'Wow!' No complaints there, he definitely attracts the women."
As well as this current tour, Lynyrd Skynyrd is also working on a new studio album Van Zant says will be out sometime next year. Four or five songs have been recorded for it but the band isn't re-inventing the wheel musically.
"Man, we just write about what we write about," he says.
"We don't change anything. They're great songs so we're looking forward to letting the fans be the judge of that."
There's a good chance the album will also have the song Cottonmouth Country on it, a recently discovered track featuring the band's original lead singer and Johnny's older brother, Ronnie Van Zant.
"We're looking at that, it was kind of a cool thing," he says. "Ronnie and the band were cutting Street Survivors and it was the second or third verse and he stopped it and that was it. So it was kind of cool to find that one."
It would also be one of the last recordings of the original lineup. As has been well documented, the band released its Street Survivors album on Oct. 17, 1977. Three days later, Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines and others were killed when their chartered plane crashed in Mississippi.
It wasn't until 1987 that Lynyrd Skynyrd returned with the younger Van Zant on lead vocals. But Van Zant says the band never really went away.
"You know people always go, 'So you guys have been back together' but the music has never left," he says. "Even that 10-year hiatus that the band had after the plane crash, the music was still around. It's like anything else -- Jim Croce, Jimi Hendrix, Ricky Nelson. When something happens and it's bad, it seems that the music becomes more valuable."
Van Zant says the band will continue touring and the current trek with Kid Rock could run into 2009. The band is also appearing next month at Fashion Rocks as a special guest of Timbaland.
"We'll be fashionable man," Van Zant says. "I'll have on my damn blue jeans, some good old Skechers and a T-shirt."
And what would Ronnie think of the band now?
"I would hope that he would think it was pretty damn good otherwise I would get a good ass kicking," he says with a laugh.
"I think Ronnie was a road warrior and I think we've done exactly what he would've done."
