Memory No. 1: Eighth-grade English class, and a classmate is sporting an Eat a Peach T-shirt. “So you like the Allmans?” says teacher William “Bill to His Friends” Smith, adding, “They’re not bad.” Good God, teachers listen to rock music. Memory No. 2: A week after the plane crash, my best friend’s younger brother somehow scares up the phone number and calls the home of Ronnie Van Zant’s parents in Jacksonville, Fla., to offer his regrets. They are touched by the gesture. Those are both teenage memories, and I’m not a young man, but still these two iconic Southern bands chug along. And I bet their fans will dig our local guy Terry Anderson if they come upon him playing on the side stage, especially if he does “Man, That Rocks!” and that number about drinking Thunderbird.
The Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd with Terry Anderson on the side stage play Alltel Pavilion, Friday, Oct. 1 The show starts at 6 p.m. Tickets are $45 reserved, $25 lawn.
