Cale's 'Call Me the Breeze' – and, most importantly for the group's short-term chart prospects, one killer single: 'Sweet Home Alabama.' None of those nerves came through on Second Helping, which included future fan favorites like 'Don't Ask Me No Questions' and 'The Ballad of Curtis Loew' as well as an outstanding cover of J.J. We’d have shots of whiskey every night ’cause we were so scared.' Then, all of a sudden, we were playing in stadiums for 30,000 people.

In some places, Skynyrd went down better than the Who.' Added guitarist Gary Rossington, 'We were just a band that played clubs, teen dens and pubs. 'We just went out with guns ablaze,' keyboardist Billy Powell told Uncut. These boys have a shack in the middle of the Florida swamps and in their spare time they chase alligators and go fishing for catfish.'įollowing the release of the first album, Kooper secured Skynyrd an opening slot on a tour with the Who, and although he later dismissed the notion that those shows helped break Skynyrd into the big leagues ('We only played a half-hour set and often people would arrive late for the show and miss them'), by the time they entered the studio to record 'Second Helping,' they were already one of the bigger young rock bands on the market. 'The Rolling Stones can carry on and dance around and have Southern accents, but these are the real thing. 'They're the real thing,' Kooper told Disc and Music Echo in a 1974 interview.

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