Although this video hit the YouTubes a few years ago, we thought you'd enjoy hearing the isolated guitar-solo track from Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird."
The solo on the song—which was played by Allen Collins and Gary Rossington—comes it at Number 3 on Guitar World's list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time.
On the studio version of "Free Bird," which appeared on Skynyrd’s debut album, Collins played the entire solo himself on his Gibson Explorer, with Rossington playing rhythm on his Les Paul (“Bernice”) and adding the slide fills on his SG.
“The whole long jam was Allen Collins himself,” Rossington says. “He was bad. He was super bad! He was bad-to-the-bone bad. When we put the solo together, we liked the sound of the two guitars, and I could’ve gone out and played it with him. But the way he was doin’ it, he was just so hot! He just did it once and did it again and it was done.”
“He was very frightened, mostly from the volume. My new amplifiers now go to infinity, and I think that idea was very scary to him”: Nigel Tufnel had plenty of volume when he jammed with Joe Satriani, but “couldn't fathom” what the guitar hero was doing
“If you’re coming up against an ambush, you want her in your battalion”: Jack White has gifted his signature Fender Triplecaster to his new favorite guitar player
