Gimme two nights: What to know about Lynyrd Skynyrd shows at St. Augustine Amphitheatre

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s root run deep in Northeast Florida. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band formed in Jacksonville, honed its chops in countless local bars and dance halls and spent its formative years writing and perfecting songs at the Hell House, a shack near Green Cove Springs.

Skynyrd, which was selected by jacksonville.com readers as Jacksonville’s favorite homegrown band earlier this year, plays at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre on Oct. 6 and 7.

Before the band plays the St. Augustine concerts, singer Johnny Van Zant and guitarist Rickey Medlocke will be at Whitey's Fish Camp on Fleming Island to promote their new Hell House Whiskey. They'll sign bottles from 6-9 p.m. Wednesday. Van Zant and Medlocke will also do a bottle signing from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday at Total Wine and More at the St. Johns Town Center.

Here’s what you need to know about the St. Augustine concerts.

Can I still get tickets to see Lynyrd Skynyrd in St. Augustine?

The official Ticketmaster site for the concerts shows that there are still tickets available for Thursday’s show, both under cover and in the bleachers. Prices for Thursday tickets range from $50 to $470. For Friday’s show, there are a handful of tickets available, but they are Platinum seating with prices starting at $215.75

Ticket resellers also have seats available for both shows. Stubhub.com lists tickets for Thursday’s show ranging from $41-$278 and Friday’s from $63-$402. Vividseats.com lists Thursday tickets from $31-$404 and Friday tickets from $58-$811. Seatgeek.com has tickets for Thursday at $30-$716 and for Friday from $51-$808.

Is this the last chance to see Lynyrd Skynyrd play in Northeast Florida?

When it comes to Lynyrd Skynyrd, never say never. The band came back from a devastating 1977 plane crash, reforming a decade later. When band members move on, Skynyrd just reloads; there have been dozens of musicians who have played in the band over the years. They launched their Last of the Street Survivors Tour in 2018 with the intention that it would be the band’s finale — the tour included a big show at Jacksonville’s TIAA Bank Field that was billed as Skynyrd’s last hometown show — and singer Johnny Van Zant said last year that he didn’t think the band would play another show in Jacksonville. Following founding guitarist Gary Rossington’s death earlier this year, the band announced that it would continue performing and set out on a co-headlining tour with ZZ Top. Lynyrd Skynyrd had six Florida dates this year, with shows in Lakeland, Panama City Beach, West Palm Beach, Tampa and the two St. Augustine concerts. For what it's worth, there are no 2024 dates on the band’s current tour schedule and guitarist Rickey Medlocke has been teasing a new Rickey Medlocke Band on his Facebook page.

Hometown rockers: Lynyrd Skynyrd's roots in Jacksonville

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Is Lynyrd Skynyrd playing any other shows in Florida?

No other Florida shows are on the band’s tour schedule. Following the St. Augustine shows, the only shows on the schedule for the remainder of the year are a festival in Louisiana and a late December show at an Oklahoma casino.

Will Lynyrd Skynyrd play the same songs both nights?

Lynyrd Skynyrd just wrapped up a co-headlining tour with ZZ Top and played a couple of festivals in Brazil. They’ve been playing the same 14 or 15 songs every night this year but the St. Augustine concerts are the first time the band has played back-to-back nights in the same venue so it's possible that they’ll mix it up a bit for fans attending both shows.

Who is in Lynyrd Skynyrd these days?

No one who played on the six albums that were released before a 1977 plane crash put the band on the shelf for a decade. The current lineup is singer Johnny Van Zant, who has been with the band since 1987; guitarist Rickey Medlocke, who played drums in an early version of the band and joined as guitarist in 1996; drummer Michael Cartellone, who has been with the band since 1999; guitarist Mark “Sparky” Matejka, who joined in 2006; keyboardist Peter Keys, who joined in 2009; bass player Keith Christopher, who came aboard in 2017; and guitarist Damon Johnson, who has been touring with the band since 2021.

Will Lynyrd Skynyrd invite any special guests onstage at the St. Augustine concerts?

Lynyrd Skynyrd isn't known for that — at the hometown finale show at TIAA Bank Stadium in 2018, they had Charlie Daniels, Kid Rock, Jason Aldean, the Marshall Tucker Band and Blackberry Smoke on the bill but didn't have any of them come onstage during their show. But a 2022 show at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium (Rossington's final performance with the band), Skynyrd was joined onstage by Marcus King, Jelly Roll, Brent Smith of Shinedown and former .38 Special singer Donnie Van Zant.

Will Lynyrd Skynyrd close the shows with "Freebird"?

That's a pretty safe bet. The band played a couple of special shows at the Florida Theatre in 2015, playing its first two albums in their entirety. On the first night, they started the show by playing "Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd" start to finish. That meant the band played "Freebird" about 40 minutes into the show and still had a whole second set to play. Johnny Van Zant said he could only recall one other time the band didn't close with "Freebird," a show on one of his first Skynyrd tours where they mixed up the setlist on purpose.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: What to know about Lynyrd Skynyrd concerts in St. Augustine