“What song is it you wanna hear?” which was immediately followed by shouts of “Free Bird”. Van Zant went on to work the crowd by asking again, ‘What song?” making the crowd call again and again before saying, “I heard it that time,” as the beautiful piano intro begins. A small portion of the interaction was left on the album as an introduction to the song, and fans have called for the track at every Skynyrd show since. Here is something that might surprise you. Brady Bunch mom, Florence Henderson, is also (indirectly) to blame. I’ll explain. Back in the mid-80s, Henderson had a concert scheduled in Chicago where radio jock Kevin Matthews worked. Matthews encouraged his listeners, ‘the KevHeads’, to torment Henderson by calling for “Free Bird” between her songs, “to break up the monotony.” But even he bemoans the decline of “Free bird” etiquette. “It was never meant to Kevin Matthews be yelled at a cool concert -- it was meant to be yelled at someone really lame,” he says. “If you’re going to yell ‘Free bird,’ yell ‘Free bird’ at a Jim Nabors concert.”
Elayne Boosler wondering why the audience is shouting ‘reverb’ to the greeting card depiction of a drunk with a lighter requesting the song from wedding musicians, to the organist for the Chicago White Sox playing it during the 7th inning stretch.
Calling for the song has lost its original comedic feeling and is now perpetuated only by the overindulged and those who are terminally two-steps behind cool. Audiences have become as tired as the performers of the inevitable yell, which is little comfort for those who work a microphone from a stage.
“It (Free Bird) was never meant to be yelled at a cool concert - it was meant to be yelled at someone really lame.”
According to author Mitch Myers, yelling “Free Bird” would have become little more than a fan-to-band ritual for Skynyrd Nation, if not for one man’s self-assigned mission: rock music fan Adam Coil. For over 25 years Coil had attended hundreds of concerts with the express purpose of waiting for the perfect moment to become ‘that guy’. He is truly the type of person that puts the ‘ATIC’ in the word ‘FAN’. In his book, “The Boy Who Cried Freebird”, Meyers described a little of Adam Coil’s motivations for those who want to know more.
What started as a solitary pursuit quickly spread past what one man could ever achieve. Like the lone believer who scrawled JOHN 3:16 and sat in the end zone during NFL telecasts eventually morphed into a movement of copycats followed by parodies that corrupted the original intent. As a result, the shout-out for ‘Free Bird’ has forever been changed from inside joke to tired cliché.
What do the surviving members of Skynyrd think of it all? Ronnie’s brother, Johnny Van Zant, who took over as the band’s singer told the Wall Street Journal, “it’s not an insult at all -- I think it’s kind of cool. Its fun and people are doing it in a fun way. That’s what music’s supposed to be about.”
Van Zant also added his own confession: Persuaded by his wife to see Cher in Jacksonville, he couldn’t resist yelling “Freebird” himself. “My wife is going, ‘Stop! Stop!’ ”he recalled laughing. “I embarrassed the Hell out of her.”
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Brady Bunch mom, Florence Henderson
From music’s archive to radio prank to fan zeal, “Free Bird” has gone viral and will forever hold a place in rock and roll history.
free bird
“Free bird” moments have now invaded the national consciousness -- from baffled comedian
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Comedian Elayne Boosler