NASHVILLE |FROM: MITCH SCHNEIDER/LATHUM NELSON
LYNYRD SKYNYRD PLAY FOR THE TROOPS: LYNYRD SKYNYRD launched their Jim Beam-sponsored worldwide “VICIOUS CYCLE TOUR” Thursday, June 12 with a free concert for 5,000 U.S. troops and their families at Frankfurt,Germany’s Rhein Main Air Base. The group–who will co-headline a European tour with Deep Purple before returning for their co-headlining “Party Of A Lifetime” tour with Sammy Hagar–performed for over two hours on a stage set up in the opening of an airplane hangar while the crowd watched from the rain-soaked runway’s flight line with a C-17 cargo plane parked behind them. Earlier in the day, LYNYRD SKYNYRD toured the base and met various military officers involved in Iraqi Freedom Operation, including Commander Pruit and the Air Force staff she commands. Notably, the band’s soaringly melodic and gutsy patriotic anthem “Red White and Blue” from VICIOUS CYCLE (Sanctuary Records)–their first new studio album in four years–received one of the show’s most rousing reactions from the audience, generating chants of “U-S-A, U-S-A.” The special concert marked the first public performance by founding lead guitarist GARY ROSSINGTON since his successful open heart operation in late February. After the event, ROSSINGTON noted: “It’s exhilarating and I’m glad to be back! I couldn’t have thought of a better way to kick off the ‘Vicious Cycle Tour’ than playing for the men and women that protect our freedom. What an experience!” Guitarist RICKEY MEDLOCKE told Stars and Stripes (European edition, 6/14/03) “It was very moving and very touching to be able to give them something back. They’ve given us so much. Without them doing what they do, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.”
For more information on LYNYRD SKYNYRD’s Jim Beam-sponsored worldwide “VICIOUS CYCLE TOUR,” visit: www.lynyrdskynyrd.com.
LYNYRD SKYNYRD’s set list from Rhein Main Air Base:
That’s How I like It
What’s Your Name
I Know a Little
Pick ‘Em Up
Simple Man
That Smell
Red White and Blue
Three Steps
Call me the Breeze
Sweet Home Alabama
Encore:
The Way
Free Bird
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