In the late 80′ or early 90’s, I was doing fireworks shows for some state fair somewhere. That night the headlining band was Lynyrd Skynyrd and the opening band was .38 Special. 

I had worked with .38 Special before, when I was the Lighting Designer for the Rainbow Music Hall. .38 Special did some very famous music videos there. As a matter of fact, one of the videos they made there was the 13th video to ever play on MTV (more on this in a later post). 

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s manager come up to me and told me that the band wanted to do something very special tonight. They wanted me to sync the fireworks to the last song of the night, Freebird. See this was the first show since the plane crash and they wanted to dedicate this show to the past members of the band. Needless to say, I was very honored that they wanted to include my fireworks in their tribute to their former band members. What an honor. Having not ever heard the live version of Freebird, I started to choreograph the show.

When the song started I was given the cue to go. I opened the show with some single shots of an effect called Majestic Arching Transformations. These effects are gold and they twinkle all the way down to the ground. As the song progressed and got faster, so did the fireworks, until the song was over and there was a big finale. Before I knew it, it was over. 

After the show was over and I was cleaning up, the manager came up to me and said “Gary wants to meet me.” I was like OK (I will talk to anyone), and I had no clue as to who Gary was. 

I go into the nicest tour bus I had ever seen and there was a familiar face, Dale Krantz, one of the backup singers from .38 Special. This guy named Gary offered me a beer and told me to sit down. Gary proceeded to tell me how much that show meant to him, and that the whole band wasn’t paying any attention to the audience during that song, they were all watching my show. About this time, other members of the band walked in, some I recognized, some I didn’t. Gary introduced me to everyone and we all sat and had a beer. I still had no idea who my host was. I could tell he was someone important though. After a time, all the members said they have a flight to catch. I decided to leave as well, and I said “Gary I have to go clean up all the fireworks, it was sure nice meeting you and I am sure you have a plane to catch too.” Gary gave me a look (the same kind of look your grandma would give you if you farted in church). It was at that time, I realized who Gary was (and one of the only times I ever put my foot in my mouth in front of a celebrity). 

I immediately apologized and explained to him that I had no clue as to who he was (one of the survivors of the plane crash) and I turned a million shades of red. He got a big kick out of that. He told me that he appreciated that I treated him just as I would treat anyone off the street. See regardless of status, successful celebrities just want to be treated as everyone else. I stayed and had another beer and we talked about everything under the moon, even how I knew his wife, Dale Krantz. He even wanted to see how I shot off the fireworks, etc. 

When the evening was over, he asked how much it would cost to do that at every Skynyrd show. I replied about $1500 bucks. He looked to his manager and said two words, “Do it.” That is how I got to tour with Skynyrd and became good friends with some guy named Gary Rossington. 

Last year, one of my best pals died. It has taken me about 10 months to decide if I wanted to write something or not. Last August, I met up with the band in Sturgis on their 50th Anniversary tour. I was asked if I wanted to do lights for them for the next few shows, in memory of Gary (when I wasn’t doing pyro for them I was doing lights.) How could I refuse? Of course I would go back out with them for a few shows in memory of one of my best friends.