LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — The Rebels & Bandoleros Tour starring ZZ Top and Lynyrd Skynyrd launches this May.
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s most recently released album is God & Guns while ZZ Top’s forthcoming, as yet untitled, album is expected later this year.
The two groups, whose respective histories have been intertwined since the early 1970s, are set for a string of tour dates together starting May 12 in Wichita, KS and continuing for the next three weeks.
The tour marks the first time in years that the standard-bearers of Southern Rock will have toured so extensively together.
The two bands first joined forces in 1974 when Houston-based ZZ Top invited Lynyrd Skynyrd, then an emerging new band from Jacksonville, to become part of The Outlaw Tour that year.
Ultimately, ZZ Top, which had formed in 1969, would go on to become a band with one of the longest running original personnel line-ups — Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard – in music history.
Tragedy struck Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1977 when a plane crash took the lives of band members Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines. Today’s Lynyrd Skynyrd includes founding member Gary Rossington along with Johnny Van Zant, brother of the late Ronnie Van Zant, as well as Rickey Medlocke, Michael Cartellone, Mark “Sparky” Matejka, Robert Kearns, Peter Keys Dale Krantz Rossington and Carol Chase.
Both bands are Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees; ZZ was inducted by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones in 2004 and Skynyrd in 2006 by Kid Rock.
“Rebels and Bandolers is more of a coming together of friends more than a mere tour,” Billy Gibbons commented in a statement. “We’re delighted to be hitting the road with our Skynyrd brethren once more. It’s going to be a great ride.”
Johnny Van Zant remarked in a statement, “Eleven years ago we toured together for eleven months straight. We love the guys in ZZ and their music, and can’t wait to get back out on the road with them.”
Rebels & Bandoleros Tour Dates:
5/12 – Wichita, KS – Intrust Bank Arena
5/13 – Belton, TX – Bell County Expo Center
5/14 – Oklahoma City, OK – Zoo Amphitheatre
5/19 – Bangor, ME – Bangor Waterfront Pavilion
5/20 – Big Flats, NY – Tags Summer Stage
5/21 – Albany, NY – Times Union Center
5/22 – Youngstown, OH – Covelli Centre
5/26 – Peoria, IL – Peoria Civic Center Theatre
5/27 – Lampe, MO – Black Oak Mountain Amphitheatre
5/28 – Bossier City, LA – Centurytel Arena
5/29 – Orange Beach, AL – Amphitheater at the Wharf
— Crystal Lynn Huntoon
