Van Zant was an American musical duo composed of brothers

Donnie Van Zant Donald Newton Van Zant (born June 11, 1952) is an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known for being a member of the band 38 Special, from its formation in 1974 until 2013. He is the middle of three sons; his older br ...

and

Johnny Van Zant John Roy Van Zant (born February 27, 1959), also known as Johnny Van Zant, is an American singer and the current lead vocalist of Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. He is the younger brother of Lynyrd Skynyrd co-founder and former lead vocalist ...

. Both are brothers of

Ronnie Van Zant Ronald Wayne Van Zant (January 15, 1948 – October 20, 1977) was an American singer, best known as the original lead vocalist, primary lyricist and a founding member of the southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. He is the older brother of current ...

, the original lead singer for the

Southern rock Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music and a genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country music, and blues and is focused generally on electric guitars and vocals. Author Scott B. Bomar speculat ...

band

Lynyrd Skynyrd Lynyrd Skynyrd ( ) is an American rock music, rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida. The group originally formed as My Backyard in 1964 and comprised Ronnie Van Zant (lead vocalist), Gary Rossington (guitar), Allen Collins (guitar), Larry Ju ...

. Johnny became the lead vocalist for the reunited Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1987. Donnie was the leader and vocalist of

.38 Special The .38 Special, also commonly known as .38 S&W Special (not to be confused with .38 S&W), .38 Smith & Wesson Special, .38 Spl, .38 Spc, (pronounced "thirty-eight special"), or 9x29mmR is a rimmed, centerfire cartridge designed by Smith & ...

. Initially a Southern rock band, Van Zant first recorded in the 1980s on

Network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

/Geffen Records before disbanding. Johnny and Donnie re-established Van Zant in 1998 to record two albums for CMC International, switching their focus to

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

in 2005, with two more albums on

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

as a duo. The duo's first Columbia album, '' Get Right with the Man'', produced a top ten country hit in " Help Somebody".

History

Johnny recorded as a member of the 1980s southern rock band The Johnny Van Zant Band which released albums in 1980, 1981 and 1982. The band shortened its name to Van Zant for the release of its fourth album in 1985, the eponymous ''Van Zant'' on

/Geffen Records. This album saw chart success with "You've Got to Believe in Love" and "I'm a Fighter" (written by

Jimi Jamison Jimmy Wayne Jamison (August 23, 1951 – September 1, 2014) was an American singer. Best known as Jimi Jamison, he earned recognition as the frontman for the rock bands Target (American band), Target, Cobra (American band), Cobra, and Survivor ( ...

and

Mandy Meyer Armand "Mandy" Meyer (born August 29 1960) is a Swiss-Canadian guitarist best known for being a member of the hard rock band Gotthard, the progressive rock band Asia, and the heavy metal band Krokus. Meyer has also worked with Cobra, Stealin' H ...

from Cobra), both of which peaked on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. However, this band did not include Donnie and was soon disbanded. Johnny released another album under his full name in 1990, but spent most of his time in that period singing for the Lynyrd Skynyrd reunion group. He joined up with Donnie, and they revived the Van Zant name to release an album in 1998, ''Brother to Brother'' Initially intended as a one-off project, ''Brother to Brother'' saw chart success in the single "Rage", so the duo followed it up in 2001 with '' Van Zant II'' for the label. This album included their fourth charting rock single in "Get What You Got Comin.

Country music career

In 2005, the duo crossed over into country music, releasing '' Get Right with the Man'' on

. The album produced a Top 10 country single in " Help Somebody", followed by the No. 16 "

Nobody Gonna Tell Me What to Do "Nobody Gonna Tell Me What to Do" is a song recorded by American country music duo Van Zant. It was released in September 2005 as the second single from their album '' Get Right with the Man''. The song was written by Tony Mullins, Tim Nichols an ...

" and No. 59 "Things I Miss the Most". The album also earned

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

gold certification. The

Sony BMG copy protection rootkit scandal A scandal erupted in 2005 regarding Sony BMG's implementation of copy protection measures on about 22 million CDs. When inserted into a computer, the CDs installed one of two pieces of software that provided a form of digital rights managem ...

in 2005 began with an investigation of an installation of the CD ''Get Right with the Man''.Russinovich, Mark
"Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far,"
''Mark's Blog,'' October 31, 2005, retrieved January 9, 2007. It was not possible to import the CD into iTunes because of a glitch created by Sony's digital rights management software. The glitch was eventually fixed when the second Sony uninstaller offered allowed for the software to be removed. iTunes can import the CD now, even from the original copy-protected version of the disc. Van Zant released a second album for Columbia, '' My Kind of Country'', in 2007. This album included the singles "That Scares Me" and "Goes Down Easy", both of which failed to reach Top 40 on the country charts. After the release of the latter, the duo exited Columbia. Donnie had been forced to retire from his work with 38 Special due to health problems in 2013. In 2019, Johnny stated in an interview that he and Donnie had continued to work on new music and were planning on releasing some of the work after Lynyrd Skynyrd disbanded.

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Singles

Guest singles

Music videos

References

External links

Official Van Zant site
{{Authority control Country music duos Rock music duos Southern rock musical groups from Jacksonville Country music groups from Florida Columbia Records artists Sibling musical duos Musical groups established in 1985 Musical groups disestablished in 1985 Musical groups reestablished in 1998 Musical groups disestablished in 2001 Musical groups reestablished in 2005 Musical groups disestablished in 2007 1985 establishments in Florida