He thought about their position and realized that they had a point.
“Sweet Home Alabama” was written in response to Young’s songs “Southern Man” and “Alabama”, both of which were very critical of Southern white men and basically called them all racists.
Well, at that point, all of the members of Skynyrd were Southern white men with the exception of guitarist Ed King, a California native (and also the one who wrote the music to “Sweet Home Alabama”).
What they were not, though, was racist, and so they took exception to Young’s blanket condemnation.
Ronnie Van Zant felt that especially as an outsider — a Canadian, even! — Young was speaking out of turn and “shooting all the ducks in order to kill one or two.” So he took a jab at Young in “Sweet Home Alabama”.
After the incident, Young and Van Zant ultimately became friends; Young actually wrote the song “Powderfinger” with the hope that Skynyrd would record it, but they never got the chance before the plane crash that killed Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and backup singer Cassie Gaines (Steve’s sister), along with road manager Dean Kilpatrick and the plane’s pilot and copilot.
Later, in his autobiography Waging Heavy Peace, Young said of the callout that “Alabama”, at least, “richly deserved the shot Lynyrd Skynyrd gave me with their great record. I don’t like my words when I listen to it. They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, and too easy to misconstrue.”
In other words, he admitted, quite gracefully, that he had made a misstep.
Young rocking a Skynyrd t-shirt:
RVZ in turn wearing a Neil Young t-shirt:
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