Before he joined up with the remaining surviving members of Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1990 to revive that classic rock franchise (and as the replacement for his late brother, Ronnie), Johnny Van Zant had a budding Southern Rock solo career, with Van Zant, his own band. He was just beginning when the Skynyrd plane crashed in 1977, but the notoriety he received from being Ronnie's youngest brother kept the momentum going on his own solo career for some time after that.