Ronnie Van Zant said:
“We wrote ‘Alabama’ as a joke. We didn’t even think about it – the words just came out that way. We just laughed like hell, and said ‘Ain’t that funny’. We love Neil Young, we love his music.”
Neil Young said:
Oh, they didn't really put me down! But then again, maybe they did! (laughs) But not in a way that matters. Shit, I think Sweet Home Alabama is a great song. I've actually performed it live a couple of times myself.
Neil Young: “I think “Sweet Home Alabama” is a great song. I’ve actually performed it live a couple of times myself. My own song “Alabama” richly deserved the shot Lynyrd Skynyrd gave me with their great record. I don’t like my words when I listen to it today.”
Ronnie says "we knew we were going to get heat for those lyrics, but we wrote it as a JOKE!! we love Neil Young and his Music"


The Story of Writing Sweet Home Alabama in 20 minutes!
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In June 1973, Leon returns to the Band just after they finished recording Pronounced, Ed King moves to Guitar!
On the first day of rehearsals at the Hell House , with Leon on Bass and Ed on Guitar, They write Sweet Home Alabama and I Need you" on the same day.
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Ed bounces his riff off of Gary's and Ronnie Had a verse and the chorus in about 15 minutes, And Ronnie went Fishing! 90 minutes later he comes back with all the Verses.
The week the first Album was being Pressed, Ronnie rang Al Kooper, and said we got this song and we want to record it now!
So the next day they meet at Studio One and record it!
Its in the can' for the next Album! Second Helping.
Back up vocals put on later by Al Kooper, at The Record Plant in L.A. provided by Merry Clayton and Clydie King.
It would be released in April 1974.
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Ed King says the song took just half-an-hour to write, but the solos had an altogether more mystic origin:
“I used to sleep with my guitar next to the bed.
The night after we wrote Sweet Home Alabama I had a dream in which I played both the short and long solos.
I immediately woke up, got the guitar and started playing what I’d seen in the dream. At rehearsal the next day I just plugged the solos into the spots where we had rehearsed them and they fit perfectly.”
Once Ronnie had added the lyrics, Skynyrd had a ready-made classic.
“Ronnie was one of the most gifted lyricists I ever knew,”
Billy Powell told Classic Rock in one of his very last interviews.
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Gary Rossington, the only surviving original member in the current Skynyrd line-up, is keen to play down any talk of a Neil Young stand-off.
“We all loved Neil,” he says today. “Ronnie used to wear Neil Young T-shirts all the time.
Those lines about Southern Man were almost like a play on words. We didn’t know that song would be so big, or turn into such a big deal with Neil Young fans.”
What really propels Sweet Home Alabama is its burning guitar riff.
Ed King had become intrigued by a guitar rhythm that Rossington had been tinkering with in the studio. “Gary was playing a pattern that you can hear behind the verses,” Ed King says. “I put my guitar part on top of his as a counterpoint. But Gary’s part was the catalyst that started the ball rolling.”
Sweet Home Alabama.
"I walked in and picked up my Strat and just bounced my riff off of Gary's! Within 15 minutes Ronnie had a verse and a chorus! Then Ronnie went fishing! he came back in an Hour and a half, and had all the verses!"- Ed King
Ed King says his Sweet Home Alabama Solos came to him 'in a dream' —
Ed King says both guitar solos in the song came to him "note-for-note in a dream"
The wrong key? —
Producer Al Kooper swore Ed King recorded his solo in the wrong key as he was playing in G but the song was in D.
You may never of noticed it, and that's Kooper doing a Neil Young imitation in what he calls a near-subliminal track on "Sweet Home."
Just after Ronnie says, "Well, I heard Mr. Young sing about her," a barely audible Kooper sings in the left speaker, "Southern man, better use your head ..."
Sweet home alabama has Merry Clayton and Clydie Kings vocals on it!!
1974:
"When Second Helping came out, people really caught on to Sweet Home Alabama.
Then they started buying the first Album, and that's when it became an overnight success story!" - Billy Powell.
Al Kooper says he decided to release "Dont Ask Me Know Questions" as the first single, because he knew SHA was good, and wanted something to fall back on if the first single didnt take off.
"Sweet Home Alabama" The second single off "Second Helping.

Many of the myths are "fan made" or fan generated,
one person says ,
Ronnie and Neil young had a feud, and now there are multiple stories about Ronnie and Neil all over the internet on rock'roll newspaper type websites, Classic rock mag etc
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Neil young was at Ronnie's funeral, anoher fan generated myth that is now out there on multiple sites

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