Lynyrd Skynryd Plots a Busy Future With a Book, Biopic + More

Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s manager since 1999 has become a free bird himself — and is taking the band with him.

After 26 years with Vector Management in Nashville, Ross Schilling has formed his own King Duke Entertainment, based in his native Sarasota, Fla., where he’ll handle the group as well as frontman Johnny Van Zant and the estates of the late original band members — an integration he’s become well-practiced in juggling over the years.

“Getting through the things that have happened, the ups and then the downs of losing guys, now knowing what’s gonna happen next, the thing I’m most proud of is going, ‘How you pick up everyone back up and continue on’ — and doing it,” Schilling tells UCR.

“That’s no easy feat, getting everyone to go, ‘We can do this. We can do that. This can happen.’ That’s very challenging. But they’re still out there playing, they’re keeping the music alive. That’s probably what I’m most proud of.”

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Schilling was an agent with the William Morris Agency when Vector founder Ken Levitan invited him to move into management, where in addition to Skynyrd Schilling also worked with Toto, Hank Williams Jr., Kid Rock, .38 Special, Staind and its frontman Aaron Lewis, Jonny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and others. After Levitan sold the company during 2022, Schilling stayed on to assist the transition and leaves on good terms.

“I didn’t want to run (Vector) and be the guy who had to be out there, front and center all the time,” he explains. “I love the team at Vector and have great relationships out there. I got to a point where, ‘Yeah, I kinda want to do this on my own. I just want to do Skynyrd now.'”

Schilling will be joined at King Duke by Kristen Van Zant, Johnny’s daughter, who’s worked with Keith Urban, Gretchen Wilson and Staind and Lewis and was instrumental in the campaign for Always Look Up, the 2024 gospel album by her father and uncle, former .38 Special singer Donnie Van Zant.

“Who’s to say; maybe I’ll sign something new and young, but that remains to be seen,” Schilling says.

Skynyrd matters will certainly keep him busy in the near future. The group will be part of comedian Bert Kreischer’s Full Throttle Festival on Feb. 14 in Daytona Beach, Fla., before heading to Brazil for four shows during April, including a stadium date with Guns N’ Roses. This summer, meanwhile, Skynyrd launches a Double Trouble Double Vision Tour with Foreigner on July 23 in Atlanta, running through August.

Before all that the group’s profile will be raised when their classic anthem “Free Bird” is used in an ad during the Super Bowl LX telecast on Feb. 8.

A biopic is also in the works; “We have two or three big players interested in doing the official movie for the band,” Schilling reports. “We think, obviously, the story is tremendous. There’s probably not a better story out there in music, certainly in rock ‘n’ roll. We don’t know if it will be a two-hour motion picture film or go to Netflix or somebody and do a six- or eight-episode series.”

He adds that the Skynyrd camp is also working towards “an official autobiography. There have been several written by various people, but none by the people that were closest to it and lived it.”

And there’s “been discussion” about new music; Skynyrd’s last album, Last of a Dyin’ Breed, came out in 2012, while a one-off single, “Last of the Street Survivors” — penned by Van Zant, guitarist Rickey Medlocke and original member Gary Rossington, who passed away during March of 2023 — was released during 2020.

“There’s 30 songs that Johnny, Rickey and Gary wrote that are kind of sitting there that could be revisited and recorded at some point,” Schilling says. “Will they come out as Skynyrd music? I don’t know. That has yet to be determined. If Rickey and Johnny want to (finish) them, maybe that’ll happen, but right now there isn’t a big plan to do that.”

Despite that and other challenges during his management tenure — including the deaths of several members (bassist Leon Wilkeson, keyboardist Billy Powell, and guitarists Ed King and Hughie Thomasson) — Schilling says fan demand has remained consistently strong for Skynyrd, especially on the road.

With Van Zant nearing his 40th year of fronting the band in his late brother Ronnie’s place and Medlocke’s long association that dates back to 1971, Schilling feels the group has retained a credibility that upholds Skynyrd’s heritage and transcends any roster concerns.

“The current lineup of the band plays the music on a high level, like it was mean to be heard,” he explains. “I didn’t know Ronnie Van Zant…but Gary always told me their dream was to have the music last, so to know we’re carrying on that legacy and the music they created, that has touched so many millions of people, is pretty powerful…

“You hear a lot about bands out there still carrying on with no original members, but probably 95 percent of the people in the audience only know Lynyrd Skynyrd with Johnny Van Zant as frontman. That’s been a big help for us.”

“So as long as the music hits home to people and fans want to come see it, (Skynyrd)’ll go ahead and carry it on. None of us feel the story ended in 1977; it came back and it kept going, stronger, and still is.

“There’s three generations of people out there wanting to hear the music, kids in their teens and 20s being turned onto Lynyrd Skynyrd that want to come to multiple shows and be touched by it. Is that a bad thing? I don’t think so.”