‘Does your conscience bother you?’: Lynyrd Skynyrd and the real meaning of Sweet Home Alabama

• On an early summer’s day in 1973, while waiting for the last of his bandmates to arrive for rehearsal, Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington unfurled a speculative riff on a sunburst Les Paul. “Play that again,” ordered frontman and group-leader Ronnie Van Zant, a man only the unwise would ignore, before writing a lyric that has resonated for more than half a century. Even its title continues to evoke. In 2009, the words “Sweet Home Alabama” appeared on license plates issued by the state eulo