Lynyrd Skynyrd Recording With Metal Guitarist, Plot New Album

Lynyrd Skynyrd are reportedly eyeing an early-2009 release for their next studio album, says guitarist Rickey Medlocke. The band has spent the last year recording with a surprising choice — Marilyn Manson/Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 — and hope to spend the latter portion of 2008 in the studio to finish recording the new album, the band's first since 2003's maligned Vicious Cycle. "We've been doing quite a bit of writing with John 5," Medlocke said. "While everybody thought, 'My god, you are going to write with this guy? How is that ever going to work?' But this guy came in and is really multi-talented in all genres." Two of the songs expected to make the track list are the dark "Floyd" and the uptempo "Bang, Bang." The band is currently on the road sharing co-headlining duties with Kid Rock, who appeared on the band's last album.

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Song Stories

“Let My Love Open the Door”

Pete Townshend | 1980

A peppy, hopeful love song, "Let My Love Open the Door" became a U. S. Top Ten hit for Pete Townshend in 1980, anchored by the kind of repeating synthesizer figures that he'd used in some of the Who's recordings in the previous decade. Although Townshend brushed the song off as "just a ditty" in Rolling Stone shortly after its release, in 1996 he revealed it was about love of the holiest sort. "It's supposed to be about the power of God's love," he remarked. "That when you're in difficulty, whether it's major or minor, God's love is always there for you."

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