Rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd have a surprising origin story that fans might not know – the band was actually named after a Florida PE teacher who couldn’t stand his students’ long hair.
Formed in 1964, the group took its moniker from Leonard Skinner, an instructor who had a strong aversion to the flowing locks of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s founding members – Ronnie Van Zant, Gary Rossington, Allen Collins, Larry Junstrom, and Bob Burns.
Skinner was a teacher at Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville throughout the 1960s and became infamous for marching students to the principal’s office over violations of the school’s hair length regulations…