'Sweet Home Alabama' was written in answer to two songs by Neil Young, ' Southern Man' and ' Alabama', because the songs 'took the entire South to task for the bloody history of slavery and its aftermath'. In addition to the original appearance on Second Helping, the song has appeared on numerous Lynyrd Skynyrd collections and live albums. The hit led to two TV rock show offers, which the band turned down.
'Sweet Home Alabama' was a major chart hit for a band whose previous singles had 'lazily sauntered out into release with no particular intent'. Then Ronnie wrote the lyrics and Ed and I wrote the music.' Ronnie and I were sitting there, and he kept saying, 'play that again'.
'It’s the little picking part and I kept playing it over and over when we were waiting on everyone to arrive for rehearsal. In an interview with Garden & Gun, Rossington explained the writing process. None of the three writers of the song were from Alabama Ronnie Van Zant and Gary Rossington were both born in Jacksonville, Florida, while Ed King was from Glendale, California.
