Van Zant is an American musical duo composed of brothers Donnie Van Zant and Johnny Van Zant. Both are brothers of the late Ronnie Van Zant, former lead singer for the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. Johnny became the lead vocalist for the reunited Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1987, and Donnie is also the leader and vocalist of .38 Special.
Initially a Southern rock band, Van Zant first recorded in the 1980s on Geffen Records before disbanding. Johnny and Donnie re-established Van Zant in 1998 to record two albums for CMC International, switching their focus to country music in 2005, with two more albums on Columbia Records as a duo. The duo's first Columbia album, Get Right with the Man, produced a Top Ten country hit in "Help Somebody."
Johnny recorded as a member of the 1980s southern rock band The Johnny Van Zant Band which released albums in 1980, 1981 and 1982. The band shortened its name to Van Zant for the release of its fourth album in 1985, the eponymous Van Zant on Geffen Records. This album saw chart success with "You've Got to Believe in Love" and "I'm a Fighter", both of which peaked on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. However, this band did not include Donnie and was soon disbanded.
Johnny released another album under his full name in 1990, but spent most of his time in that period singing for the Lynyrd Skynyrd reunion group. He joined up with Donnie, and they revived the Van Zant name to release an album in 1998, Brother to Brother Initially intended as a one-off project, Brother to Brother saw chart success in the single "Rage", so the duo followed it up in 2001 with Van Zant II for the label. This album accounted for their fourth charted rock single in "Get What You Got Comin'."
In 2005, the duo crossed over into country music, releasing Get Right with the Man on Columbia Records. The album produced a Top 10 country single in "Help Somebody", followed by the #16 "Nobody Gonna Tell Me What to Do" and #59 "Things I Miss the Most." The album also earned RIAA gold certification.The 2005 Sony BMG CD copy protection scandal began with an investigation of an installation of the CD Get Right With the Man.Because of this, it was not possible to import this CD track into iTunes, by now, the import can be done even in the original copy protected version.
This situation made NOT possible to import this CD in iTunes, but by now, it is possible to download the protected original version of "Get Right with the Man". Van Zant released a second album for Columbia, My Kind of Country, in 2007.
This album included the singles "That Scares Me" and "Goes Down Easy," both of which failed to reach Top 40 on the country charts. After the release of the latter, the duo exited Columbia.