Jonny “Tosar” Tosarello, now in his 13th year as Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Lighting Designer and Director, has implemented and massaged many changes in the look of a band that this summer is celebrating 50 years. The band itself has weathered many changes in its course of five decades and emerged triumphant, from the plane crash to the passing of the last of its founding members Gary Rossington, in March of this year. “One of the constant barbs thrown at these guys,” starts off Tosar, “is ‘they aren’t the real Lynyrd Skynyrd, they’re just a tribute band.’ Fact is, there are guys on that stage that have been in the band 20 to 30 years. As Gary Rossington said, ‘It’s always been a tribute band; ever since the plane crash. That’s the whole point. It’s not about who is in the band, it’s the music.’”
A New Path
Tosarello’s path to Skynyrd was a somewhat circuitous one. He had done several tours with Kid Rock as Lighting Crew Chief and knew the camp really well. He got a call from Kid’s PM, Eric “Shakes” Grzybowski, asking him to cover for Kid’s current lighting director Brad Teagan, who had to leave for another commitment. Nook Schoenfeld (‘Poppa Nook,’ as Tosar fondly calls him) “was the first guy to offer me the chance and mentor me to push buttons,’ says Tosar, adding that Nook had recommended him to Shakes. Turns out Lynyrd Skynyrd was on the same bill as Kid Rock for this particular 2009 summer tour. Tosar became good friends with Steve Owens, who had been Skynyrd’s Designer/Director for over a decade. At the end of 2009, Owens asked Tosar to cover for the 2010 tour. Owens, in high demand as a lighting designer was moving onto other artists and basically handed over Skynyrd to Tosar.
When Tosar first came to work with the band, they were still using a 180K rig, mainly for festivals, and a few VL5s from Steve Owens’ design, which stayed fairly static. That was because both Rossington and Johnny Van Zant were not too keen on the idea of moving lights as they liked the big powerful look of all those PARs. Even so, Tosar suggested changing out the midstage truss to moving heads, which both band members hesitantly agreed to. Still cutting his teeth as a designer and excited to add this dimension to the Skynyrd look, he brought the dozen added VL 3000’s in at full intensity when spotting Rossington’s solos.
After a couple shows, “Gary taught me a valuable lesson, when he mentioned he thought those lights might be blinding the front row audience. He was absolutely right, and I began finessing my looks by playing with intensities. That is the only critical thing he ever said about the design,” says Tosar. Compared to Rossington, Van Zant was more vocal about lighting, and Van Zant would be the one that Tosar needed to get approval from before forging ahead with his plan for additional intelligent fixtures. Tosar gave Van Zant a video of the show afterwards and it completely turned the singer onto how moving heads could add to a performance. Tosar recalls, “He told me afterwards that ‘I want them things dancing all the time—I want the audience to feel what I feel when we are onstage and they are hitting me in the back and flying around.’ Johnny is very literal in his approach to how the stage should look,” Tosar continues. “All their songs tell a story, so when he sings, ‘I got a green light baby’ or ‘the skies are so blue,’ he wants the whole rig to bathe the stage in that color.”
Consistent but Flexible
Lynyrd Skynyrd plays “everything and almost anywhere”—theaters, festivals, amphitheaters. As such, the yearly design is flexible and versatile while remaining fairly consistent. Four straight trusses are broken into 24’ sections, with a four-foot gap between SL and SR. This gives a 52’ span over the stage, allowing the system to be a chameleon, with angles and spacing adapting to the given venue.
The 50-year celebratory outing is a co-headliner tour with ZZ Top; The Smart Dressed Simple Man Tour. The bands alternate who closes…meaning yes, someone actually takes the stage after the epic “Free Bird,” a feat perhaps only ZZ Top could pull off. ZZ Top has access to the full rig and further defines their set by adjusting truss looks which get reset for Skynyrd’s show. ZZ Top also has a mini truss for their two 2’ mirror balls that fly in and out during their show section.
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s iconic mirror ball these days is 3’ rather than the mammoth 4’ they carried for years for their “Free Bird” finale. Likewise, the scenic truss of old has morphed into an LED video wall. A 40’W x 20’H Triton LED wall has come to replace the previously used soft goods, including backdrops on a traveler track and a bi-parting black drape for reveals. The LED wall now used is supplied by MooTV and run on a Green Hippo media server. “Pulling them from backdrops to video was a bit of an effort,” says Tosar. “The guys were huge fans of backdrops. At one time, we had seven or eight drops to use. I told them with video, you can have as many backdrops as you want.”
A floating floor truss plays in the design as well. When the band’s amp line went from sitting on the floor to backline carts, the old ploy of setting a fixture on a case no longer cleared the top of the amps. Tosar inverted some GT truss and hung it on two chain hoists, positioning them just off stage of the video wall. “The truss smiles just a bit, but it’s a happy floor truss full of Claypaky B-Eyes, Martin MAC Vipers, Antari Z 1520 RGB Fog Jets, Elation WW2 Blinders, and CHAUVET Color STRIKE Ms.”
A last minute missed communique at one venue did not allow the floating floor truss to be hung due to its 1,400 lb. per point load. This forced Tosar to put the truss on the floor. Tosar explains Van Zant’s reaction to the missing floor truss. “Johnny called me in after that show and told me, ‘Man, those floor lights are important to me; make sure they are always there.” A note in the band’s rider now specifies the addition of 40’ of four-foot-tall risers must be on stage should a venue in the future not be able to hang the floor truss. “Again,” emphasizes Tosar, “this rig has to be a chameleon. These guys play arenas, sheds, and occasionally some rich guy’s house. This summer has a majority of Live Nation dates, so the venues are looking pretty consistent. We do a few festivals and always play The Buffalo Chip during the Sturgis Rally.”
With nine band members, five of which move around the stage, the followspot configuration had always consisted of four on the upstage truss and six FOH. That changed when Tosar took over “to keep consistency between the varied venues. We now use moving lights as upstage specials instead of manned followspots.” The six FOH followspots now have a page in Skynyrd’s tech rider dedicated to those needs: ‘Please optimize for 100 FC at downstage edge.’ “Of course, I’m at the mercy of the court for what we actually get. Mainly they are there for color correction: ¼ CTO or a minus green, and frost. With I-Mag I have to have consistency.” The touring production includes a camera package, supplied by MooTV as well. There is one camera at FOH, two handhelds in the pit, and four Robocams on the stage. “Jamie Mortimer with MooTV is our Video Director,” notes Tosar. “Morty and I have had the honor and privilege of working together for several years with Skynyrd and on Kid Rock. We know how each other works.”
Vendor Support
Premier Global Production has been their lighting vendor since 2018, with Steven “Creech” Anderson as their Account Rep. Tosar descibes his evolution in fixture selections that brought them to PGP. “When I got turned onto [Martin MAC] Viper Profiles about a year after they came out, I’ve never gone back. It’s my favorite fixture type because it has every single feature I need in it. I just wish it were a little brighter. Ayrton has fixtures out now that are brighter, better, faster, but they are of course more expensive. Premier is great about bench focusing and keeping good lamps in the Vipers, so I can get more Vipers than the newer units. Budget is a priority, and it does not compromise the show. I’m the ‘don’t fix it if it ain’t broke’ philosophy guy.” For his upstage wash light and eye candy, he turned to the Claypaky B-Eye K20 in shapes mode. “That Beam Shaper makes those things breathe. It really comes to life.”
In the past, Tosar was a “VL guy,” using the Vari-Lite VL3000 Spot as a profile. For a wash light, he preferred the MAC 2000 XB. “I now use the Chauvet R2 wash for front wash and specials. The strobes are now Color STRIKE Ms with MAC 101’s filling the rig. These are older lights, but I get more bang for the buck.” Color Kinetics’ ColorBlasts make sure Van Zant’s silver truss is well lit. He further points out that George Masek, with Claypaky, and PGP’s Creech wanted him to demo the Xtylos, and now Tosar will be adding them to the floor package this summer. “I just used them as an ACL look. They have the best red I have ever seen, and they can produce that laser effect,” smiles Tosar. He drives the rig with two full-size grandMA2 consoles.
Going Back Out
With the passing last year of Steve Voudouris, who was the Tour Manager, Accountant, and Production Manager, Skynyrd’s management offered Tosarello the PM position on top of his design duties. He still directs the show, too, because as he explains, “Selfishly, I have to say, I have had a couple other people run the show, well our show, because you have to run our show. We are no longer just lighting backdrops. With the video element tie-ins to the songs, moments have to be hit exactly. Especially ‘Free Bird.’ We found this footage of Ronnie [Van Zant] singing it, with no audience hands or heads in it. We scanned this to a video track and put a click to it.” They scrubbed all the ambient noise as much as possible, but the recorded band is still barely audible. “Management tells me they want this to always be a part of ‘Free Bird’ for the rest of the band’s time onstage. It’s the culmination of the show.”
Actually, the pandemic interrupted what was at the time supposed to be Skynyrd’s farewell tour. Once the air cleared in 2021, Van Zant and Rossington decided to put the tour back on. They both told Tosar, ‘Hey, anything that says or hints at farewell, get rid of it. Redo the rig we had and come up with something new. We’re big wheels keep on turning, and we’re going back out!’ However, six weeks into the run, Rossington’s heart, which had always been a bit of a health problem for him, started really causing him pain. At that point, he was the only original member left. The question arose, can the band still tour under the name Lynyrd Skynyrd if Rossington is not on the stage? The decision was reached to protect Rossington’s health and find another lead guitarist, with old friend of the band, Damon Johnson stepping in. Rossington did come out for some higher profile dates. In fact, the last songs he played at the iconic Ryman Auditorium were “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Free Bird.” That show was recorded by PBS.
A Member of the Band
“It’s an honor to run lights for these guys,” says Tosar. Van Zant and Rossington actually made him an honorary 10th member of the band. A downpour at an outdoor festival forced Tosar to set up his board onstage by dimmer beach, after asking permission from Van Zant to do so. As the singer was introducing the band members, he pointed to Tosar and announced, ‘and here is the new 10th member of the band, my son Jonny!”
The tale behind the ‘son’ comment goes back to that initial 2009 tour when Skynyrd and Kid Rock were on the same bill. Susan, the PA from Kid, had told Van Zant their LD was the spitting image of him. One day, walking down the hall backstage, Van Zant sees Tosar and Owens walking together and calls out, ‘Hey, it’s my son! You must be Tosar. I heard someone out here looked like me so I figured he must be one handsome SOB! By golly, they were right, you look like a Van Zant!’
Fast forward a few months later at an outdoor festival, and Tosar is now working directly for Skynyrd. This is his first time operating for the band as Owens is training him on cueing. As Van Zant usually does each night, he asks for the audience to be lit up. “Hey Toby,” Van Zant said, calling Owens by his nickname. “Turn on them bright lights so we can see all our friends out there.” Taking a beat, Van Zant added, “No, wait a minute, we have hired my son to run lights. Hey everybody, say hello to my son!” and the crowd just erupted. “Steve looks at me, laughing, and says ‘I have been out here 12 years, and he never got my name right. You’re here five minutes and you’re his son?!’”
“It’s one of the reasons I’ve been with these guys for 13 years,” Tosar continues. “They are like family, and Van Zant is so cognizant of all the losses this band has had with members and crew. He tells me, ‘Anytime you need something just come to me.’”
Production Team
- Production Manager/Lighting Designer/Director: Jonny “Tosar” Tosarello
- Lighting Crew Chief: Trey Colvin
- Lighting Crew: Hunter Partridge, Jim Costello
- Video Crew Chief / Video Director: Jamie “Morty” Mortimer
- LED Tech / Camera Ops: Bo Fryman, Michael Alleman, Cole Duddleton
Vendors
- Lighting: Premier Global Production
- Account Manager: Steven “Creech” Anderson
- Project Manager: Anthony “Geddy” Kordyjaka
- Video: MooTV
- Account Manager: Travis Walker
- Project Manager: Milojko “Miko” Dobrijevich
Equipment
Lighting
- 2 MA Lighting grandMA2 full-size
- 2 MA Lighting NPU
- 18 Claypaky B-Eye K20
- 12 Claypaky Sharpy
- 6 Claypaky Xtylos
- 28 CHAUVET R2 Wash
- 20 CHAUVET Color STRIKE M
- 16 Martin MAC Viper Profile
- 24 Martin MAC 101
- 38 Elation CUEPIX Blinder WW2
- 46 Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12
- 12 Antari Z 1520 RGB Fog Jet
- 4 Reel EFX DF-50 Hazer
Video
- 150 Triton 5 LED Panel (41’W x 19’8”H)
- 2 Green Hippo Hippotizer Boreal+ MK2 Media Server
- Hitachi 5000 Series Cameras
- Ross Carbonite Switcher
