Dolly Parton has revealed that Ronnie Van Zant’s widow gave her permission to use the late Lynyrd Skynyrd singer’s voice on her new cover of the southern rock band’s classic song Free Bird.

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Street Survivors’ was a huge hit, but it was also released just days before a horrific air crash that changed everything.

The lineup features Johnny Van Zant, brother of original Lynyrd Skynyrd frontman and founder, Ronnie Van Zant, who tragically passed in a plane crash along with other members of the band.

SKYNYRD and Billy POWELL and Allen COLLINS and Ronnie VAN ZANT and Leon WILKESON, L-R: Allen Collins, Billy Powell, Ronnie Van Zant, Gary Rossington, Artimus Pyle, Ed King, Leon Wilkeson.

Van Zant has been the band’s lead vocalist since 1987. He is the brother of Ronnie Van Zant, who was the band’s vocalist from its founding in the mid-1960s until his death in the 1977 plane ...