Lynyrd Skynyrd, 3 Doors Down pair for Double Trouble

NASHVILLE (Billboard) - Old-school Southern rock meets new school when Lynyrd Skynyrd and 3 Doors Down hit the road this summer.

Skynyrd and 3DD are teaming for the 15-date Double Trouble tour, which begins June 24 at the Aberdeen (Md.) Proving Ground U.S. Army base.

Shooter Jennings joins the tour beginning June 25 at the Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati. VH1 Classic is presenting Double Trouble and will tape a June 23 show in Atlantic City, N.J., at Trump Taj Mahal Hotel & Casino for later airing on the network's "Decades Rock Live" program.

"This is extra special because for the past three years we've tried to figure out a way to get together with 3 Doors Down, knowing that 3 Doors wanted to do it, and Skynyrd really wanted to do it," says Greg Oswald, Skynyrd's agent at the William Morris Agency, who booked the tour with Ken Fermaglich, 3DD's agent at the Agency Group. "So when you work on something for three years, does it not just tickle the crap out of you when it finally happens?"

Fermaglich says, "These two bands have enjoyed a friendship and a kinship over the past several years, and we've been talking about them touring together for a while."

Double Trouble is a bit of a side venture for both bands. The tour skips several major markets in order not to cut into each band's potential audience for separate future concerts.

TWO-FOR-ONE

Skynyrd will close every night. "Skynyrd has to close, because they're in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and we're not," Fermaglich says of the recently inducted band. "But it's 100% a co-headline tour," he says, with each act having equal set lengths and production values.

Oswald points out that the package is unique this summer. "If you look around, you won't see anything that really looks like this out there, the true classic rock band that's got 30-plus-year history, just inducted into the Hall of Fame, playing with one that's only been around a few years and is a true contemporary rock band," he says.

"What happens is, if you're a big classic rock band you think you need to do everything in your power to protect your position, and therefore you wouldn't want to give up billing or other things like that to some new band," Oswald continues. "You're spending so much time trying to protect your own ass that you can't see the forest for the trees. The flip side is, if you're 3 Doors Down, these guys realize the power of doing this."

The last show will be July 22 in Biloxi, Miss., at the grand reopening of the Mississippi Coast Coliseum, which was damaged by Hurricane Katrina. It will be a sweet homecoming, as 3DD hails from the Biloxi area.

Reuters/Billboard