Proud Heritage.

Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington has been forced to defend a comment he made regarding the Confederate Flag during an interview on CNN.

Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington has been forced to defend a comment he made regarding the Confederate Flag during an interview on CNN.

Rossington said the band, which has the flag as part of their stage backdrop, was wary of the flag's association with hate groups. "Through the years, people like the KKK and skinheads kinda kidnapped the Dixie or Southern flag from its tradition and the heritage of the soldiers, that's what it was about. We didn't want that to go to our fans or show the image like we agreed with any of the race stuff or any of the bad things."

Of course in this world of social media, fans both pro and con have taken to message boards, which is why Rossington felt he needed to "clarify the discussion of the Confederate Flag in our recent CNN interview." He says, "Myself, the past and present members (that are from the South), are all extremely proud of our heritage and being from the South. We know what the Dixie flag represents and its heritage; the Civil War was fought over States rights. We still utilize the Confederate (Rebel) flag on stage every night in our shows, we are and always will be a Southern American Rock band, first and foremost. We also utilize the state flag of Alabama and the American flag, ‘cause at the end of the day, we are all Americans. I only stated my opinion that the confederate flag, at times, was unfairly being used as a symbol by various hate groups, which is something that we don’t support the flag being used for. The Confederate flag means something more to us, Heritage not Hate…"

Rossington, Skynyrd and the flag will be on stage Wednesday night in Wenatchee, Washington.