Ronnie Van Zant wrote “That Smell” as a warning to his own band after Gary Rossington wrapped his new car around an oak tree. It came out on Street Survivors in 1977, just days before the plane crash that took Ronnie and others. It’s one of rock’s most honest songs about drugs and alcohol, written by a man watching his friends head toward the edge. I know that smell. I’ve been the guy in the song, and I’ve been the guy who ignored the warning. Through a Christian lens, love tells the truth even when the room doesn’t want to hear it. Ronnie loved his band enough to say it out loud. Sobriety is one day at a time, and grace covers the days in between.
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” 1 Peter 5:8
— JC
