• This song began as a ballad without the guitar solos at the end, and Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded it that way for the first time in 1972. Guitarist Allen Collins had been working on the song on and off for the previous two years. At the time of recording, the song was only 7 1/2 minutes long, but throughout the next year, Collins continued to refine the song until it was recorded for the final cut of Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd in 1973.
• Collins wrote the music long before Ronnie Van Zant came up with lyrics for it. Van Zant finally got inspired one night and had Collins and Gary Rossington play it over and over until he wrote the words.
• The lyrics are about a man explaining to a girl why he can't settle down and make a commitment. The opening lines, "If I leave here tomorrow, would you still remember me?" were inspired by Allen Collins' girlfriend Kathy, who had asked him this very question during a fight
• The album version runs 9:08, with the last lyric uttered at 4:55 ("fly high, free bird, yeah"). Those last four minutes comprise perhaps the most famous instrumental passage in rock history. Skynyrd had three guitarists: Allen Collins, Ed King and Gary Rossington, allowing them to jam for extended periods long after most songs would peter out. However, the radio edit was cut down to 4:41, with the closing instrumental cut to about a minute.
• The band's record company did not want this on the album. They thought it was too long and that no radio station would play it. Even the band never thought it was going to be a hit.
• This is a classic rock anthem. Shouting it out as a request at concerts became a rock and roll joke, and every now and then a musician will actually play it. The 2007 Mitch Myers book The Boy Who Cried Freebird: Rock & Roll Fables and Sonic Storytelling explores this subject in a work of fiction about the first person ever to shout "Free Bird" at a concert.
• The band always plays this as the last song at their shows.
• In the US, this wasn't released as a single until a year after the album came out. By that time, "Sweet Home Alabama" had already been released, and the single version of "Free Bird" was edited down. The long version from the album has always been more popular.
• Despite having three guitarists, "Free Bird" opens with an organ as the lead instrument, giving the guitars more impact when they arrive. In early versions of the song, this section was done on piano, but Al Kooper (the album producer) convinced the band that organ was the way to go. He played the instrument on the track, credited on the album as "Roosevelt Gook." Kooper had the bona fides to pull it off: he came up with the organ section on Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone."
• Ronnie Van Zant thought at first that this song "had too many chords to write lyrics for." Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington commented in an interview with Blender magazine, "But after a few months, we were sitting around, and he asked Allen to play those chords again. After about 20 minutes, Ronnie started singing, 'If I leave here tomorrow,' and it fit great. It wasn't anything heavy, just a love song about leavin' town, time to move on. Al put the organ on the front, which was a very good idea. He also helped me get the sound of the delayed slide guitar that I play - it's actually me playing the same thing twice, recording one on top of the other, so it sounds kind of slurry, echoey."
• While the lyrics contain the phrase "free as a bird," the title itself ("Free Bird") is used just once, right before the guitar solos begin: "Won't you fly high, free bird."
• The song is used as the encore song in the video game Guitar Hero II.

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