Chords for The Legendary Jo Jo Billingsley of the original LYNYRD SKYNYRD

_ _ _ [G] _ [A] No soundtrack from the 1970s is complete [D] without Leonard Skinner classics
Sweet Home Alabama, [A] Free Bird and Tuesdays Gone
But the cast of characters [D] that made the sound so memorable was bigger than most [A] people realize
Deborah [E] Jo Billingsley was one of [A] Skinner's three backup singers [D] known as the Honkettes
[A] They recorded and toured with [C] the band from [G] 1975 to 1977
[C] My [G] name is Deborah Jo and when I went on the road with Leonard Skinner
There was the two Jo's in our entourage every time somebody would say Jo we both turn our heads
So Ronnie Van Zandt the lead singer said from now on you're Jo Jo.
Okay
Deborah Jo the youngest of seven children was born and raised in a [C] Christian family from rural, Mississippi
She had a passion for music sang in her church choir and studied music [C] and voice at the University of Mississippi
[G] Then her father died of a heart attack at age [Db] 51
How did that affect you?
_ _ Traumatic I loved him so much
Deborah always blamed [G] God for taking him too soon
She [A] didn't go back to [C] school and struggled to get her life [E] back together
[Bb] But she found [G] comfort and acceptance working as a backup singer [Em] her fortunes changed [A] one night at a Leonard Skinner concert
[D] _ Word was [G] out that the band was looking for [D] touring backup singers and Deborah [A] made her way
Backstage and I went into this room and there was Ronnie Van Zandt the lead singer for Skinner
_ So I walked through the door and Ronnie looked at me and he tipped his hat he smiled and tipped his hat back and he said
She'll do just fine and he hired me on the spot.
I never had a thing for him.
Never had a thing for him
Why did that happen?
Because I think I was just destined to _
It was destined to be now you're with Leonard Skinner a big-time deal, I mean you right you guys played for _
Thousands of people three hundred fifty thousand was the biggest gig I played with them good grief
Amazing.
How did you feel about all that? _ _ _ _ _
_ Really I
Mean did it did you buy into the whole lifestyle with it?
And well all the sex drugs rock and roll to use the phrase.
Yes the whole deal ran the world
Three times three times around the world _ very successful very successful every show we ever played was all out
_ _ Really?
Yeah, did you get into the drug thing too?
Yes
What did this do to your life?
_ _ Disintegrated it _
_ After my dad died I got mad at God and so I shut the door to God and
That opened the door of the devil wide [Gm] open for a short [Cm] time
The band decided to tour without backup [Cm] singers, but by the fall of
1977 they had reconsidered and requested that Deborah rejoin them on their [Gm] current tour
Ronnie asked her to meet them immediately in Greenville, South [Cm] Carolina
[E] Well, I was talking to him on the phone.
I heard this one word and that word was a weight
You you wait you heard that inside you yeah, wait
She agreed to meet them a few days later at the Little Rock show
Then that night you had a dream yes, what was the dream I saw the plane crash
Did you know it was the Lord at the time?
You just said the dream of it
It's like a the most vivid dream I've ever had it was like a in Technicolor and I saw the plane
You know and then I saw it smack the ground
I was like, oh and I woke up screaming and my mom ran in there
She said honey, what in the world's wrong?
I said my mom dream the plane crashed
And she said it's just a dream go back to sleep
But I thought I came the next evening the plane carrying 26 people [F] Leonard Skinner and their [E] entourage
crashed in Mississippi
six people including lead singer [Am] Ronnie Van Zandt
Guitar Steve Gaines and his sister fellow backup singer Cassie Gaines [F]
were [B] killed
Deborah remembers getting a hysterical [Em] call from her brother.
He said the plane has crashed _
I'm like, oh my god, you know
It was horrible and right then looked on the on the television the news, you know special bulletin Leonard Skinner planes _ _
crashed and
I'm like, oh my god, you know, it's like I had been drinking him and I'll sobered up like boom
How did you reflect on your own personal life at that point?
I just thought why have I been [E] spared?
Deborah's survivor guilt was fueled by [Am] drugs and alcohol
She [E] stopped singing all together she married in 1981
But [F] the relationship [B] turned abusive and her depression [E] intensified
She gave birth to a son [F] in 1983 [C] and decided there had to be a better life for her family
One day I [G] just got up and I said I'm going to church
So I got my son ready.
He's just a little thing
Got him ready put him in the nursery and went and sat in the back row that church that day.
I didn't know anybody
And I thought God if you don't help me there's no hope for me
_ _ Cuz you know, I had everything seemingly
But I was the most miserable person on the face of the earth and that little preacher he got there and he was you know
I don't remember anything.
He said I don't remember anything the choir saying I just know that all through that service
The Lord was speaking to me and he was saying child.
I love you
I will forgive you come home to me child.
Come home to me
My yoke is easy.
My burden is light.
I died for you
Let me let me help you come to me child all during that service.
So during that invitation that day I didn't walk I
_ Ran in the front of the whole church
You _ _ _ _ know, I had a divine encounter really with the king of the universe
Yeah, I said Lord Lord, please forgive me because I made the biggest mess of my life and you know the good thing about it
He forgave me you could tell right away right away and not only did he forgive me, but he forgot the whole dirty mess
Deborah finally found in Christ the peace and love she'd been chasing in the [C] world of rock and roll
It's been over 20 years and [Am] today she lives with her husband [C] and teenage daughter in Alabama
[Bb] She says God has even restored her music career with [C] her latest release [A] I will obey
[F] Deborah [C] is eternally grateful for one persistent church [G] lady from Alabama [Am] that convinced her to [C] sing again
After becoming a Christian, [Am] did you go to the church [F] and say yeah
She wouldn't know you didn't go to the [Cm] church and sing sweet home Alabama, Alabama.
Did nobody sing sweet home up in heaven? _
[Eb] _ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ [Cm] What a life and it ain't over that's right, you know, the Lord gave me a course about that Oh
_ _ _ Till it's over
_ Don't give up don't give in press on my friend
_ It's not your battle _ just believe what he's promised
_ God is good.
He will keep you till the [N] end