Alex Hodges On How Lynyrd Skynyrd Opening The Who’s 1973 Quadrophenia Tour Changed Everything

Richard E. Aaron/Redferns – Lynyrd Skynyrd
Keith Moon of the Who joins Lynyrd Skynyrd at a New York City party in 1976.

Nederlander Concerts CEO Alex Hodges is one of the few souls who, besides Gary Rossington, can claim a through line from Lynyrd Skynyrd’s earliest days as a touring force, from booking early club dates in the early 1970s to promoting shows with the band as recently as 2007 at L.A.’s Greek Theatre.

Hodges might be best known to his younger industry colleagues as the dapper executive with the charming Southern drawl whose company promotes shows and operates buildings like the Greek (until 2016), Pantages Theater, Santa Barbara Bowl, San Jose Civic and others after running House of Blues Entertainment and a stint with MCA; but his career dates back to working with a slew of R&B artists in Macon, Ga., including the late Otis Redding. 

It was after Redding’s tragic death in a Wisconsin plane crash, not long after his historic, breakout performance at Monterey International Pop Music Festival in 1967, and a self-imposed two-year hiatus from the business, that Hodges teamed up with brothers Phil and Alan Walden to reinvent Walden Artists and Promotions into Paragon Agency. 

They continued to rep R&B artists but had also started working with a rock group, the Allman Brothers Band, that was changing what rock ‘n’ roll could sound like. They would soon find another.

Alan Walden saw Lynyrd Skynyrd play at an Atlanta club and thought the band had the potential “to skyrocket,” Hodges tells Pollstar.  “Of course, he was right.”

“Alan invited me to go see them in Atlanta and they were playing at a club and it was undeniable that they were going to be great. So, we met in a hotel room afterward and had a long conversation about developing artists and working, how to go to New York and develop the Northeast, the Midwest, and the West Coast, and how to tour and use that as a key part of selling records, too. So, we discussed all the aspects of their recording and their goals.Ultimately, I was pitching them to be their agent. They granted me that job and gave me certain goals to achieve and we went out and went to work,” Hodges says.

Lynyrd Skynyrd shot from being a sought-after club and small hall headliner, and found itself in demand as special guests and even co-headliners on larger shows. But in 1973, Hodges took a call from MCA – which had signed Lynyrd Skynyrd and happened to also be The Who’s label – that would change everything.

“MCA asked if we would be interested in doing a tour with The Who,” Hodges recalls. “What they would pay us was peanuts because the band was making real money by that time, and growing every day in terms of their popularity and their ability to sell tickets.”

Hodges, to the consternation of plenty of venues, canceled a slew of dates and Lynyrd Skynyrd joined The Who on its 1973 Quadrophenia tour. Hodges calls that decision a turning point for the band.

“We didn’t get a lot out of the Who tour but we did get a great bit of notoriety and experience. 

“That tour was totally amazing and it certainly set them on a major course and proved they could do arenas next. It wasn’t very long before we established them as an arena headliner.”

Still, it wasn’t an easy call to make for Hodges.

Lynyrd Skynyrd was rising quickly as an in-demand live act, and had just released their MCA debut, Lynyrd Skynyrd (Pronounced ‘Leh-’nérd ‘Skin-’nérd). 

That album produced hits “Gimme Three Steps” and “Free Bird” and the band was earning respectable money on its own without the help of a British Invasion act that had taken to recording experimental rock operas. 

But there was no denying The Who were as big as it gets at the time.

“Here’s the question: You get the opportunity with a new album, and you’re established but you’re not as big as The Who,” Hodges explains. “So, you take low money and you go do the tour. People still have trouble pronouncing the band’s name and spelling it! That’s why we named it the way we did. 

“So the album comes out, they are emerging to get some real dollars, making a huge name for themselves, and then comes the phone call.

“You debate, well, ‘We’re already working everywhere, but we’re not in arenas.’ This is the Quadrophenia tour. Should we do it or not do it?

“I felt good about being part of the team that made that decision,” Hodges continues. “Somewhere in the mix, you have to know The Who heard that album and they were on the same label.”

It didn’t hurt that Lynyrd Skynyrd producer Al Kooper said it was good idea, too, and he also had the backing of  Alan Walden.

“It was the right move to make, and they pulled it off. If you look back and say, what band on their first album would get on a massive tour like that and give up money? Would 

they be able to pull it off? How would they be received?” Hodges recalls.

Courtesy Nederlander Concerts – Alex Hodges

“I’ll tell you, it was obvious from the first minute of the first show that they belonged on that big stage. They went out there and did it. It was a great experience and it was just one of the bricks you lay out to build an amazing, everlasting career.  But it wasn’t necessarily an automatic decision. It was kind of daunting.”

“It’s kind of an odd coincidence that when I was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, so was Gary Rossington and Lynryd Skynryd. They had ties to Georgia though they were a Florida band. 

“We’ve all moved around but have ties to various parts of each other’s careers. They were so great to work with. You have to understand, from the recordings and putting out music 

that lasted for so long, and following it with their reorganized band, how they just proceeded to go on. Not every band can do that.”