10 Greatest Rock Music Cover Songs Of The 2000s
3. Simple Man - Shinedown
As part of their 1973 debut album, Lynyrd Skynyrd released a song about the joys of living an easy life in the country.
Simple Man was framed through a mother advising her young son on how to progress through life, with the singer returning to her mantra of “Be a simple kind of man.” This hearty message, bolstered by Ronnie Van Zant’s beautiful Southern-fried voice, made Simple Man a very popular song amongst the Skynyrd faithful.
In 2004, alt rockers Shinedown took the track’s advice and boiled Simple Man down to its basic elements.
They released an entirely acoustic version of the song as part of their debut album Leave a Whisper, with Zack Myers of guitar duty and singer Brent Smith’s pipes on full display.
Smith’s vocals are one of Shinedown’s greatest assets and this song proves that’s always been the case. He crushes it here, gently navigating the verses before giving it both barrels in the chorus. He sings the song beautifully, someone wrenching even more emotion out of an already touching number.
An acoustic Simple Man is still part of Shinedown live shows, and with good reason.