Jonny Tosserello, known as ”Tosser,” Production Manager and Lighting Designer/Director for legendary American rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, is continuing his long-time use of Claypaky Xtylos for ”The Sharp Dressed Simple Man Tour” with ZZ Top co-headlining. Tosser is a principal of Rock’n’Roll Drive-in based in southeastern Missouri.
Lynyrd Skynyrd, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, kicked off the 22-city North American leg of the ongoing tour with ZZ Top in July in West Palm Beach and wrapped in Ridgefield, Washington in September. Premier Global Production Company, Nashville, is the lighting vendor for the tour.
“I started deploying Xtylos in 2021 when they became available through Premier,” recalls Tosser, who has been Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Lighting Director since 2010. “I wanted more beam fixtures in the band’s floor package, and Steven (Creech) Anderson of Premier was super-supportive of the Xtylos from the beginning. They’re great fixtures — I love them!”
Tosser designs the lighting rigs to be ”chameleons” since they need to accommodate different venues: sheds in summer 2023, arenas last spring and amphitheaters on this recent leg. “The design features four broken trusses that are flown and a floating floor truss, which is great for set changes without having to move the upstage ground row.”
The Skynyrd show riffs on the band’s Hell House whiskey brand, named for the childhood shack that served as their practice space. ”The rig is designed to look like the shape of the shack’s roof: The truss is trimmed flat for ZZ Top then arched down to emulate the look of the roof for Skynyrd,” he explains.
A long-time Claypaky fan, Tosser has 18 A.leda B-Eye K20 fixtures in the rig, 12 flown and six on the floating floor truss. Twelve Sharpys are also flown. The band’s drum kit sits stage center with two carts containing amp lines and video screens adjacent. Three Xtylos are mounted atop each of the carts.
Lead singer Johnny Van Zant provides him with a lot of direction, Tosser notes. “It’s fun coordinating with the lead guy. His instructions for this show were not to hold anything back.” Tosser turns on “every light we’ve got” to open with “Workin’ for MCA,” then winds them down and mellow them out, picks them up again later and ends all-out for the finale.
“The Xtylos are used full-force for the first three songs, and by the third they’re at 25 percent intensity with frost,” he explains. “They come back for ’Simple Man” and in ‘Sweet Home Alabama,’ pointing at Johnny singing downstage — the IMAG shots of him are gorgeous! Then the Xtylos are full-force again for ’Free Bird’ with them, the Sharpys and some spots hitting the bottom of a three-foot mirror ball that’s ten feet off the ground.
“The Xtylos have been a good workhorse for us,” he reports. “They are a good, solid light. I love the prism, and I’m a big fan of the red and green they produce — I’ve never seen a brighter red. Xtylos are like Sharpys on steroids, but we’re tasteful about how we use them.”
Tosser says he will design a new floor package for the band next year and hopes to use more Xtylos for festival performances.
This year, “Claypaky’s support for the tour has been phenomenal, and the fantastic customer service and support from Premier really stand out,” he declares.
George Masek, Claypaky Lighting Design Relations and Product Specialist, concluded, “I jumped at the opportunity when I heard of the possibility of putting Xtylos on Lynyrd Skynyrd for Tosser. They are one of my favorite bands and I was excited for a chance to have our fixtures be part of their shows. Tosser was a true pleasure to work with and I admire his willingness to accept this cutting-edge technology into his show. “