Lynyrd Skynyrd – Don’t Ask Me No Questions

This is a very commercial sounding rock song by Lynyrd Skynyrd. The record company picked this one as the lead off single from their album Second Helping. Personally I like this song but it was the second single they should have picked first…that one was Sweet Home Alabama which ended up being their biggest hit.

This song was a message to the people who wanted a piece of the band when they became famous. They were largely ignored for about 6 years while they were struggling, but when their first album was a hit in 1973, they faced huge demands on their time.

The album did well…it peaked at #9 in the Billboard Album Chart and #12 in Canada in 1974. Pete Townshend heard the band through Al Kooper a few months before this album was released and was impressed enough to have Lynyrd Skynyrd open up for them on their Quadrophenia tour.

The one thing the band was…was extremely tight. They were always well rehearsed and built a huge reputation as a live band.

From Songfacts

The world of agents, managers, and record companies was a strange one for Lynyrd Skynyrd. They were just working-class guys who liked making music.

Lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Gary Rossington wrote this one day while they were fishing. Gary played his guitar while Ronnie came up with the lyrics about how they wanted to be left alone.

This was released as a single before the album came out. It didn’t chart, but their next one, “Sweet Home Alabama,” was a huge hit.

Don’t Ask Me No Questions

Well, every time that I come home
Nobody wants to let me be
It seems that all the friends I’ve got
Just got to come interrogate me
I appreciate your feelings
And I don’t want to pass you by
But I don’t ask you ’bout your business
Don’t ask me about mine

Well it’s true I love the money
And I love my brand new car
I like drinkin’ the best of whiskey
And playin’ in a honk-tonk bar
But when I come off the road
I just gotta have my time
‘Cause I got to find a break in this action
Or else I’m gonna lose my mind

So don’t ask me no questions
And I won’t tell you no lies
So don’t ask me ’bout my business
And I won’t tell you goodbye

Well, what’s your favorite color
And do you dig the brothers, is drivin’ me up a wall
And every time I think I can sleep
Some fool has got to call
Well, don’t you think that when I come home
I just want a little piece of mind?
If you want to talk about the business
Buddy you’re just wasting time

So don’t ask me no questions
And I won’t tell you no lies
So don’t ask me ’bout my business
And I won’t tell you goodbye

I said don’t ask no stupid questions
And I won’t send you away
If you want to talk fishin’
Well, I guess that’ll be OK

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

16 thoughts on “Lynyrd Skynyrd – Don’t Ask Me No Questions”

  4. I think I’ve heard it before, but only a handful of times…snarky but quite good lyrics really. Cool label too – “sounds of the south”. I had “Sweet home Alabama” back when, and it was on a regular label – MCA I suppose, not this design.

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      1. that sounds right – I remember having the single, knew it wasn’t that yellow one but couldn’t quite place it being on the regular sky blue MCA one either.

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  5. Great tune – had to look that one up! 🙂

    From that album I’m best familiar with “Call Me the Breeze”, “The Needle and the Spoon” and, of course, “Sweet Home Alabama.” Even though I must have heard the last tune more than a 100 times, I still dig it. It’s just a true classic!

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    1. Their first two albums and their last studio album are excellent. Fulll of very good album tracks…like The Needle and the Spoon and The Ballad of Curtis Lowe

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      2. You are better than me on the career spanning part on some bands. Like ELO…I had no clue they released something in 2001…I must get better than that.

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      4. Yes I know what you mean. I do try to squeeze albums in as much as possible. Most of the albums I really know are from my teens and twenties.

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