Principal Members (Founding members in bold, current members in italic): ("Sweet Home Alabama" even took a few direct shots at Neil Young for some of his protest songs, despite the off-stage friendship between Young and Van Zant.) Rossington was the only founding member still performing with the band before his own death in 2023, marking the end of an era.Īlthough the group never topped charts (their biggest hit "Sweet Home Alabama" topped out at #8 on Billboard), Skynyrd remains beloved by tons of rock fans, especially in the South, where fans embraced the band as a counter to the "protest bands" that popped up in the '60s. Larry Junstrom went on to spend more than 35 years as the bassist for 38 Special (led by Ronnie's other brother Donnie - yes, the brothers' names are Ronnie, Johnny, and Donnie), retiring in 2014 and passing in 2019. In 2015, Bob Burns was killed in a car accident at his Georgia home. The band reformed in 1987 with Ronnie's younger brother Johnny and a rotating cast of new blood.Īllen Collins died in 1990 of pneumonia resulting from a serious car accident four years earlier due to his drug abuse. Rossington, Collins, Wilkeson, and Powell formed the Rossington-Collins Band, but Collins was prone to alcoholism and drugs. The band disbanded after the tragedy, with the group reuniting at Charlie Daniels's Volunteer Jam V to perform an instrumental version of "Free Bird" accompanied by Daniels and some of his band members (bassist Charlie Hayward and keyboardist Joel "Taz" DiGregorio). Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, his sister Cassie (one of the band's backup singers, known as The Honkettes), and Dean Kilpatrick, a member of the band's production staff, were killed. Tragedy struck on October 20, 1977, three days after the band recorded their Street Survivors album when their chartered plane crashed in Mississippi. (The next time you hear someone shout "Play 'Free Bird'!" at a concert, you now know who to blame). The group was eventually discovered by producer Al Kooper and recorded its first album, (pronounced 'lĕh-'nérd 'skin-'nérd), in 1973 - in the process, the album forever cemented the song "Free Bird" as a permanent part of the rock'n'roll lexicon. Meanwhile, roadie Billy Powell joined the group as the keyboardist. In 1972, Walker and Medlocke left the group to perform with the band Blackfoot and Leon Wilkeson took Walker's place as the bassist. Walker replaced him, while Rickey Medlocke joined the band as a second drummer and mandolinist. During their early years, Junstrom left the group and Greg T. They later renamed themselves "My Backyard" in 1965, "Leonard Skinner" (a rather authoritarian teacher at their former high school who disapproved of male students with long hair) in 1970, and " Lynyrd Skynyrd" in 1972. Jacksonville friends Ronnie Van Zant, Allen Collins, Larry Junstrom, Gary Rossington, and Bob Burns formed the band in 1964 under the name "The Noble Five". They wanted me to come on for a tribute tour.If you live in the American South, you damn well better know Lynyrd Skynyrd. I walked into a room, and here are these guys who survived the crash with my brother. Ten years after the crash, I was called into a meeting. Lynyrd Skynyrd was going to go on with my brother forever. Johnny Van Zant: I had never wanted to be in the band. In 1987, Rossington and other pre-crash members organized a reunion tour and approached Johnny Van Zant, a solo artist at the time, about joining as lead vocalist. Rossington also survived the crash and today is the band’s sole living original member still performing. Collins survived the crash with serious injuries. On October 20, 1977, as the band was flying between shows in South Carolina and Louisiana, the charter plane ran out of fuel and crashed in a Mississippi forest, killing six passengers, including Van Zant. Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1977, shortly before the plane crash that killed six passengers, including Ronnie Van Zant. “Bye bye, baby, it’s been a sweet love,” doesn’t mean a final goodbye to me. Rickey Medlocke: The way Ronnie wrote lyrics, you got out of it the meaning in your own way. It wasn’t so heavy or nothing to us at first. We were playing everywhere we could play. This time Ronnie said, “Play that again.” Allen played the chords, then I’d play them, and Ronnie just sat there and wrote the lyrics, a love song. He’d lie there and hear mistakes and say, “Let’s fix that.” When one of us would get a good idea going, he’d say, “Play it, play.”Īllen had these chords, and he’d play them over and over, but at first Ronnie thought there were too many chord changes to write lyrics to. Ronnie used to always lie on the couch after two or three hours of rehearsing. Gary Rossington: One rehearsal day, Allen started playing the chords to “Free Bird” at the house where we used to hang out after school and after we quit school.
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