Gary Rossington (Lynyrd Skynyrd) 71

[Shellie]

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-64860924


Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist and the last original member of the group Gary Rossington died on Sunday at the age of 71. The family haven't put out any cause of death but he did deal with heart problems for a long time. He had a heart attack in 2015 and needed a heart procedure in 2019.

He was in the crash that killed the lead singer Ronnie Van Zandt, guitarist Steve Gaines, his sister, back up singer and member of the Honkettes, Cassie Gaines and road manager Dean Kilpatrick along with the two pilots. His arms, legs, ankles, and pelvis were shattered and it was the end of the band until he and other surviving members decided to reform in 1987 and up until his death, they were still going although many saw it as a cover band rather than the real thing.

The statement that he had passed was revealed by the band saying "It is with our deepest sympathy and sadness that we have to advise, that we lost our brother, friend, family member, songwriter and guitarist, Gary Rossington, today. Gary is now with his Skynyrd brothers and family in heaven and playing it pretty, like he always does."

Being born in the 80s, I didn't really know about them until a friend showed me the full performance of Free Bird that they did at Knebworth in 1976 and I was hooked after that with my favourite songs being Tuesday's Gone and That Smell.

[Leasie]

Grew up listening to their music. Hard to believe anyone survived that plane crash. RIP.

[SomeChick]

Dead isn't used in titles in the dead sections because it's redundant.

[Aries65]

Hopefully this means the band is officially over. I remember reading somewhere that the agreement between the families was as long as any of the surviving original members were still alive, the band could continue on.

[Shellie]

Dead isn't used in titles in the dead sections because it's redundant.

No probs, I'll remember for next time.

Hopefully this means the band is officially over. I remember reading somewhere that the agreement between the families was as long as any of the surviving original members were still alive, the band could continue on.

From what I remember, after the crash, Gary & Allen agreed with Ronnie's widow Judy not to use the name anymore and basically retire the group. They did a tribute a decade later and the name was used causing Judy and Steve's widow to sue them. Part of the settlement was Gary and at least two other members who had been part of the band before the crash had to participate for them to be called LS. Sometime in the early 00s, the rule went out the window.

I've seen many people say they should have thrown in the towel years back. The last official tour was in 2018 but they still played here and there. It was pushing it with Gary there but now...I honestly can't see how they can carry on but stranger things have happened.

[Tony Trout]

There's one member (although he's not an original) left....and that's drummer, Artimus Pyle, who made the movie, "Street Survivors: The True Story Of The Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash" (which I have yet to see - it's been streaming on my Roku TV but I'd rather have a physical official copy of the film to put with my other Skynyrd DVDs).

The band did, in fact, start a farewell tour in 2018 and released a CD with that kind of theme to it but then the tour turned into the "Big Wheels Keep On Turnin'" tour so it kept going. Johnny Van Zant has implied in a few interviews that he'll definitely continue songwriting and probably performing to some extent because that's all he (or anybody in the original band) has ever done (although, that's not really true if you watch the biography, "Gone With The Wind". RVZ actually took a few early jobs before deciding he wanted to form a band.