No band has been cut down in their prime so suddenly, and so horrifically, as Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Having risen from humble origins in Jacksonville, Florida, Skynyrd had become major stars by the mid-70s. Their name a joke on their despised former schoolteacher Leonard Skinner, the band popularised the soulful sound of southern rock with anthems such as Sweet Home Alabama and Free Bird. Then, on October 20, 1977, during a US tour, the band’s chartered plane crashed near Gillsburg, Mississippi. Six people were killed, including singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines.
In the aftermath of this tragedy, four of the survivors – guitarists Gary Rossington and Allen Collins, bassist Leon Wilkeson and keyboard player Billy Powell – regrouped in the Rossington Collins Band.
Then in 1987, the previously unthinkable happened. Ten years after the plane crash, a new version of Skynyrd was formed, with Ronnie Van Zant’s younger brother Johnny as the singer alongside Rossington, Wilkeson and Powell, with returning guitarist Ed King replacing Collins, who had been paralysed in a car crash in 1986.
Now, more than three decades since that unlikely comeback, Lynyrd Skynyrd are still rocking. Collins, Rossington, Wilkeson and Powell have all since died, but Johnny Van Zant continues to lead the band, along with guitarist Rickey Medlocke, who was Skynyrd’s drummer in the early 70s. Skynyrd were not the originators of southern rock – before them, the Allman Brothers Band blazed the trail – but it was Skynyrd’s blend of southern soul and hard rock that defined the genre.
And their influence has been far-reaching: Metallica have covered their ballad Tuesday’s Gone, and Guns N’ Roses referenced Skynyrd when they recorded Sweet Child O’ Mine. Axl Rose stated: “I got some old Skynyrd tapes to make sure that we’d got that heartfelt feeling.”
That depth of feeling – in the music, and in the words of Ronnie Van Zant – is what made Lynyrd Skynyrd one of the great American rock’n’roll bands. And it’s still true today. Skynyrd’s 2012 album was pointedly titled Last Of A Dyin’ Breed, and as Gary Rossington proudly proclaimed: “While I’m still alive, I just want to keep the band going, keep the Skynyrd name going, and to let people hear this music.”
In the decade and more since, that has not changed.
…and one to avoid
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