Posted on 03/05/2023 10:13:10 PM PST by DoodleBob
Gary Rossington, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s last surviving original member who also helped to found the group, died Sunday at the age of 71. No cause of death was given.
“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,” the band wrote on Facebook. “Gary is now with his Skynyrd brothers and family in heaven and playing it pretty, like he always does. Please keep Dale, Mary, Annie and the entire Rossington family in your prayers and respect the family’s privacy at this difficult time.”
Rossington cheated death more than once, Rolling Stone reported. He survived a car accident in 1976 in which he drove his Ford Torino into a tree, inspiring the band’s cautionary song “That Smell.” A year later, he emerged from the 1977 plane crash that killed singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and backing vocalist Cassie Gaines, with two broken arms, a broken leg, and a punctured stomach and liver.
“It was a devastating thing,” he told Rolling Stone in 2006. “You can’t just talk about it real casual and not have feelings about it.”
In later years, Rossington underwent quintuple bypass surgery in 2003, suffered a heart attack in 2015, and had numerous subsequent heart surgeries, most recently leaving Lynyrd Skynyrd in July 2021 to recover from another procedure. At recent shows, Rossington would perform portions of the concert and sometimes sat out full gigs.
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OK. Yes. So special. Gods in Earth!!!!!
I went to high school with Steve Gaines. Great guy and good football player. There s a picture in our yearbook when he was a sophomore of him playing a guitar along with Dale Owens whose brother Steve Owens later wore the Heisman Trophy. Great times.
RIP.
Saw several shows at the Cap Center.
I remember when he formed the Rossington Collins Band. I bought their 1st record and played the heck out of it. His wife and bandmate Dale had a great R&R voice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZshWFuFRQaE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtpjqaGuYRw
Saw them at a Hannity Freedom Concert, must be about 11 years ago. Great show and a fun trip. Sweet Home Alabama is regularly on my party playlist when I work as a square dance caller and DJ.
A friend of mine was in a very modest band and when someone would inevitably shout “Freebird”, he’d extend his middle finger and should back “No charge!”.
“shout back”
Sheesh.
When I was in Technical School I had three roommates and one of them was a die-hard Skynyrd fan
He had just bought the newest release with the flames on the cover about 2 weeks before the plane crash, and he took that very hard I think he played that album every night for 3 months.
He was from Alabama
I always thought it would be nice if franchised affiliated FM radio stations would play more than just one or two songs from their entire catalog but.. that’s franchised music for you...
And he deliberately didn’t make Rossington Collins a Skynerd cover band. Good stuff and glad he did that.
Bummer, great band. Saw em a few times. True Patriots that did a lot for the troops. He’ll be missed RIP Gary.
That was fun for about the first million times it was done. Now bands and audience members alike view the shouter as just some unimaginative drunken asshole.
The keyboard player, Billy Powell, went to my high school, but his graduating class was about twenty years before mine.
A band friend of mine extends his middle finger and says, "This one's free, but the next one's going to cost you!"
By the way, I play in an acoustic duo. We usually play "Locomotive Breath" acoustically, but aggressively, at our gigs. It is surprisingly well received, even by people who are unfamiliar with the original.
Oh no. I’m gonna have a sad day. I met him once. He was such a kind, gentle man. =:^(
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