Gary Rossington, the last original member of southern rock icons Lynyrd Skynyrd, has died at the age of 71. The band confirmed the news on their official Facebook page (the original post is below).
Gary Rossington was born in Jacksonville, Florida on December 4, 1951, and in 1964 he co-founded Lynyrd Skynyrd with Ronnie Van Zant, Bob Burns, Allen Collins and Larry Junstrom. The band was originally called My Backyard, then renamed itself Lynyrd Skynyrd in early 1970. What followed was a run of classic albums, from “Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd” (1973) to “Street Survivors” (1977).
Just three days before “Street Survivors” came out, Rossington was caught up in the plane crash that took the lives of his Lynyrd Skynyrd bandmates Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines. Backing vocalist Cassie Gaines (Steve’s sister), tour manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot John Gray also died in the tragedy. Gary Rossington survived the crash.
In 1979, Gary Rossington and fellow Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Allen Collins formed the Rossington Collins Band, but in 1987 he joined the Lynyrd Skynyrd reformation for a reunion tour, with the late Ronnie Van Zant’s brother Johnny Van Zant stepping in on vocals.
In Lynyrd Skynyrd’s final years, Gary Rossington had to sit out a number of shows because of poor health. He suffered a heart attack in 2015 and underwent successful heart surgery in 2021. Already by October of that year he was back on stage with his bandmates, as Lynyrd Skynyrd announced their farewell tour.
After the deaths of guitarist Allen Collins in 1990, drummer Bob Burns in 2015 and bassist Larry Junstrom in 2019, Rossington was the last surviving member of the original Lynyrd Skynyrd lineup.
Žalostno. Lynyrd Skynyrd so povsem na vrhu moje lestvice bandov, ki jih želim videti v živo, pa mi doslej ni uspelo. Pred točno 20 leti sem imel vstopnico zanje, ko bi morali biti posebni gostje Deep Purple v Pordenonu. V bistvu sem predvsem zaradi njih kupil karte. Žal je prav takrat Gary moral na nujno operacijo na srcu, in so Skynyrdi odpovedali nastop. Zanimivo, že takrat so se mi zdeli starčki, pa jih je Gary imel manj kot jaz zdaj.
Kasneje pa jih nekako ni več prineslo v mojo bližino. Vprašanje, kaj bo zdaj z bandom, čeprav je seveda čisto možno, da bodo nadaljevali, čeprav nimajo več nobenega originalnega člana. Je pa morda zdaj celo večja možnost, da obiščejo staro celino.
Vsekakor pa ob takih trenutkih pomislim, da bom morda moral za nekaj časa iti v Ameriko, če bom hotel videti v živo Heart, REO Speedwagon in Loverboy.