Gary Rossington, last surviving original member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, dead at 71

Gary Rossington, the last surviving original member of Lynyrd Skynyrd who also helped found the group, has died at the age of 71. No cause of death has been given.

“It is with our deepest sympathies and sorrow that we have to advise you 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 is beautiful, as always. Please keep Dale, Mary, Annie and the entire Rossington family in your prayers and respect the family’s privacy at this difficult time.”

Rossington faked death more than once, Rolling Stone reported. He survived a car accident in 1976 when he drove his Ford Torino into a tree. 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 broken stomach and heart.

“It’s about having a big impact,” said Rolling Stone in 2006. “You can’t just talk about it casually and not have any feelings about it.”

In recent years, Rossington underwent fifth bypass surgery in 2003, suffered a heart attack in 2015, and has undergone multiple heart surgeries, most recently leaving Lynyrd Skynyrd in July 2021 to recover from another procedure. In new shows, Rossington will perform parts of concerts and sometimes sit out full gigs.

Rossington was born on December 4, 1951, in Jacksonville, Fla., and was raised by his mother after his father died. After meeting drummer Bob Burns, Rossington helped form a band, which they tried to juggle among the love of baseball.

According to Rolling Stone, during a Little League game, Ronnie Van Zant hit a line drive to the shoulder of an opposing player and Burns met his future teammates. Rossington, Burns, Van Zant, and guitarist Allen Collins gathered that evening at Burns’ Jacksonville home to jam with The Rolling Stones. Time is on my side.

Commercial success, reputation lives on

Adopting Lynyrd Skynyrd as the group’s name – inspired in part by gym teacher Leonard Skinner at Rossington High School – the band released their debut album in 1973, (Pronounced ‘Lĕh-‘nérd ‘Skin-‘nérd).

A collection of blues-rock and Southern soul featuring the triple guitar attack of Rossington, Gaines and Collins, the album includes current-classics like Tuesday is gone, Simple people and Gimme Three Stepsbut it’s a closing track, almost 10 minutes Free Birdwhich is the calling card of the group, because in no small part to the evocative Rossington, slide slide plays on his Gibson SG.

The band’s incendiary live version of the song is sometimes almost twice the length of the studio version. Sing “Freebird!” or “Play Freebird!” over time it will become a fixture at rock shows.

The group would find radio play as the decade progressed with songs like Saturday night special and Sweet Home Alabamathe latter is a response to Neil Young Southerners.

The band won acclaim for their fiery live shows, including a Knebworth Festival appearance in England in 1976 on a bill with The Rolling Stones.

Just three days after the album was released Street Safetyon October 20, 1977, a fatal plane crash occurred.

The band had been playing a show in South Carolina and was on its way to Louisiana when the plane crashed northeast of Gillsburg, Miss.

In addition to Van Zant and the Gaines brothers, band crew member Dean Kilpatrick and pilots Walter McCreary and William Gray were also killed. The plane’s engine had burned more fuel than expected, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a report, although the specific reason could not be determined.

‘The good outweighs the bad’

After the plane crash, Rossington and surviving band members Allen Collins, bassist Leon Wilkeson and keyboardist Billy Powell formed the band Rossington-Collins, recording two albums in the 1980s with singer Dale Kratz.

Collins would become paralyzed in a car accident in 1986, dying four years later.

Lynyrd Skynyrd reformed in 1987, with Van Zant’s brother Johnny taking over lead vocals.

Wilkeson died in 2001, followed by Powell in 2009.

Drummer Bob Burns and multi-instrumentalist Ed King, in the band through the first three albums, died in 2015 and 2018, respectively.

Drummer Artimus Pyle, who replaced Burns and survived the plane crash, is the last surviving member of the group that recorded in 1977. Street Safety.

Rossington told Rolling Stone that he never considered Skynyrd a tragic band, despite all of the band’s drama and deaths.

“I don’t think of it as a tragedy — I think of it as life,” he said at his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2006. “I think the good outweighs the bad.”