The flight of one other Free Chicken is over.
Gary Rossington, the final surviving authentic member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, died Sunday, almost 4 months earlier than the band was planning to set out on its subsequent tour. He was 71.
No explanation for loss of life was given, although the guitarist had been coping with well being points over the previous couple of a long time and notably because the mid-2010s, when coronary heart illnesses sometimes sidelined Rossington and the band.
In an official assertion, Lynyrd Skynyrd wrote that, “It’s with out deepest sympathy and unhappiness that we’ve to advise, that we misplaced our brother, pal, member of the family, songwriter and guitarist, Gary Rossington right this moment. Gary is now together with his Skynyrd brothers and household in heaven and enjoying it fairly, like he all the time does. Please preserve Dale, Mary and Annie and your entire Rossington household in your prayers and respect the household’s privateness presently.”
Throughout a 2016 interview with Billboard, selling his Take It on Religion album with spouse Dale Krantz-Rossington — who’s additionally a Skynyrd back-up singer — Rossington stated that regardless of his well being battles he’d decided to go on enjoying and die together with his proverbial boots on.
“It’s simply in my blood, y’know?” he defined. “I’m simply an previous guitar participant, and we’ve spent our entire loves and the ten,000 hours of working to grasp play and do it. So I feel when you’ve received one thing going for your self you need to stick with it and preserve your craft going. Once you retire, what’s subsequent? I wish to fish, however how a lot of that may you do, proper? So I need to preserve doing what I do now.”
Rossington was the final man standing in a band that fashioned throughout 1964 in Jacksonville, Fla., beginning with bassist Larry Junstrom and drummer Bob Burns in a trio known as Me, You, and Him. Signer Ronnie Van Zant, who performed on a rival baseball group, jammed with the group after one in all their video games, enjoying the Rolling Stones’ “Time Is on My Facet,” and the remainder was historical past.
Skynyrd settled on its title round 1970, taking it from Leonard Skinner, the strict bodily training instructor at Robert E. Lee Excessive College; Skinner was notably laborious on boys who had lengthy hair, which led Rossington to drop out of faculty.
After working the native and regional scene, Skynyrd was found by Al Kooper, founding father of Blood, Sweat & Tears, who signed the band to his Sounds of the South label. “We have been slightly little bit of every little thing, actually,” Rossington stated of the burgeoning band’s strategy. “We liked all of the British invasion stuff and, in fact, the Allman Brothers and Stax and that stuff. There have been simply a variety of issues we stirred collectively.”
The band’s debut album, (Pronounced Len-‘nerd ‘Pores and skin-‘nerd) was launched on Aug. 13, 1973, and featured the prolonged anthem “Free Chicken,” which might develop into Skynyrd’s signature tune. The group continued to construct a following by way of laborious touring and tracks akin to “Candy House Alabama” — its reply to Neil Younger’s “Southern Man.” Rossington co-wrote that monitor in addition to different Skynyrd favorites akin to “I Ain’t the One,” “Issues Goin’ On,” “Don’t Ask Me No Questions,” “Gimme Again My Bullets” and “What’s Your Identify.”
The primary part of Skynyrd ended on Oct. 20, 1977, when a Convair CV-240 carrying the band from Greenville, S.C. to Baton Rouge, La., crashed close to Gillsburg, Miss., killing three band members (Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines and his older sister, backup singer Cassie Gaines), assistant highway supervisor Dean Kilpatrick and each pilots. Rossington and different suffered extreme accidents and put the group on maintain instantly after.
“We couldn’t think about happening after one thing like that,” he stated. “We have been a brotherhood, and once you lose your brothers you possibly can’t simply go on.” He and guitarist Allen Rossington fashioned the Rossington Collins Band, which lasted almost 4 years and two albums earlier than breaking apart in 1982. Skynyrd, in the meantime reformed in 1987, ostensibly to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the aircraft crash; the band has continued ever since, recording 9 extra studio albums and going by way of a lot of variety of lineup adjustments.
Rossington — who’s a part of a guitarist core that included Collins (who handed away throughout 1977), Ed King (who died in 2018), Hughie Thomasson (who died in 2007), Rickey Medlocke and others — was the one Skynyrd member to look on all of its albums.
Rossington stated that regardless of the wholesome points, he was motivated to proceed with a view to pay tribute to his fallen bandmates — together with longtime bassist Leon Wilkeson and keyboardist Billy Powell. “These guys created a lot nice music that individuals nonetheless love right this moment,” Rossington famous. “I’m the final one right here, so to have the ability to inform their story and ensure they’re remembered, I’m blessed to have the ability to try this. It’s, like, my accountability.” He had, nevertheless, missed some reveals and solely performed parts of others lately.
In 2016, Krantz-Rossington famous that she and her husband had agreed that persevering with to play music was the very best factor for him. “He stated to me, ‘I might a lot fairly exit kickin’ than sitting right here in my chair, and that was the final time we talked about it,” she stated. “After that we simply determined to ask for God’s mercy and do it til we drop.”
Tributes to Rossington started hitting social media instantly after the band’s announcement. Longtime pal Charlie Daniels wrote, “the final of the Free birds has flown house. RIP Gary Rossington, God Bless the Lynyrd @Skynyrd band. Prayers to Dale and the remainder of his household.”
Skynyrd is, in reality, planning to hitch forces with ZZ Prime for The Sharp Dressed Easy Man Tour beginning July 21 in West Palm Seashore, Fla. it’s anticipated to go on, although Johnny Van Zant — youthful brother of Ronnie Van Zant and Skynyrd’s frontman since 1977 — has stated that, “I don’t assume you possibly can have Lynyrd Skynyrd with out Gary Rossington.”
Along with Krantz-Rossington, the guitarist is survived by their two daughters and several other grandchildren. No funeral or memorial info has been introduced.
This story first appeared on Billboard.com.
