Gary Rossington, founding guitarist of Lynyrd Skynyrd, has died on the age of 71

Gary Rossington, the guitarist for the legendary southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, died on the age of 71. The band launched a press release on their verified Fb account confirming Rossington’s dying, however didn’t present a reason for dying. Rossington was the final surviving authentic member of Lynyrd Skynyrd and was lively within the band till his dying.

“It’s with our deepest sympathy and unhappiness that we should announce that right this moment we’ve misplaced our brother, good friend, member of the family, songwriter and guitarist Gary Rossington,” the assertion mentioned. “Gary is in heaven now along with his Skynyrd brothers and household, taking part in it up properly like he all the time does. Please preserve Dale, Mary, Annie and all the Rossington household in your prayers and respect the household’s privateness at this troublesome time.”

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Born on December 4, 1951, Rossington fashioned the band with Ronnie Van Zant, Allen Collins, Larry Junstrom and Bob Burns in his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida. Initially known as My Yard, the band modified their identify to Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1969 in reference to their fitness center trainer Leonard Skinner and a personality within the 1963 track “Hey Muddah, Hey Fadduh”.

Skynyrd’s 1973 debut, Pronounced len-‘nerd ‘skin-‘nerdcontained future rock classics like “Easy Man” and “Free Chicken” and launched the band on a path that has spanned 14 complete studio albums so far, bought 60 million items and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame in 2006.

Rossington performed lead and rhythm guitar and helped form Skynyrd’s southern boogie sound. Particularly, his taking part in on “Easy Man”, “Tuesday’s Gone” and the slide guitar on “Free Chicken” grew to become unmistakable rock moments. He additionally co-wrote well-known Skynyrd songs like “Candy Dwelling Alabama” and “What’s Your Identify”.

He was certainly one of 20 survivors of the October 20, 1977 Mississippi airplane crash that killed Lynyrd Skynyrd’s bandmates Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines and three others. Rossington suffered severe accidents that required a number of metal rods to be implanted in his physique.

The story goes on

When bassist Larry Junstrom died in 2019, Rossington grew to become the final surviving authentic member and in addition the longest serving. That title now goes to Johnny Van Zant, who took over vocals for his late brother Ronnie in 1987 when the group reunited after a hiatus. Throughout this downtime, Rossington had fashioned the Rossington Collins Band with Allen Collins.

Rossington overcame quite a few heart-related well being struggles lately, together with a quintuple bypass graft in 2003 and a coronary heart assault in 2015. He additionally underwent emergency coronary heart surgical procedure in the summertime of 2021, leading to a number of postponed dates for Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Final of the Die Avenue Survivors Farewell Tour.

The tour was meant to be Skynyrd’s final outing and finally morphed right into a fiftieth anniversary celebration, which Rossington was promoted to do with choose performances. The band have already got dates deliberate for March 12, in addition to a summer time tour with ZZ High, however there isn’t any phrase but on whether or not they’ll be rescheduled or canceled. Lynyrd Skynyrd’s final album, Final of a dying racewas launched in 2012.

There’s extra to come back…

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