The band's most recent hometown performance ended in an uproar with 16 arrests.

'We're kind of like an old dog that ain't housebroke,' Mr. The raucous group went to achieve two gold albums (500,000 sold) and three platinum albums (sales of 1 million records) - and numerous run-ins with the law on tour. A huge Confederate flag became one of the band's symbols. Lynyrd Skynyrd first hit national prominence in 1974 with a single called 'Sweet Home Alabama,' which extolled the virtues of the South in general and Alabama in particular. A run-in with him helped get the youths suspended.Īs a way of getting back, they named the band for Skinner, changing the vowels to avoid a lawsuit and becoming famous enough to make the story a rock legend. It seems a physical education teacher named Leonard Skinner didn't like long hair or loud music. Lee, also allegedly produced the group's strange name. Van Zant, Rossington and Allen Collins played together in high school and added other members later. The band came together in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1969. The band's million-dollar albums were: 'Pronounced Leh-nerd Skinerd,' 'Second Helping,' and 'One More From the Road.' The band's latest album, 'Street Survivors,' was released Monday and 500,000 copies were sold within five days. The other band members, Gary Rosington and Allen Collins, guitarists Leon Wilkeson, bass Billy Powell, pianist Artimus Pyle, drummer and Leslie Ann Hawkins, a singer were injured in the crash.Īll were from Florida except Pyle, from Spartanburg, S.C., and the Gaineses, from Seneca, Mo. Van Zant and his 'fightin' Southern band' prided themselves on that battling image and a hard-driving blaring sound that they rode sold out concert tours and million-selling albums. 'The other bands are just as bad, but we go to jail more.' 'We like to call ours 'Southern Raunchy Roll,'' Mr. Three others also were killed, others were injured when the propeller-driven plane, reportedly running low on full, skidded into a swampy area eight miles short of McComb. Street Survivors, recorded in studios in Florida and Georgia, was their first to feature guitarist and vocalist Steve Gaines.Three members of the popular rock musical group, Lynyrd Skynyrd, lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and his sister, vocalist Cassie Gaines, died in the crash of a chartered plane Thursday night near McComb, Miss.

Lynyrd Skynyrd had had huge success with their first four albums from 1973, although the last of those, Gimme Back My Bullets, had had more modest sales than its predecessors. But he was killed on impact along with Skynyrd’s vocalist Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines and his sister, backing singer Cassie, the co-pilot, and the band’s assistant road manager. A faulty engine and then a fuel shortage led the pilot, Walter McCreary, to attempt an emergency landing. Three days after they released an album called Street Survivors, Lynyrd Skynyrdwere involved in the terrible plane crash that claimed the lives of three band members and left all the others, and their crew, with serious injuries.Ī chartered Convair CV-300 was taking the band from the gig they’d just played in Greenville, North Carolina to their next gig in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. One of the greatest tragedies in rock history took place on October 20, 1977.

Who died lynyrd skynyrd's plane crash