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⚡REMEMBERING GARY ROSSINGTON OF LYNYRD SKYNYRD

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March 7, 2023 11:15am EST

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Remembering Gary Rossington

Remembering Gary Rossington

Gary Rossington, an ace guitar player and the last original member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, died Sunday, March 5. He was 71. No cause of death has been announced, but Rossington had been ill in recent years, and had undergone emergency heart surgery in 2021. The guitarist and songwriter is seen here with Lynyrd Skynyrd in a photo taken Dec. 30, 1976.

The picture, by the noted Bay Area photographer Michael Zagaris, is said to have been from the second-to-last photo session the group did before the October 1977 plane crash that killed band members Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, and three others. The session came the day before Skynyrd played a New Year’s Eve gig at the Oakland Coliseum. Skynyrd had spent a good chunk of 1976 on the road supporting “Gimme Back My Bullets,” the band’s fourth studio album, which had come out that February. By then, Rossington had been performing with Van Zant and Allen Collins for 12 years, since they started playing together in 1964 as teenagers in Jacksonville, Fla. Though Rossington was an aspiring baseball player as a kid, he later said that hearing the Rolling Stones turned him on to a life in rock ’n’ roll. Skynyrd broke through in 1973 with their debut album, “(Pronounced 'L?h-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd),” which featured “Free Bird,” “Gimme Three Steps” and “Tuesday’s Gone.” The band spent the next four years on an upward trajectory until the plane crash.

After he recovered from his injuries from the crash, Rossington formed the Rossington Collins Band with his Skynyrd bandmates Collins, Billy Powell and Leon Wilkeson. They released a pair of albums before breaking up in 1982. Rossington continued with the Rossington Band before Skynyrd reformed in 1987 with Johnny Van Zant on vocals. The latter-day Skynyrd released nine albums, and had been touring since re-forming. The group was scheduled to perform this month before starting a more extensive tour in April.

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