Check out The Stoneman each weekday from noon to 6pm. And for his poignant, yet hysterical, look on life, check out his blog!
35 YEARS AGO - LYNYRD SKYNYRD'S PLANE CRASHES
by JD Stone,posted Oct 19 2012 12:20PM
It was 35 years ago on Saturday (October 20th, 1977), that a plane carrying Lynyrd Skynyrd crashed in a swamp near Gillsburg, Mississippi. At the time, the group was en route to its next show in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The crash took the lives of lead singer Ronnie Van Zant; guitarist Steve Gaines and his sister, backup singer Cassie Gaines; Lynyrd Skynyrd manager Dean Kilpatrick, as well as the plane's two pilots.
All the other members of the band suffered horrific injuries, from which they eventually recovered. Two years later, survivors Gary Rossington and Allen Collins (guitars), Billy Powell (keyboards) and Leon Wilkeson (bass) formed a new group, the Rossington-Collins Band. A decade after the plane crash, the surviving members of Skynyrd regrouped under the legendary name and played a series of dates to mark the anniversary with Johnnie Van Zant, the younger brother of Ronnie Van Zant, stepping in as his permanent replacement.
Recently released was the limited-edition DVD -- Wolfgang's Vault Presents "Day On The Green 1977: Featuring Peter Frampton and Lynyrd Skynyrd." The show, filmed on July 2nd, 1977 was one of several Day on the Green summer festivals presented by the late Bill Graham at Northern California's Oakland Coliseum Stadium. The concert features Skynyrd just three-and-a-half months before the tragic plane crash.
Out now is Lynyrd Skynyrd's latest album, Last Of A Dyin' Breed -- which is their best charting studio set since 1977's Street Survivors collection.
