Gary Rossington 1951-2023

Guitarist Gary Rossington, who was the last original member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, passed away earlier today age 71.  No cause of death has yet been reported.  He had suffered a heart attack in 2015 and underwent heart surgery in 2021.

Gary Robert Rossington was born in Jacksonville, Florida and grew up in a single-parent household with his widowed mother.  He met singer Ronnie Van Zant and drummer Bob Burns while playing baseball.  With guitarist Allen Collins and bassist Larry Junstrom, the trio formed a band that would eventually call itself Lynyrd Skynyd.  The band would later expand to include keyboardist Billy Powell, third guitarist Ed King, and bassist Leon Wilkeson instead of Junstrom.  During the 1970s, Burns left the band to be replaced by drummer Artimus Pyle, and Ed King was replaced by guitarist/singer Steve Gaines.

In 1977, the band's plane crashed near McComb, Mississippi, which killed Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, his sister Cassie Gaines (one of three women who provided backing vocals), road manager Dean Kilpatrick, and the two pilots.  In 1980, Rossington and Collins formed the Rossington Collins Band, which disbanded in 1982.  During that year, he married their lead singer Dale Krantz, who afterwards became one of Lynyrd Skynyrd's backing female vocalists.  The couple also formed The Rossington Band, who put out two albums in the late 1980s.  Rossington, Powell, King, Wilkeson and Pyle revived Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1987, which also included Van Zant's younger brother Johnny as the lead singer.  The band has had numerous lineup changes, in part due to the deaths of Powell, King and Wilkeson.

Rossington is survived by his wife Dale Krantz-Rossington and their two daughters.

Read more at Ultimate Classic Rock, Country Now, Spin, Best Classic Bands and Rolling Stone.

Among the songs Rossington wrote, with Ronnie Van Zant providing the lyrics, is Don't Ask Me No Questions, from the Second Helping album.  On this one, King plays bass instead of Wilkeson, who provides harmony vocals.  Instead of Powell, produce Al Kooper, under the pseudonym Roosevelt Gook, plays piano.

Rossington and Van Zant also collaborated on What's Your Name, from Street Survivors, the band's last album before the plane crash.