There's a commonly used phrase about living one's life on borrowed time'. And it applied to Gary Rossington more than most. In surviving Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane crash on October 20, 1977, the guitarist was given an extra 46 years to live. Six members of the iconic southern rock group and support team-frontman Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, backing singer Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick and pilot and co-pilot Walter McCreary and William John Gray - were not so fortunate.
A God-fearing man like Rossington might even say that the Lord had handed second lives to him, fellow guitarist Allen Collins, bassist Leon Wilkeson, keyboard player Billy Powell, drummer Artimus Pyle and backing singer Leslie Hawkins.
In the short term and over the decades that followed, the crash affected each of the survivors in different ways. For Billy Powell, a long-term victim of bullying from the hot-headed Van Zant, whose strong-arm tactics had quite literally knocked the fledgling band from students at the Robert E Lee High School into arena-headlining shape, his immediate knee-jerk reaction was one of relief.
"As time went by I'd kinda forgiven Ronnie for [knocking out] my teeth, but right before the plane crash I was getting fed up with it all," Powell told me in a 2003 interview. "When that plane came down, I wasn't knocked unconscious like all the rest. One of my first thoughts was: 'Thank God it's over-I don't have to get beaten up any more. It didn't last long. Of course, I wanted the beating to stop, but not like it did."
In later life, after the band broke up -seemingly for good- Artimus Pyle, who with injuries including broken ribs had crawled from the crash site through the woods to seek help, became a pilot. This was doubly impressive considering the drummer's father had also perished in an aviation disaster.
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Denne historien er fra May 2023-utgaven av Classic Rock.
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Bright Sparks - Undertakers, band managers and museum workers by day, pop-charged rockers by night, The Hot Damn! are a gang you'd want to join.
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Motörhead
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Dialling back on the aggressive approach that has helped bring Idles this far, and putting swing to the stomp, their new album is intended to make you shake a leg rather than a fist
Steve Hackett
The former Genesis guitarist’s latest themed’ tour enables him to visit the best of both worlds”.
Monster Magnet
“It's all-energy. It's rock excitement, psychedelic glory and space-rock hooks.” Sounds good to us!
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In the 90s they were high flyers, then the fall hit them hard. Having picked themselves up, Terrorvision are back with their first new album in more than a decade, and it’s full of top tunes.
DON'T FENCE US IN
Embracing their roots on record for the first time, Don't call us southern” band The Cold Stares’ seventh album is both a love letter to Kentucky and a Call for unity in volatile times.
"I JUST WANTED TO BE RESPECTED FOR BEING IN A KICKASS BAND."
1976 was a pivotal year for Thin Lizzy. Guitarist Scott Gorham, one half of the band's classic twin-guitar sound, takes a trip down memory lane to the year that was...
Jerry Cantrell
The Alice In Chains guitarist on his forthcoming album and its guests, songwriting, AT, algorithm bots, AIC’s legacy...
THROUGH THICK AND THIN
In 1976, Thin Lizzy were touring Jailbreak in the US and were breaking big. Then disaster struck. Band manager Chris O'Donnell details the roller-coaster year in which they were cruelly robbed of their American dream.