Gary Rossington

Gary Rossington had survived all his fellow founding members of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Listen to this article. Loading audio... Lynyrd Skynyrd's guitarist Gary ...

The last lineup of the band featured Johnny Van Zant and Rossington together with multi-instrumentalist Ricky Medlocke, who had first played with the band in 1971 and 1972. Together with singer Ronnie Van Zant, fellow guitarist Allen Collins, bass player Larry Junstron and drummer Bob Burns, Rossington founded the group My Backyard in 1964, before they settled on the name Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1969. Lynyrd Skynyrd’s guitarist Gary Rossington has died at the age of 71.

The guitarist, founding member and the last surviving original member of the band has passed away.

"After this past year, the country being shut down and everything we have all been thru, The Rossingtons encouraged the band to go perform in his absence. Gary is home resting and recovering with his family at home. They would jam together and were later joined by guitarist Allen Collins and bassist Larry Junstrom. A statement read at the time: "Our thoughts and prayers are with Gary Rossington as he recovers from emergency heart surgery. "Please do us a favour and say some prayers for the Rossington family and if you would like to leave him a (positive) message please do! In 1977, a plane crash killed the band's singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and backing vocalist Cassie Gaines.

Rossington was the last surviving original founding member of the Southern rock band, known for its anthemic "Free Bird," among many other hit songs.

"I don't think of it as tragedy — I think of it as life," he said upon the group's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2006. A collection of country-tinged blues-rock and Southern soul, the album included now-classics like "Tuesday's Gone," "Simple Man" and "Gimme Three Steps," but it was the closing track, the nearly 10-minute "Free Bird," that became the group's calling card, due in no small part to Rossington's evocative slide playing on his Gibson SG. "It was a devastating thing," he told Rolling Stone in 2006. According to Rolling Stone, it was during a fateful Little League game, Ronnie Van Zant hit a line drive into the shoulder blades of opposing player Bob Burns and met his future bandmates. He survived a car accident in 1976 in which he drove his Ford Torino into a tree, inspiring the band's cautionary song "That Smell." "It is with our deepest sympathy and sadness that we have to advise, that we lost our brother, friend, family member, songwriter and guitarist, Gary Rossington, today," the band wrote on Facebook.

Guitarist Gary Rossington, the last remaining original member of US rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, has died at the age of 71. One of the band's founding members, ...

[In a post on Facebook,](https://www.facebook.com/davidellefson/posts/pfbid02YQJJJMtJQ5CLkyVHAyDqF4NGivtV4TsfPCJ5TdpojMHXUPiG4PhCd7VoME4sapEHl) former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson detailed his friendship with Rossington, recalling: "It seemed Gary kept his world small to the outside world but he always let me in it and trusted me as a music buddy... To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. Rossington, who was severely injured, had to learn to play again with steel rods in his arm. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read "It was a devastating thing. "Singles are only two, three minutes at the most, and five is lucky. [Skip instagram post by metallica](#end-of-instagram-content-1) You guys are crazy'." [said he was "heartbroken"](https://twitter.com/Travistritt/status/1632563769078435841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw), adding: "Gary was not only a friend, but a collaborator that wrote songs with me and played guitar with me in studio recordings and onstage so many times. The lyrics cautioned that "tomorrow might not be here for you" and "the smell of death surrounds you". [A statement on the band's Facebook page](https://www.facebook.com/LynyrdSkynyrd/posts/pfbid02jkWSTqfygP7cVGb4dWBge5ggpWTQRf6MmVwozNhaWQ8McgqTHEs4sWKYdwwswyrCl) said: "It is with our deepest sympathy and sadness that we have to advise, that we lost our brother, friend, family member, songwriter and guitarist, Gary Rossington, today.

Lynyrd Skynyrd's last surviving original member, who also helped to found the group, died on Sunday. | ITV National News.

“I think the good outweighs the bad.” “Gary is now with his Skynyrd brothers and family in heaven and playing it pretty, like he always does. [social media](/news/topic/social-media) saying Rossington is "now with his Skynyrd brothers and family in heaven".

Gary Rossington, the last surviving original member and original guitarist for the rock band Lynard Skynard, passed away at the age of 71 yesterday.

RIP Gary Rossington, God Bless the Lynyrd Gary was not only a friend, but a collaborator that wrote songs with me and played guitar with me in studio recordings and onstage so many times. Photo via Lynard Skynard Official Facebook Page

Charlie Starr, of Southern rock band Blackberry Smoke remembers Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington, who died at 71.

That’s another hook to the song. It’s another verse to the song. Think about Ronnie saying, “Play it pretty for Atlanta” [during “Free Bird” at the Fox Theatre in 1976]. The song is not “Free Bird” without that part. We asked Starr to explain Lynyrd Skynyrd’s impact, dissect Rossington’s approach to his instrument, and unravel the mysteries of the guitarist’s signature slide intro to [“Free Bird.”](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/lynyrd-skynyrd-first-show-back-free-bird-1180286/) “I said, ‘What does he want me to play?’ She said, ‘He said to play the blues.’ And I got that because that’s where Gary came from,” Starr says, calling from Zurich, Switzerland, where Blackberry Smoke are about to perform. When you listen to “Free Bird,” his playing sounds like a bird singing to you. “After they walked down the aisle, Gary yelled over to me, ‘OK, play the blues now!’ and so I did. Listen to the solo for “Don’t Ask Me No Questions,” too. “I’ll carry that with me forever.” They were all so different, starting with And those songs are like Beatles and Stones songs — they’re accessible.

The last surviving original member of the classic Southern rock group, he played the soaring slide guitar solo on “Free Bird” and co-wrote “Sweet Home ...

Mr. In 1976 Mr. Rossington and Mr. In a 1993 interview with The Associated Press, Mr. In 1987, the 10th anniversary of the crash, Mr. Van Zant; Mr. Van Zant and Mr. “We came in and did Yardbirds and Stones. “We do it now as an instrumental,” Mr. The band, playing countless bar dates around Florida and eventually beyond, evolved into a seven-piece with three guitars — Mr. The band’s breakthrough came in 1973, when the musician and producer Al Kooper caught a show in Atlanta, liked what he heard and signed the group to his Sounds of the South label. [a portrait of the band](https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/lynyrd-skynyrd) written for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which inducted the group in 2006, another teenager, Ronnie Van Zant, was playing in a baseball game when he hit a foul ball that struck a spectator, Mr.

Artimus Pyle, who drummed for Lynyrd Skynyrd for the bulk of the Seventies, pays tribute to Gary Rossington: 'Fly high, our free bird brother.'

We liked a lot of the same things — listening to Jeff Beck at his house on his gigantic stereo, out on the water in his boat, riding horses together.” “As it turns out, being the last living member of Lynyrd Skynyrd is not all it’s cracked up to be,” Pyle says. He’s also the last survivor of the band’s “Everyone will remember Gary as a road dog, trouper, songwriter, and one of the greatest guitar players that ever lived. Perhaps best known for his slide-guitar work on Skynyrd’s immortal “Free Bird,” Rossington was the last founding member of the Southern-rock titans. And I will cherish these texts for the rest of my life,” Pyle, who replaced original drummer Bob Burns in 1975, tells Rolling Stone over the phone from his home in rural North Carolina.

ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons has opened up about his friendship with the late Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington, who recently passed away at the age of 71.

Breaking the news in a Facebook post, Lynyrd Skynyrd wrote: “It is with our deepest sympathy and sadness that we have to advise that we lost our brother, friend, family member, songwriter and guitarist, Gary Rossington, today. Gary is now with his Skynyrd brothers and family in heaven and playing it pretty, like he always does. Gibbons and Rossington joined one another on stage countless times over the years, and the ZZ Top member was instrumental in the band’s rise to fame.