The announcement was made by the band in a statement published on Facebook, which said that the late guitarist was ‘now with his Skynyrd brothers and family in heaven’.
‘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 message read.
‘Gary is now with his Skynyrd brothers and family in heaven and playing it pretty, like he always does.
‘Please keep Dale, Mary, Annie and the entire Rossington family in your prayers and respect the family’s privacy at this difficult time.’
Lynyrd Skynyrd was first formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1964.
Two years ago, Lynyrd Skynyrd unveiled the track on social media. “As promised, here’s a little gift from our Skynyrd family to yours,” the band declared. “We want thank everyone for making this possible. Stay safe and God bless.”
Van Zant penned the song alongside guitarist Rickey Medlocke, Grammy Award-winning songwriter Tom Hambridge and Lynyrd Skynyrd's last remaining original member and co-founder, guitarist Gary Rossington.
A long-delayed biopic chronicling the plane crash which killed several of the original members of Lynyrd Skynyrd -- including founder and frontman Ronnie Van Zant -- was recently released.
04“This film’s story – my story – is not just about the plane crash but also about my personal relationship with the genius that was Ronnie Van Zant – whom I loved like a brother and still miss to this day,” Pyle noted via press release. The drummer was a consultant on the film, working with screenwriter and director Jared Cohn to make the project as historically accurate as possible.Street Survivors: The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash tells the story of the ill-fated flight through the eyes of the band’s former drummer, Artimus Pyle. The musician survived the tragedy and helped pull fellow survivors from the wreckage in the moments following the crash.
The core members of Lynyrd Skynyrd first met in high school in Jacksonville, Florida. Van Zant, Allen Collins, and Gary Rossington formed the band My Backyard in 1965, eventually joined by Leon Wilkeson and Billy Powell. Their later name immortalized a gym teacher, Leonard Skinner, who was known to punish students who had long hair.
Street Survivors, the band's sixth LP, was released three days before the plane crash of October 20, 1977. Skynyrd was traveling in a privately chartered plane between shows in Greenville, South Carolina, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, when it crashed just outside Gillsburg, Mississippi, killing three members. The rest escaped with injuries. Ironically, the cover of the band's last LP pictured the members standing in flames and included an order form for a "Lynyrd Skynyrd survival kit." There was also a Van Zant composition about death called "That Smell." The LP cover was changed shortly after the accident, and the album (Number Five, 1977) went on to become one of Skynyrd's biggest sellers.
