Lynyrd Skynyrd

 October, 20th 2021 marks the 44th anniversary of the plane crash from premier

Southern Rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. Pretty much at the height of their popularity

the ill fated aircraft they had chartered ran out of fuel and plunged into a pine forrest

in Mississippi en route to Baton Rouge killing six on board including lead singer

Ronnie Van Zant and guitar slinger Steve Gaines.

My brother introduced me to the band, when i was a teenager, albeit a little too late

to visit one of their concerts here in Hamburg. Their second record "Second Helping"

was the second record ever i bought and it is the one i would take with me to a 

lonely island. When i traveled to Florida with my parents they did me the favor to

show me around the area where the band members grew up. Meanwhile there are 

plenty of YT videos available leaving no detail out about the band.

Two of the surviving members were guitarists Allen Collins and Gary Rossington, 

who founded the Rossington Collins Band and released some decent records, though

when Allen Collins died in 1990 that was the end for me, although the band kept

touring and making records with a changing line-up under the orignial band name, 

which led to legal rights feuds with Ronnie's widow Judie.

In 2020 a movie about the plane crash was released and he certainly will go down in

history as the most needless one. I mean who wants to watch his musical heroes in 

this low budget production spending minutes terrified and in sheer horror as their

plane plunges to the ground. The movie received harsh critics and deservedly so...