The band’s lineup has continued to change in the decades since, with Rossington remaining as one of the sole founders. Singer Johnny Van Zant took over his older brother’s role in the reunited band in 1987 along with returning members Rossington, King, Leon Wilkeson, Artimus Pyle and Billy Powell. “We took time making our minds up (that) we wanted to keep going,” said Rossington. Rossington told the AP in 1991 that getting back together and the idea of writing new songs was scary.
Rossington in 2012 told CNN that the band would stop using the flag in shows because of its association with hate groups, but then walked back the comment to say they would continue to use the Confederate flag, alongside the state flag of Alabama and the American flag.Ī decade after the plane crash, the band reformed for tribute shows after promoters begged them to tour again. Still the band regularly used the Confederate flag in their live shows for decades. They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, and too easy to misconstrue,” he wrote. “I don’t like my words when I listen to it. Young liked the song and wrote in his memoir “Waging Heavy Peace” that his song “Alabama” deserved the shot from Lynyrd Skynyrd. But he added: “I’m sure if you asked the other guys who are not with us anymore and are up in rock and roll heaven, they have their story of how it came about.” We put the ‘boo, boo, boo’ there saying, ‘We don’t like Wallace,'” Rossington said. “A lot of people believed in segregation and all that. George Wallace, but Rossington offered some perspective on those ambiguous lines in a documentary called “If We Leave Here Tomorrow: A Documentary About Lynyrd Skynyrd.” “Sweet Home Alabama” references both Young and Alabama Gov. It was originally written as a response to Neil Young’s “Alabama” and “Southern Man,” a critical rebuke of slavery in the South.
Written by Rossington, Van Zant and Ed King, none of whom were from Alabama, the complicated legacy of “Sweet Home Alabama” followed the band for decades.
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At recent shows, Rossington would perform portions of the concert and sometimes sat out full gigs. In later years, Rossington underwent quintuple bypass surgery in 2003, suffered a heart attack in 2015, and had numerous subsequent heart surgeries, most recently leaving Lynyrd Skynyrd in July 2021 to recover from another procedure. He survived a car accident in 1976 in which he drove his Ford Torino into a tree, inspiring the band’s song “That Smell.” A year later, he survived the plane crash that killed singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and backing vocalist Cassie Gaines, with multiple broken bones and internal injuries. “Gary is now with his Skynyrd brothers and family in heaven and playing it pretty, like he always does.” “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. Gary Rossington, a co-founder and last surviving original member of Lynyrd Skynyrd who helped write the classic answer song “Sweet Home Alabama” and played unforgettable slide guitar on the rock anthem “Free Bird,” died Sunday at age 71.
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