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Lynyrd Skynyrd
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Miami Vice Performer
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"That Smell" ("Trust Fund Pirates")
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Members (1970s)
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Ronnie Van Zant (1948-1977, lead vocal)
Gary Rossington (1951-2023, guitar) Allen Collins (1952-1990, guitar) Steve Gaines (1949-1977, guitar) Billy Powell (1952-2009, keyboards) |
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Active
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1964-1977
1987-present |
Lynyrd Skynyrd is an American Southern Rock band whose song "That Smell" appeared in the episode "Trust Fund Pirates" of the series Miami Vice.
Career[]
Lynyrd Skynyrd was formed in 1964 by friends Ronnie Van Zant, Gary Rossington and Allen Collins. The band won a contest in 1968 that allowed them to open for the psychedelic band Strawberry Alarm Clock, but it wasn't for five more years (and several lineup changes) that the band got their break, when producer Al Kooper (formerly of Blood, Sweat and Tears) discovered Skynyrd and signed them to a record deal, their first album, (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd), was released, and featured the rock anthem "Freebird", as well as the bass-heavy "Gimme Three Steps", then the band toured with The Who, exposing the band to a larger audience. Their second album, appropriately named Second Helping, included their only Top 10 single, "Sweet Home Alabama", as well as "The Ballad of Curtis Loew", "Don't Ask Me No Questions", and "Call Me The Breeze". Their third album, Nuthin' Fancy (featuring "Saturday Night Special") did not do as well and the group fired Kooper. Street Survivors, their 1977 album, included "That Smell" and "What's Your Name", the final Top 40 single for the original Skynyrd band.
Plane Crash[]
On October 20, 1977, the band was en route to a show in Greenville, South Carolina, when their plane ran out of gas and crashed in Gillsburg, Mississippi, killing Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines (backup singer), the pilot and co-pilot, and assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, other band members aboard were seriously injured, and Skynyrd disbanded for nearly a decade, some of the members forming the Rossington-Collins band. Collins was paralyzed in a car accident in 1986, caused by his binging on alcohol (he would pass away four years later of complications from his paralysis).
Reunion[]
Skynyrd reunited in 1987, with Van Zant's brother Johnny taking over as lead vocal, and Rossington, Powell, Leon Wilkinson (1952-2001), Artimus Pyle, and Ed King (formerly of Strawberry Alarm Clock who left the band prior to the crash, 1949-2018). Over the next 30+ years, the original band members have left, retired, or died. Powell's death in 2009 left Rossington as the only surviving pre-crash Skynyrd member until 2023. In 2006 Lynyrd Skynyrd were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Original drummer Bob Burns died in 2015 and guitarist Ed King died in 2018. Also In 2018 the band announced their farewell tour, called The Last of the Street Survivors Farewell Tour that ran until June, 2019, and covered the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe. In March, 2023, Rossington passed away, leaving no more living pre-crash Skynyrd members.