Lynyrd Skynyrd – 46 Years Ago Today

I don’t do anniversaries very much but some things I try to keep up with and this is one of them. I’ve posted this in the past few years on October 20.

It’s been 46 years since Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane crashed in a swamp in Gillsburg, Mississippi. The band had just released the album “Street Survivors” and it was probably their best well-rounded album. With new guitarist Steve Gaines, they were primed for commercial success but on October 20, 1977, they lost singer-songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, backup singer Cassie Gaines, and road manager Dean Kilpatrick. The plane crash also claimed the lives of pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray Jr.

I believe that if the crash had not happened they would have moved into the most successful stretch of their career. They were leaving the “southern rock” label behind and into one of the top rock bands in the world.

A year earlier Steve Gaines joined the band and he was pushing them in directions they never had gone. Listening to “Street Survivors” you can hear his influence with the songs I Never Dreamed and I Know A Little. Steve was a super-talented guitarist, songwriter, and singer and I have to wonder where his career would have gone.

On this tour, they were headlining and moving up in status after years of touring as mostly an opening band.

Below is a good Rolling Stone article on the crash. The song below that is “I Never Dreamed,” a song heavily influenced by Gaines.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/remembering-lynyrd-skynyrds-deadly-1977-plane-crash-2-195371/

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

20 thoughts on “Lynyrd Skynyrd – 46 Years Ago Today”

  4. Wow. 46 years already. When this plane went down I was 10 so I never heard of the band til really once the 80s rolled around. Good call though as they were headed for hugeness and were snuffed out….

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  5. I was six! But I was also raised by hippies so Lynyrd Skynyrd was always playing. Also it was the same year my biological father died so I feel I am forever tied to 1977.

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    1. Here it was big news…the new album was getting played before the crash…it would have been huge for them. Their families went through hell…not know who lived or who died.

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  9. Seems band didn’t learn a thing from this crash. If you fly in small planes, or older planes, there is a good chance you might perish as LS did. Now they have wised up and take buses. I’ll never fly a small plane after the close calls I had on a company plane. The drummer that survived was on the news today talking about the crash.

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      1. I had no idea about the gas thing. Same thing happened to Denver, no fuel. I flew for years on a corporate jet and had two un-nerving close calls that told me that my statue of limitations may be up. Glad I don’t fly anymore.

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  10. Not only was it a horrific accident, but it’s truly is amazing Lynyrd Skynyrd overcame the trauma and eventually reformed. Of course, it was a different band. As you rightly pointed out, they may have taken a different trajectory without that plane crash.

    While I guess it’s mission impossible to truly replace Ronnie Van Zant, I think his younger brother Johnny Van Zant has done a commendable job to keep Skynyrd’s music alive for now more than 30 years! And even record some new stuff!

    I caught Skynyrd in June 2018 in New Jersey during what was billed their farewell tour, and they really sounded great!

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    1. His brother did do a good job. I saw the in 1987 on the original tour and two more times… great value for your money. If you closed your eyes you would think you were hearing them. At that time they had around 5 original members

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