He was one of the first members of the Jacksonville, FL band, teaming up with singer Ronnie Van Zant. And he was the last original member to still be playing with the band when he died of a heart ailment earlier this month at the age of 71.
I first saw him play live 49 years ago on March 17, 1974 when Skynyrd opened for Chicago at Tampa Stadium. I had never heard of the group before but was intrigued by the haunting slide Gary played on his Gibson SG during the band’s final song “Freebird.” I remember wondering if he was actually playing slide on that song because from where I was sitting all I could see was his bare finger through the glass bottleneck.
Afterward I would become a lifelong fan. I remember as a teen sneaking out of the house one night when a friend told me that the band were headed to the Back Door nightclub in Orlando after a concert. We got into the club and I was able to shake hands with guitarist Alan Collins and hear him, Rossington, and Van Zant perform some cover tunes in an intimate setting. I bought every record the group released and my bands would cover many Skynyrd songs. To this day I play some of those tunes in the ukulele group I jam with.
While I mourn the passing of a musician and songwriter who was so influential in my musical journey, I find it somewhat ironic that Gary had managed to survive his band mates. After all, he was the one singled out by Van Zant and fellow guitarist Alan Collins as a cautionary tale in the 1977 song “That Smell.”
Whiskey bottles and brand new cars
Oak tree you’re in my way
There’s too much coke and too much smokeLook what going on inside you
That song described Rossington’s increasingly dangerous alcohol and drug habits that had contributed to a car crash that same year and delayed the band’s tour. Gary was actually fined $5,000 by the group to compensate for lost earnings. Here’s where the irony comes in. Three days after the song about the smell of death surrounding Rossington was released it would be Van Zant who was killed in a plane crash that Gary survived.
That crash also claimed the lives of newly added guitarist and songwriter Steve Gaines, and backup singer Cassie Gaines. Road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot William McCreary, and co-pilot William John Gray also died. I heard about the fatal accident while hanging out with friends in Orlando and it would be an understatement to say that we were emotionally devastated. It seemed to us that Lynyrd Skynyrd was finished. That night famous CBS News anchorman Walter Conkrite reported on the tragedy, although he had trouble with the pronunciation of the name. It came out sounding like “Linyard Skinyard.”
Gary and Alan later formed the Rossington-Collins band with Dale Krantz, Gary’s wife, as the lead singer. I and a few of my college buddies went to see one of the group’s first shows at a small theater in Orlando. They ended the show with an instrumental version of “Freebird,” a deserted microphone and stand at center stage serving as a tribute to the departed Ronnie Van Zant.
Gary later joined a revamped lineup that toured under the name of Lynyrd Skynyrd that included Ronnie’s brother Donnie as lead singer. While he had long ago cleaned up his act as far as dangerous substances were concerned, according to American Songwriter magazine, he had to undergo emergency heart surgery in 2021.
Losing Gary feels like the end of an era because he was the last vestige of a group I had grown up with and emulated. I guess the only upside was that Gary did survive the plane crash and addiction, living another four decades to do what he loved.
Fly freebird.