Lynyrd Skynyrd is a rock band formed in Jacksonville, FL in 1964 by Ronnie Van Zant, Allen Collins and Gary Rossington. The group toured in the southern U.S. in the early 1970s, signing with MCA Records in 1972 and producing its first album, released in January of 1973. The album went multi-platinum, as did their second album “Second Helping,” which was released in 1974 and included their most popular single “Sweet Home Alabama.”
In 1977, just after the release of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s fifth album “Street Survivors,” band members Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, and Cassie Gaines and assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick were killed when the band’s chartered plane crashed in Gillsburg, MS. The band disbanded after the crash, but five surviving members reunited for a tour ten years later with Ronnie Van Zant’s brother Johnny as front man. The reunion tour was originally planned to be a one-time-only event, but the band continued to record and tour, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.
Lynyrd Skynyrd will be on tour in the U.S. and Canada in 2010, beginning in May and concluding in September.
