#Lynyrd skynyrd who died in plane crash upgrade

Cassie Gaines, a member of the backing vocal trio known as the Honkettes and sister of guitarist Steve Gaines, was so petrified that she nearly squeezed in the band’s cramped equipment truck until she was reluctantly persuaded to board the aircraft. “Our wives, everyone were afraid for us to get on this thing, but we didn’t know any better,” keyboardist Billy Powell said on a 1997 episode of VH1’s Behind the Music. Still, one final hop on the Convair felt like one too many for most in their entourage. Surely they needed something better than a bucket of bolts to shuttle them there?Īfter making the 600-mile trip from Greenville to Baton Rouge, where they were due to play the following night at Louisiana State University, Lynyrd Skynyrd planned to acquire a Learjet, the air chariot of choice for the Seventies rock elite. The ambitious trek, their largest to date, would see the band achieve its dream of playing New York’s Madison Square Garden. Their latest album, Street Survivors, had gone gold upon its release three days earlier, and the first five dates of the accompanying tour had been met with rapturous crowds throughout their native Southland.

#Lynyrd skynyrd who died in plane crash upgrade

The scary incident convinced the group that they needed to upgrade their vehicle to something befitting their status as one of the biggest acts in music. The 10-foot flames seen shooting out of the right engine two days earlier had done little to inspire anyone’s confidence.

“We were flying in a plane that looked like it belonged to the Clampett family,” drummer Artimus Pyle later said. And they had good reason to be: Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s rickety Convair 240, pushing 30 years old, was obviously past its prime. Ronnie Van Zant’s bandmates were anxious as they prepared to board their leased plane at Greenville, South Carolina’s Downtown Airport on the afternoon of October 20th, 1977.