“Each player has a distinct role,” explains Rossington of the meticulous division of labour among the band’s three guitar players. Humble, reflective and sincere, he does not behave like the living legend he is.Įven as they take their final lap of honour, Skynyrd remain as dedicated to giving the fans the authentic Skynyrd experience as they did when the band first exploded out of Jacksonville all those years ago, still playing each solo and part exactly as they were laid down on record, as Ronnie Van Zandt had insisted on from the earliest days. Wearing all black with his ever-present fedora, Rossington possesses the faraway look in his eyes of a man who’s lived one helluva storied past. The exuberant 69-year-old Medlocke is as much of a gentleman off the stage as he is a badass on it, kitted out in leather and a sweeping silver mane, his Sioux/Cherokee lineage is highlighted by his tattoos and jewellery. We meet Rossington and Medlocke during Skynyrd’s as they reach the final jaunt of that final tour.

In 1987, founding member Gary Rossington teamed up with fellow crash survivors Billy Powell, Leon Wilkeson and Artimus Pyle, plus guitarist Ed King, who had left the band in 1975, and reformed Skynyrd in what was meant to be a one-off tour in tribute to their fallen comrades.īut the reunion has ended up lasting over 30 years, the band going through myriad personnel changes over the decades before finally signing off as a touring band with their in-progress farewell jaunt, having recorded a further nine studio albums in the intervening period.Īt the heart of this second life of Lynyrd Skynyrd has been Rossington, the guitarist who has held down his part of the band’s hugely influential three-guitar attack since 1964, sharing it most recently with Rickey Medlocke and Mark ‘Sparky’ Matejka It was an unthinkable tragedy, and one that robbed the world of a unique and important band that played a huge part in defining the sound of Southern rock, and penning timeless hits including Sweet Home Alabama, and Saturday Night Special and their most beloved and iconic track, Free Bird.īut the Skynyrd story didn’t end on that awful night outside of Gillsburg, Mississippi. The Lynyrd Skynyrd story is one inevitably tinged by the tragic events of 20 October 1977, when a plane carrying the band crashed, killing six of the 20 people on board, including frontman Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines and his sister, backing vocalist Cassie Gaines.

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