RONNIE VANZANT LIVE PHOTO WEARING ROLLING STONES SHIRT * 8 X 10 * LYNYRD SKYNYRD

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UP FOR AUCTION IS THIS: * RONNIE VANZANT LIVE PHOTO WEARING ROLLING STONES SHIRT * 8 X 10 *
Ronnie Van Zant
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Ronnie Van Zant
Van Zant circa 1976
Background information
Birth name
Ronald Wayne Van Zant
Born
January 15, 1948
Jacksonville, Florida
, U.S.
Died
October 20, 1977
(aged 29)
Gillsburg, Mississippi
, U.S.
Genres
Southern rock
blues rock
[1]
Occupation(s)
Musician
songwriter
Instruments
Vocals
guitar
piano
drums
Years active
1964–1977
Associated acts
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Ronald Wayne Van Zant
(January 15, 1948 – October 20, 1977) was an American musician, known as the lead vocalist, primary lyricist, and founding member of the
Southern rock
band
Lynyrd Skynyrd
. He was the older brother of two other rock vocalists: current Lynyrd Skynyrd lead vocalist
Johnny Van Zant
and
Donnie Van Zant
, the founder and vocalist of
38 Special
. He was the father of Tammy Van Zant and Melody Van Zant.
[1]
Contents
1
Early life
2
Lynyrd Skynyrd
3
Death
4
Personal life
5
Legacy
6
Notes
7
References
8
External links
Early life
He was born and raised in
Jacksonville
, Florida, to Lacy Austin (1915–2004) and Marion Virginia (Hicks) Van Zant (1929–2000). Ronnie aspired to be many things before finding his love for music. Idolizing
boxer
Muhammad Ali
, he considered a career in the ring, and while playing
American Legion baseball
dreamed of
Minor League
success.
[2]
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Van Zant formed a band called My Backyard
[2]
late in the summer of 1964 with friends and schoolmates
Allen Collins
(guitar),
Gary Rossington
(guitar),
Larry Junstrom
(bass), and
Bob Burns
(drums). The quintet went through several names before deciding on Lynyrd Skynyrd, a mock tribute to gym teacher
Leonard Skinner
(who disapproved of male students with long hair) that all but Collins had at
Robert E. Lee High School
.
The band's national exposure began in 1973 with the release of their debut album,
(Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd)
, which had a string of hits that included "I Ain't the One", "
Tuesday's Gone
", "
Gimme Three Steps
", "
Simple Man
," and what became their signature, "
Free Bird
", later dedicated to the late
Duane Allman
of
The Allman Brothers Band
.
[
citation needed
]
Lynyrd Skynyrd's biggest hit single was "
Sweet Home Alabama
" from their follow-up album
Second Helping
,
an answer to
Neil Young
's "Alabama" and "
Southern Man
." Young's song "
Powderfinger
" on the 1979 album
Rust Never Sleeps
was reportedly written for Skynyrd, and Van Zant is pictured on the cover of
Street Survivors
wearing a T-shirt of Young's
Tonight's the Night
[3]
and in the 2 July 1977
Oakland Coliseum
concert (excerpted in
Freebird... The Movie
).
[4]
Death
Main article:
1977 Convair CV-240 crash
On October 20, 1977, a plane carrying the band between shows from
Greenville, South Carolina
, to
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
, ran out of fuel outside
Gillsburg, Mississippi
. The passengers had been informed about potential problems with the
Convair CV-240
and were told to brace for a crash.
[5]
Van Zant died on impact from head injuries suffered after the
aircraft struck a tree
. Bandmates
Steve Gaines
and
Cassie Gaines
, along with assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary, and co-pilot William Gray, were also killed. The rest of the band was seriously injured.
[6]
Van Zant was 29 years old.
According to former bandmate
Artimus Pyle
and family members, Van Zant frequently discussed his mortality. Pyle recalls a moment when Lynyrd Skynyrd was in Japan: "Ronnie and I were in Tokyo, Japan, and Ronnie told me that he would never live to see thirty and that he would go out with his boots on, in other words, on the road. I said, 'Ronnie, don't talk like that,' but the man knew his destiny."
[7]
Van Zant's father, Lacy, said, "He said to me many times, 'Daddy, I'll never be 30 years old.' I said, 'Why are you talking this junk? You will never be 30 years old?’ and he said, 'Daddy, that's my limit.'" Van Zant's father later noted that, "God was a jealous god. Taking him for reasons I don't know."
[7]
Ex-bandmate
Ed King
also reported hearing Van Zant saying he would never live to be 30 years old, saying Van Zant said it so often that he "had gotten sick of hearing it".
[8]
Lynyrd Skynyrd backup singer
JoJo Billingsley
recalled that Van Zant had begun referring to himself as "The Mississippi Kid" in the months before his death despite being born and raised in Florida. She noted that, eerily, Van Zant's only connection to Mississippi was the fact that he would ultimately die there.
[9]
Van Zant's younger brother,
Johnny
, took over as the new lead singer when the band reunited in 1987.
Ex-Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Ed King recalls the intense sadness of Van Zant's funeral, noting that people in attendance were so overcome with grief that they were literally falling down.
[8]
Van Zant was buried in
Orange Park, Florida
, in 1977. His body was relocated after vandals broke into his tomb and that of bandmate
Steve Gaines
on June 29, 2000. Van Zant's casket was pulled out and dropped on the ground. The bag containing Gaines' remains was torn open and some scattered onto the grass.
[10]
Their
mausoleums
at Orange Park remain as memorials for fans to visit.
According to the cemetery listing website
Find-a-Grave
, Van Zant was reburied at Riverside Memorial Park in Jacksonville, near the grave of his father Lacy and mother Marion. Both his current resting place and the empty mausoleum in Orange Park are listed, with the statement: "Due to the June 29th, 2000 vandalization of his original grave site, his casket was moved to this new location and buried in a massive underground concrete burial vault. To open the vault would require a tractor with a lift capacity of several tons. It is also patrolled by security."
[11]
Personal life
Van Zant married Nadine Inscoe on January 2, 1967. Around this time, Van Zant also worked at his brother-in-law's auto parts store, Morris Auto Parts in Jacksonville. It was said that Van Zant was a virtual catalog of automotive parts, he had a near photographic memory for them. The couple had a daughter named Tammy, before divorcing in 1969; Tammy would become a musician. He married Judy Seymour in 1972 after meeting her at The Comic Book Club through Gary Rossington in 1969.
[2]
(The club closed in 1975 and is now a parking garage.)
[12]
They remained married up until his death in 1977. They had one daughter, Melody, born in 1976. Judy Van Zant-Jenness founded the
Freebird Live
in 1999, a music venue located in
Jacksonville Beach, Florida
. It featured Lynyrd Skynyrd memorabilia and was co-owned by Melody Van Zant. Judy married Jim Jenness and founded and ran The Freebird Foundation until its dissolution in 2001.
Van Zant was an avid fisherman. He enjoyed baseball, and was a fan of the
Chicago White Sox
and
New York Yankees
. As a child, he played American Legion baseball and aspired to play professional baseball, as he recalled in a 1975 interview.
[2]
Van Zant had several run-ins with the law, most notably in 1975, when he was arrested for hurling a table out of a second-story hotel room window.
[13]
[14]
Legacy
The
Ronnie Van Zant Memorial Park
, funded by fans and family of the band, was built on Sandridge Road in
Lake Asbury
, Florida, nearby his hometown of Jacksonville.
Several members of his family have memorialized Ronnie in their music. His brothers Johnny and Donnie co-wrote the title track of John's 1990 album "Brickyard Road"
[15]
with family friend and album producer Robert White Johnson. In the reformed Lynyrd Skynyrd's music video for the posthumously-released track "
What's Your Name
" closes with a white hat similar to Ronnie's sitting atop a microphone. Ronnie's daughter Tammy, who was only 10 years old when he died, dedicated the album title track, "Freebird Child" as well as the music video to her father in 2009.
[16]
Van Zant's cousin
Jimmie Van Zant
recorded the tribute track "Ronnie's Song" on the album
Southern Comfort
(2000).
[17]
Alt country
band
Drive-By Truckers
also paid tribute to Ronnie and members of the original band on their
Southern Rock Opera
album.
"The All-Night Bus Ride", the 8th episode of Season 1 of the Showtime series
Roadies
, was made in honor of Van Zant and the band.
....................................................................................................................................
SELLERS PAST LIFE

I started working with the legendary LYNYRD SKYNYRD BAND late in 1973 , I was the third roadie I ever to be hired by LYNYRD SKYNYRD . I started as a drum roadie but I was the guitar tech most of the time and at the time of the crash . I was also the stage manager and production manager at different times in my career with them . LYNYRD SKYNYRD was one of the wildest groups of musicians who ever toured the rock and roll circuit . Some of the wild insodents included drinking , drugs , and fighting were made into songs written by band leader Ronnie Van Zant . Many People who worked for the LYNYRD SKYNYRD BAND never saw thirty years old . I survived the lifestyle that comes with working with a wild young band like LYNYRD SKYNYRD and being personal friend with each member and partying with each member was unbelievable , not to mention I also survived the LYNYRD SKYNYRD airplane crash October 20 , 1977 , Although I was seriously injured .

I also survived working with the Rossington Collins Band from 1979 through 1983 . Those years were crazy . Then I survived working with the Allen Collins Band in 1983. That year was insanity to say the least . I could have died many times in numerous situations during that period of my life . Before that I survived working as a guitar tech on world tours with Foreigner in 1978 & Journey in 1979 . Plus the Marshall Tucker Band from 1983 through 1987 . Then I survived working again with the new LYNYRD SKYNYRD tribute band from 1987 through 2006 .

When I say I survived all of the above you really would have had to have been there to totally understand I should have died many times like a lot of my friends . During these years I did things that led me to get Hep C . Many band members died with this illness such as Leon , Billy and Allen , others in the band are dealing with this problem at this time , like me . I was released working with LYNYRD SKYNYRD in 2006 beause of complications with the treatment that included injections of a medicine that did not agree with me . Since I was released from the band I have been selling my precious collection of LYNYRD SKYNYRD memorabilia from my life with LYNYRD SKYNYRD from the past 40 years . I recently sold Allen Collins 1932 Plymouth 3 window coupe which was one of my most prized posessions , I was in the studio as a guitar tech for every album ever done by the original LYNYRD SKYNYRD BAND plus the ROSSINGTON COLLINS & ALLEN COLLINS BAND. I became close friends with each member of all the bands.