Lynyrd Skynyrd's Billy Powell has passed

[lordwriothsley]

From a die hard Skynyrd fan like myself he will be missed.

[Welsh Wench]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8mOC08SNYc&feature=related

And here you thought it was going to be Freebird.....

OK so the video isn't the best. But Ronnie Van Zant was so HOT!

Oh, to be a Honkette...

[Poldugarian Warrior]

That's sad. And you know what's sadder this is the first I'm hearing of it. And there was no mention of it in the news or the papers> he was one of the greatest piano/keyboard players of all time. I actually talked to Billy at the Palace here in Detroit. And it was my first concert. Lynyrd and ZZ, and I said Hey to him as we drove by to our parking spot and he the same, and I asked for some autographs, he said, maybe, but he was real busy at the time. I said no sweat, get to rockin man. he said thanks and have a good one. Seemed like a cool guy, and he was walking out the outside of the joint like any one else. So you know he wasn't no stuck up rocker like some of them. A true southern rocker. He will surely be missed.

[Welsh Wench]

Allen Collins had a sad life, I thought. He was seriously injured in the crash, suffering two broken vertebrae in his neck and severe damage to his right arm. The doctor recommended amputatin but Collins' father refused and Allen eventually recovered.

In 1981, Collins' wife Kathy suddenly died of a hemorrhage following a miscarriage.

In 1986 a car accident killed Collins' girlfriend and left him paralyzed from the waist down, with limited use of his arms and hands. Collins plead no contest to vehicular homicide as well as driving under the influence of alcohol. He would never play guitar on-stage again. As part of his plea bargain for the 1986 accident, Collins addressed fans at every Lynyrd Skynyrd concert with an explanation of why he could not perform, citing the dangers of drinking and driving, as well as drugs and alcohol.

Allen Collins died in January 1990 from chronic pneumonia resulting from complications of his earlier accident.

Regarding 'That Smell', Ronnie Van Zant said, "I had a creepy feeling things were going against us, so I thought I'd write a morbid song."

It was written in 1977, the year of the fatal plane crash.