Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington recovering after heart surgery

The final energetic authentic member of the traditional Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd was recovering Saturday evening after just lately present process an emergency coronary heart process, in line with the band.

Guitarist Gary Rossington, 69, who has been enjoying with the band since its earliest days in Jacksonville, Florida, was resting at dwelling along with his household and anticipating “a full restoration,” the band wrote Friday in a Facebook post.

Lead singer Johnny Van Zant instructed followers at a current live performance in Minnesota that Rossington had been sidelined as a result of he needed to “have an emergency stent put in his coronary heart,” the website Ultimate Classic Rock reported.

Rossington has had a historical past of coronary heart points, having undergone surgical procedure following a coronary heart assault in 2015, and once more to restore a coronary heart valve in 2019, according to Rolling Stone magazine. The 2019 surgical procedure compelled the postponement of a Lynyrd Skynyrd tour, in line with the outlet.

Rossington has missed a current string of the band’s exhibits, together with Friday evening’s live performance in Minot, North Dakota, in line with Rolling Stone.

The band has introduced in Alabama-based guitarist Damon Johnson to fill in whereas Rossington continues his restoration, AL.com reported. 

The band claimed in its Fb put up that the choice to proceed with its touring schedule got here at Rossington’s urging.

Except for Rossington, solely drummer Artimus Pyle – who has been estranged from the group – survives from the band’s Nineteen Seventies peak, when it was recognized for songs resembling “Free Chicken.” 

In October 1977, a airplane crash in Mississippi killed lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and siblings Steve and Cassie Gaines, a guitarist and background singer, respectively. After a hiatus following the airplane crash, the band re-emerged because the Rossington Collins Band within the early Nineteen Eighties, with Rossington’s spouse, Dale Krantz Rossington, as its lead singer.

However a number of years later Johnny Van Zant shaped a revamped model of his late brother Ronnie’s band, they usually’ve been touring and recording ever since.

Through the years for the reason that crash, band members together with Allen Collins, Leon Wilkeson, Billy Powell, Ed King and Bob Burns have died from numerous causes.

Rossington and the band carried out on “Fox & Associates” in June 2018, performing a set of songs that included “What’s Your Identify?” “Gimme Three Steps,” and “Candy Residence Alabama.”