Lynyrd Skynyrd keyboard player Billy Powell dead at 56

Newsjacksonville.com ^ | Jan. 28, 2009 | Matt Soergel

[OL Hickory]

Billy Powell, a longtime keyboard player for Lynyrd Skynyrd who survived the band's 1977 plane crash, died at his Orange Park condo early this morning, according to police.

[wardaddy]

damn...they might hang it up now

they were remarkably tight in recent years.

Godspeed Billy.

thanks for all the soundtrack to my own life

[stainlessbanner]

LS ping

I remember ol Billy setting the candle on his piano and playing Freebird.....man what a legend he is

[wardaddy]

Artimus Pyle is still alive but not with the band.

Ricky Medlock floated in and out of the band as did King.

Both are still alive.

[stainlessbanner]

I saw henry paul has come back to the outlaws for a tour. he's taking lead vocals (since Hughie left us). They're going to run blackhawk and outlaws on the road. should be a great lineup.

Ricky's rejoined LS when Leon died, right? I got to see Leon when the boys came out with Smokestack lightning

[wardaddy]

I saw them a half dozen times in the early 70s and knew Allen Collins in passing after the plane crash.

Then when I started living fulltime back in the US again in the late 90s, I’ve seen them twice outdooors in Rome Ga, once at the Ryman here at a benefit and twice at the now closed Nashville amphitheatre

and with all due respect they could still play flawlessly better than most older touring bands I’ve seen. I’d rank them with Sabbath and ACDC for still keeping that particular sound so tight

who can blame them for still wanting to tour if the fans are still out there....25,000 average crowd in Nashville and these guys can make 4-500K a year just touring 100 dates a year...hard tickets.

my girls are friends with Medlock’s daughter who lives here and my closest business associate is-was their booking agent thru William Morris

they planned on keeping on keeping on as long as there were fans....which oddly at any of their shows would be from 12 year olds to 60.....families together

Sweet Home Alabama is like Glory Hallelujah down here

[Hatteras]

"Was this the guy who crawled away from the plane wreck, struggled through the swamp, then made it to some guy's house, where the guy shot him?"

That was Pyle. Pyle claimed in a much later radio interview that he was shot in the shoulder but there has been no medical verification. A farmer disputes Pyle's story and says he shot a warning shot in the air as two or three of them emerged out of the woods (Billy was still at the crash site).

[stainlessbanner]

Here's Billy doing what he does best

LS - They Call Me the Breeze, 1987

[dead]

Pyle claimed in a much later radio interview that he was shot in the shoulder but there has been no medical verification.

I heard him tell the story on Howard Stern many years ago. He did say he was shot in the shoulder. It was a crazy story. He said he wasn't mad at the farmer, because he came crawling out of the swamp all bloody and covered in mud and spooked the guy.

[Moose4]

He was. It didn’t seem to slow him down on stage, though, he was still excellent behind the keyboard.

}:-)4

[JDoutrider]

"The Breeze" Lynyrd Skynyrd circa:

1975: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYF_H7lU-YA&feature=related

1977 (b&w grainy): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SuBozi_Hp0&NR=1

Some of the hottest licks in all of Rockdom!

[Travis McGee]

Sweet Home Alabama is like Glory Hallelujah down here

Amen! And he died in my present home town, OP FL.

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[Owatamla]

What a fine musician. Rest in peace Billy. I pray you are playing with Ronnie and the rest again in heaven. I grieve with your family, friends and fans of your passing. We will miss you.

A long time fan who had the privilege of seeing the band on several occasions.