How did Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Ronnie Van Zant die?
Ronnie Van Zant was the iconic symbol of Lynyrd Skynyrd and southern rock in general. With his black gambler hat, deep southern accent and passion for fishing and cars, he was the real-life model for the ideals his band was trying to embody.
Van Zant was the group’s wordsmith in chief, imbuing the electric piedmont blues of his bandmates with hearty southern sentiments and a voice capable of carrying an entire crowd along with him. His vocals on the closer of the band’s debut album ‘Free Bird’ chime so perfectly with the lyrics, soaring higher and higher in sustained flight, that it’s difficult to tell whether the tune or the words came first. They were meant to be together.
Perhaps, then, it was also destiny of a more tragic sort that saw Van Zant’s life cut short in the unplanned descent of a winged vessel meant to be carrying him and his bandmates to musical heights higher than they’d ever known before. Although Van Zant was just 29 years old, Lynyrd Skynyrd had already released five studio albums when he boarded the Convair CV-240 private jet, taking the band to their next tour stop in Louisiana.
Their fifth LP, Street Survivors, looked set to be their biggest success yet, having just been released three days before. The band debuted some of the new album’s tracks on their summer tour, including its first single, ‘That Smell’.
What happened next?
Some distance short of its scheduled destination of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the pilots of the aeroplane noticed a critical fuel shortage that meant the plane wouldn’t make it. They attempted an emergency landing in a field, but before they could reach the proposed landing site, the plane descended too quickly and crashed into a tree.
Van Zant was lying on the floor of the plane asleep with his head on a pillow and so was more exposed to the impact of the crash than most other passengers. He died from head injuries, seemingly straight after impact. Bandmate Steve Gaines and his sister Cassie were among the six fatalities as well, while other members of Lynyrd Skynyrd suffered major injuries. Especially guitarist Allen Collins, who sustained several broken vertebrae.
Somehow, Van Zant seemed to be acutely aware that his life was in danger. The final line of the chorus refrain for ‘That Smell’ is “The smell of death surrounds you”. According to his own father, Lacy Van Zant, and former bandmate Ed King, Ronnie Van Zant repeatedly stated that he’d never make it to the age of 30. Unfortunately, he turned out to be unerringly accurate.
