The pilots tried to land on a small airstrip, but the bottom of the airplane clipped some trees, and the aircraft went down in a remote wooded area. Comments posted to may be reprinted in the Easy Reader print edition, which is published each Thursday.Lynyrd Skynyrd were flying from Greenville, S.C., to Baton Rouge, La., on tour when their plane reportedly ran out of fuel toward the end of the flight. Tickets are $15 and are available at Comments:Ĭomments so far. And no one plays Lynyrd Skynyrd music like I do.”Īrtimus Pyle Band plays Saint Rocke Thursday, September 12 at 8pm. But what I love the most is being a drummer. “I can write, I can run a bulldozer, I can fly a plane. He is also working on a book: the untold history of the band and the crash. “I have drums in every single room of the house and I can play whenever I want.” “The best part is that I have no neighbors,” Pyle laughed. These days, when Pyle isn’t touring, he is enjoying a quiet life in Ashville, North Carolina, where he lives on 150 acres that include a lake, a horse farm and a recording studio. He is the Ringo Starr of southern rock drummers.’” So when I announced him I said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, when you fell in love with Lynyrd Skynyrd, this was the drummer. “The ship was full of true fans,” Pyle said. The audience on the cruise was treated to “Sweet Home Alabama,” “Free Bird” and “Simple Man” played with both Burns and Pyle onstage on dual drum kits. I took over for him when he lost his mind on tour in Paris.” “Bob Burns was the drummer on the first two Skynyrd albums,” Pyle said. Two years ago they were part of the Rock Legends Cruise and Pyle invited a special guest to perform with him. Without him there would have been no Lynyrd Skynyrd. “You wouldn’t even know my name if it weren’t for Ronnie Van Zant. “I do Lynyrd Skynyrd music with respect and accuracy,” he says of the Artimus Pyle Band. Thirty six years later, the healing continues for Pyle. Medics were called, the crash was cleared and mourning began. He felt really bad once I told him what happened.” “The farmer shot me in the shoulder,” Pyle said. Pyle finally stumbled upon a farm he thought he had found his salvation but quickly learned otherwise. “And then I heard this snake slither up to me in the darkness and I remember saying, out loud, ‘Snake, I will bite your head off.’ Nothing was going to stop me from getting help. “I remember looking up from the swamp, and help was so close but so far away,” Pyle said. The sound of the crash had alerted paramedics, but because the plane had run out of fuel, there was no fire to guide help to the site. At one point a helicopter circled overhead. Pyle dragged his body, broken ribs and all, through the murky swamp. My chest was crushed but I started walking to get help.” “I forced myself out from under the wreckage. But he speaks so matter-of-factly about the events that only his extended pauses between sentences give him away. Pyle still chokes up when he talks about the crash. “This year will be 36 years since the crash,” Pyle said. Six of the 26 people on the plane were killed instantly, including band members Ronnie Van Zant, Cassie Gaines and Steve Gaines. The band was on tour, making their way from Greenville, South Carolina to Baton Rouge, when the aircraft ran out of fuel and took a nosedive into the darkness of the forest below. On October 20, 1977, a Convair CV-300 carrying the members of Lynyrd Skynyrd crashed in a heavily-wooded swamp just outside Gillsburg, Mississippi. Artimus Pyle on stage with his band in 2011.
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