RIP Billy Powell

Sad, very, very sad!!

Andre Wittebroek

Gary Rossington is still alive and perhaps the original drummer. Artemus Pyle is still alive as well no?? The drummer at the time of the crash.... Ed King is still alive too, an original guitarist but not with the band at the time of the crash....

Very sad news indeed. He was way too young to die.

Tripsy

Bob Burns was the original drummer at least at the time Pronounced was released and prior to that Rickey Medlocke played drums for a brief stint. Technically speaking that makes three original/early members surviving. Bob Burns sat in at the HOF induction and Rickey & Gary currently play guitar in Skynyrd. When you talk about original members there were others such as Larry Junstrom of .38 Special and Greg T. Walker of Blackfoote who played bass before Leon. Billy was replaced early last year due to health issues, but had hoped to rejoin the band, well I guess he is rejoining Ronnie, Allen, Steve, Leon, and Cassie. THE GREATEST piano riff of all-time, Billy on Call Me The Breeze. His trademark intro to Freebird was a result of his training to become a classical pianist.

                                                                                     Fly High Freebird,

                                                                                     J Dawg

That is sad news indeed!

Roy

Terrible news, Billy was very special and I had the good fortune to meet him once, nice man. FYI, It was Artemus Pyle who was playing drums at  the time of the crash. He was the guy who hiked through the swamps, apparently holding his ribs in by hand, and sought help from at the first house he could find. When he got there, the guy shot him with a shot gun, then realized what was going on and got help so the story goes. Artemus survived and was a great drummer and a big influence of mine for sure, as was Billy and the whole Skynard catalog. One More From The Road is one of my faves and shows the band at their tightest live. He will be missed.

Hey Everybody,
          I just wanted to post a few words about Billy Powell.  I toured with him in 1994 and 1995 with my band Bloodline. Out of all the great people I met on that tour he stands out.. He was really "grateful" for his success and always shared with others.  I took that along all these years his sence  "gratefulness".  Tom spoke of him so very highly and in my experience Tom was right on the money..  Its going to be hard to see that band without the White grand Piano and White  Hammond B3... 
Joe B

Just in the last coupla years LS as a band have had to deal with a terrible run of tragic losses. Like, as if they hadn't had their fair share already.
Leon Wilkinson, then Hughie Thomasson. That hit me real hard as I was/am a massive fan of the Outlaws.
I mean, I know none of us are getting younger, but the hits for LS just keep on coming.

Billy Powell was a tremendous musician and added a fabulous alternative musical dimension to one of rock musics greatest bands.

I read a article recently with Kid Rock who was so complimentary about Billy Powell. He asked him to play on his album. As Kid Rock tells it, he couldn't have been happier to do it, paid his own way to come and do his stuff and didn't want any payment. KR was ecstatic he had agreed to do it at all, while Billy was just glad to be asked. The guy was clearly a "gentleman" in every sense of the word.

Nobody leads a perfect life, but it seems he was one of those rare people who, along the way, gave much more than he took. He'll be missed, absolutely, but they (LS) will and should carry on . The music is how we will always remember them.