ORANGE PARK, Fla. — Lynyrd Skynyrd keyboard player Billy Powell, who played on such hits as “Sweet Home Alabama” and survived the 1977 plane crash that killed three band members, died Wednesday. He was 56.
Powell called 911 in this Jacksonville suburb saying he was having trouble breathing. Rescue crews performed CPR, but he was pronounced dead about an hour later, Orange Park police Lt. Mark Cornett said. A heart attack is suspected as the cause of death.
The Jacksonville-based band was formed in 1966 by a group of high school students — famously, it took its name from a physical education teacher they disliked, Leonard Skinner. Powell joined the group in 1970 and became its keyboardist in 1972, the year before it released its first album, “Pronounced leh-nerd skin-nerd.”
It became one of the South’s most popular rock groups and gained national fame with such hits as “Free Bird,” “What’s Your Name” and especially “Sweet Home Alabama,” which reached the top 10 on the charts in 1974. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.
The band was decimated on Oct. 20, 1977, when its chartered plane crashed in a swamp near McComb, Miss.
Six people were killed — lead singer Ronnie Van Zant; guitarist Steve Gaines; and Gaines’ sister, vocalist Cassie Gaines; as well as an assistant road manager, the pilot and co-pilot.
Powell received facial injuries in the crash but eventually recovered. In 1987, Johnny Van Zant — Ronnie’s brother — formed a new Lynyrd Skynyrd Band, including Powell. The band’s last album, “Vicious Cycle,” was released in 2003.
The band had recorded several songs for a new album and had upcoming gigs, which will be canceled, Van Zant said.
