10 Rock Bands Without Any Original Members Left
2. Lynyrd Skynyrd
This list has dealt with its fair share of tragedy already, but the story of Lynyrd Skynyrd is by far the saddest one yet.
The Southern rock idols took on their most famous moniker in 1969, after a series of failed names. This incarnation of Skynyrd consisted of Larry Junstrom and Bob Burns, who weren't around long enough to be of much interest, and three men who would be on all of the band's original albums - guitarists Gary Rossington and Allen Collins, and singer Ronnie Van Zant.
Van Zant famously lost his life in a 1977 plane crash that also killed five other people. Whilst Skynyrd were able to reform in 1987, Collins had been in a serious car accident the year before, which paralysed him from the waist down. He served as the band's musical director until his death in 1990.
That just leaves Rossington, who survived that fateful plane crash and re-joined the band upon their '87 reunion. He played with them for the next 35 years, until he also passed away in 2023, aged 71.
Okay, that's the heavy stuff out of the way now.