Lynyrd Skynyrd Saratoga Tickets

In 1975, Burns left Lynyrd Skynyrd and was replaced by Kentucky native Artimus Pyle on drums. Lynyrd Skynyrd Lynyrd Skynyrd concert's third album, Nuthin' Fancy, was released the same year, though guitarist Ed King left midway through the tour. In December 1975, backup singers Leslie Hawkins, Cassie Gaines and JoJo Billingsley (collectively known as The Honkettes) were added to the band, and guitarist Steve Gaines, brother of Cassie Gaines, replaced King in 1976. Lynyrd Skynyrd Lynyrd Skynyrd tour's fourth album Gimme Back My Bullets was released that year, but did not achieve the same success as the previous two albums. Despite this, Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded the double-live album One More From the Road in Atlanta, Georgia, and toured the UK with The Rolling Stones.
On Thursday, October 20, 1977, just three days after the release of Street Survivors, and three dates into their most successful headlining tour to date, Lynyrd Skynyrd Lynyrd Skynyrd tour's chartered Convair 240 developed mechanical difficulties near the end of their flight from Greenville, South Carolina to LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Though the pilots attempted an emergency landing on a small airstrip, the plane ran out of fuel and crashed in a forest near McComb, Mississippi, just short of its goal. Singer/songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist/vocalist Steve Gaines, backing vocalist Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray were all killed on impact. Other band members were injured, some seriously. Drummer Artimus Pyle crawled out of the plane wreckage with several broken ribs, but was ambulatory, as were road crew members Kenneth Peden Jr. and Mark Frank. The three injured men hiked some distance from the crash site, through swampy woods, and finally flagged down farmer Johnny Mote, who had come to investigate. Varying accounts have Mote either firing a warning shot into the air or actually shooting Pyle in the shoulder ‰ÛÓ no report is completely reliable. Pyle claimed in a February 2007 appearance on Howard Stern's Sirius radio program that Mote had shot him; Mote has always denied shooting the drummer. Video of a barechested Pyle at the 1979 Volunteer Jam does not show evidence of a gunshot wound.
The band performed live at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky as part of their 2007 tour. That night was recorded in high definition for broadcast on HDNet (premiering December 1, 2007 at 9pm).