Sad day.  Billy was a great musician and down to earth good person.  Was one heckuva of a story teller.  He will be missed.

http://www.reuters.com/article/peopleNews/idUSTRE50R7ME20090128

RIP, Billy.

yeh that sucks. He actually wrote the opening to freebird. I know there going to cancel some conerts. I wonder when they will be back.

Wow. I saw the band in June of 1976 at the old JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. They were not the headliner that day, it was Peter Frampton. They tore the place to pieces. Most people started to leave a few songs into Frampton's set.

A lot of big name bands back then hated having Lynyrd Skynyrd open for them because they usually blew the headliners off of the stage. They even upstaged the Rolling Stones in England.

Probably one of the best live bands I've ever seen.

A sad day indeed :'(

I'm too young to have seen the original skynyrd play, but I saw them play 3 years in a row in college.  They were awesome.  They were supposed to play the New Years Eve concert in Nashville TN, but cancelled because of the economy.  Too bad I was thinking about going.  Any way it's a sad day for sure.  Hope they go out on tour again soon.  

ditto, as well.

rip, billy.

Sucky news for sure.  There have been a lot of greats pass recently.