Former drummer for Lynyrd Skynyrd dies in wreck
CARTERSVILLE, Ga. - The former drummer and a founding member of the Southern hard rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, Robert Burns Jr., died late Friday in a single-vehicle crash in Georgia, police and his father said.
Burns' vehicle went off a road just before midnight as it approached a curve near Cartersville, striking a mailbox and a tree, Georgia State Patrol spokeswoman Tracey Watson said. Burns, 64, was killed in the wreck. He was not wearing a seatbelt.
The single-vehicle accident remains under investigation, and Watson said further details were not immediately available.
Burns was one of five musicians who founded the band in Jacksonville, Florida. While Burns was with the group, it recorded "Sweet Home Alabama," ''Gimme Three Steps," and "Free Bird." He left the group in 1974.
He continued to play for fun or in guest appearances nationally, said his father, Robert Burns Sr. Early on, the group played in the Burns' family garage.
"He was a product of his mother, so far as manners is concerned," the elder Burns said. "He had the manners that would suit the King of England. Very soft-spoken and extremely well-mannered person to come out of that kind of industry."
The band, which was originally formed in the 1960s, underwent several name changes before becoming Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Guitarist Gary Rossington, who formed the original band with Burns, wrote on the band's Facebook page Saturday, "Today I'm at a loss for words, but I just remember Bob being a funny guy. He was just so funny, he used to do skits for us and make us laugh all the time, he was hilarious!
"My heart goes out to his family and God bless him and them in this sad time. He was a great, great drummer."
To hear Lynyrd Skynyrd perform in the 1974 song, "Sweet Home Alabama," click on the video player below.
In 1977 original band members Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines, along with backup singer Cassie Gaines and assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, were killed in a plane crash in Mississippi that also killed the two pilots.
Of the band's earliest members, guitarist Allen Collins died in 1990 from pneumonia. Bassist Leon Wilkeson, who was badly injured in the 1977 plane crash, never fully recovered, and died of natural causes in 2001. Guitarist Hughie Thomasson died of a heart attack in 2007. Keyboardist Billy Powell died in 2009 of suspected heart failure.
Rossington is the only founding member who stills performs with Lynyrd Skynyrd.