FILE – Gary Rossington of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd performs on Day 1 of the 2015 Big Barrel Country Music Festival at The Woodlands on Friday, June 26, 2015, in Dover, Del. Rossington, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s last surviving original member who also helped to found the group, died Sunday, March 5, 2023, at the age of 71. (Photo by Owen Sweeney/Invision/AP, File)

Gary Rossington, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s last surviving original member who also helped to found the group, died Sunday at the age of 71. The band wrote on Facebook, “It is with our deepest sympathy and sadness that we have to advise, that we lost our brother, friend, family member, songwriter and guitarist, Gary Rossington, today.” Rossington cheated death more than once, Rolling Stone reported. He survived a car accident in 1976. A year later, he survived a plane crash that killed singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and backing vocalist Cassie Gaines. In later years he underwent numerous heart surgeries. No cause of death was given.