With the lingering effects of losing his friends in the plane crash, Kathy's death devastated Collins. In 1980, during the first days of the debut concert tour, Collins's wife, Kathy, suddenly died of a hemorrhage during the miscarriage of their third child. Tragedy struck again just as the Rossington Collins Band was getting off the ground. While amputation was recommended, Collins' father refused and he eventually recovered.ĭuring the early 1980s, Collins continued to perform on stage in The Rossington-Collins Band which enjoyed modest success, releasing two albums ( Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere, and This Is the Way), and charting a few singles (notably "Don't Misunderstand Me"). Collins was seriously injured in the crash, suffering two broken vertebrae in his neck and severe damage to his right arm. On October 20, 1977, an airplane carrying the band crashed into a forest in Mississippi, killing three band members, including Van Zant. The band received national success beginning in 1973 while opening for The Who on their Quadrophenia tour.
#WHEN DID LYNYRD SKYNYRD DIE FREE#
Ĭollins and lead singer Ronnie Van Zant co-wrote many of the biggest Skynyrd hits, including " Free Bird", " Gimme Three Steps", and " That Smell". They soon convinced him that they were not there to beat him up and he agreed to join the band, then known as The One Percent. Van Zant and Burns both had a reputation for trouble, and Collins fled on his bicycle and hid up a tree when he saw them pull up in his driveway. Knowing that Collins played guitar and owned his own equipment, the band decided to approach him about joining them.
Collins was also fond of cars, and had a fairly extensive car collection, one of his favorites being a 1932 Plymouth coupe nicknamed "Dixie Blue".Īllen Collins joined Skynyrd in Jacksonville, Florida, just two weeks after its formation by Ronnie Van Zant and Gary Rossington, along with Bob Burns and Larry Junstrom. Collins's family grew with the birth of his daughter Amie, followed quickly by Allison. The wedding reception was one of the first public performances of " Free Bird" complete with the trademark extended guitar jam at the end. To solve this problem, she required all the band members to keep their hair under wigs at the wedding ceremony. All of his bandmates were in his wedding party, but Kathy worried that the band's long haired appearance would disturb her parents. Collins started playing guitar at 12 years of age, with a few lessons from his stepmother, Leila Collins, a country-and-western guitarist, teaching him a few notes, and receiving his first guitar and amplifier from his father after a falling-out between the two.
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