October 1976 interview<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s a terrible thing when you get behind the wheel and you\u2019re so drunk that you can\u2019t drive a car to begin with. Those boys will pay for it,\u201d he said of his bandmates. \u201cAllen hit a parked Volkswagen and knocked it across an empty parking lot. That was just a fender-bender compared to Gary\u2019s,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\u201cHe passed out at the wheel of his brand new Ford Torino, with his foot on the gas. He knocked down a telephone pole, split an oak tree, and did $7,000 worth of damage to a house,\u201d Van Zant said of Rossington\u2019s wreck. \u201cThat\u2019s just being plain stupid. I told him that on his hospital bed,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Garry Rosington\u2019s Wreck Inspired a Lynyrd Skynyrd Classic<\/p>\n
The writing credits for \u201cThat Smell\u201d help to illustrate which of the two Ronnie Van Zant was more upset with. He co-penned the song with Allen Collins. Lynyrd Skynyrd released it as the second single from Street Survivors in October 1977. It failed to chart at the time. However, it remains a favorite among fans.<\/p>\n
The opening lines of the song point directly to Gary Rossington\u2019s car wreck\u2013Whiskey bottles, brand new car \/ Oak tree you\u2019re in my way. Other lines in the song inspired a nickname for Rossington. After writing Now they call you Prince Charming \/ Can\u2019t speak a word when you\u2019re full of \u2018ludes, Van Zant started calling the guitarist Prince Charming.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat Smell\u201d wasn\u2019t just meant to chasten Rossington and Collins. It was a warning against reckless drinking and substance abuse. The band was familiar with both. However, after years of touring and growing up, Van Zant was ready to slow down. \u201cYou know, the biggest change in myself that I\u2019ve noticed is that for the first time I\u2019m really thinking about the future. I\u2019m 27 now, and I\u2019ve got a baby girl, and I plan to stick around and watch her grow up. I also plan to collect for the last 10 years of self-abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tragically, that wouldn\u2019t happen. On October 20, 1977, just three days after Street Survivors hit shelves, a plane crash killed Van Zant, Steve Gaines, and Cassie Gaines, along with the pilot, co-pilot, and Lynyrd Skynyrd\u2019s assistant road manager.<\/p>\n
Featured Image by Richard Creamer\/Michael Ochs Archives\/Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On this day (September 5), in 1976, Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington crashed his brand-new Ford Torino while…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":202901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[20829,976,171,79586,975,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-202900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-1970s","9":"tag-classic-rock","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-lynyrd-skynyrd","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115152936311364254","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}