In the Summer of 1977 Aerosmith were due to travel on a Convair 240 aeroplane between gigs. The plane was rejected because it was not up to safety standards and an Aerosmith staff member reported that he saw it’s two pilots trading a bottle of Jack Daniels just before it was been due to take off.
A couple of months later, Lynyrd Skynyrd hired the same plane to travel from South Carolina to Baton Rouge: the plane never made it, crashing due to mechanical failure and killing singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines and his wife and back-up singer Cassie.
Drummer Artimus Pyle famously crawled from the wreckage, only to be shot and injured by the first farmer they found.
Three days before this Lynyrd Skynyrd released their fifth and final album, Street Survivors, home of the classic tracks “What’s Your Name’ (a groupie song) and ‘That Smell” (the smell of death from a drug addict)
Spin CD’s has just announced the upcoming release of a Deluxe Edition of this album. It contains bonus material, including the last known recording of the band made just 2 months before the crash. It also has 5 live tracks that have never been heard before.
Due out on 24 March 2008
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