Lynyrd Skynyrd's Gary Rossington dies - Which other bands have no surviving founding members?

Gary Rossington, the guitarist last surviving member of Lynyrd Skynyrd has died, aged 71.

“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,” wrote the band’s official Facebook account.

“Gary is now with his Skynyrd brothers and family in heaven and playing it pretty, like he always does. Please keep Dale, Mary, Annie and the entire Rossington family in your prayers and respect the family’s privacy at this difficult time.”

A founding member of the band, Rossington was a teen when he, Ronnie Van Zant, Allen Collins, Larry Junstrom and Bob Burns started practising together in 1964. 

As a fivesome, the group was originally called ‘My Backyard’. They cycled through the names ‘Conquer the Worm’, ‘The Noble Five’ and ‘The One Percent’ before settling on the iconic moniker ‘Lynyrd Skynyrd’ in 1969.

The band named themselves after Leonard Skinner, a PE teacher in their Florida high school and a character in Allan Sherman's novelty song ‘Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh’. The band released their first album ‘(Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd)’ in 1973, to immediate acclaim in rock circles, especially for their song ‘Free Bird’.

For many, Lynyrd Skynyrd are the quintessential band for a Southern US brand of Rock n’ Roll. 

‘Free Bird’ and ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ are in a certain class of rock song that supersedes the band to become standards of the genre.

Despite rocketing to stardom with their iconic sound in the 70s, the band was beset by tragedy from the early days. For instance, Rossington cheated death twice. In 1976, he drove his Ford Torino into a tree, inspiring the band’s cautionary song ‘That Smell’. The next year, the band