“I don’t think Leon knew where any of the bass notes were. He played totally by instinct, and his instincts were usually right”: Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Leon Wilkeson was the ‘Mad Hatter’ of bass – as evidenced by his bassline on What’s Your Name

Photo of LYNYRD SKYNYRD; Leon Wilkeson.

It’s virtually impossible to write about Southern rock legends Lynyrd Skynyrd without mentioning the plane crash that decimated the band at its creative peak in October 1977, killing, among others, frontman Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines.

The group was just four dates into a massive tour in support of its album Street Survivors, released just three days earlier, when the small chartered plane crashed into a Mississippi forest after running out of fuel.