Lynyrd Skynyrd Original Drummer Bob Burns Dies in Car Crash

Lynyrd Skynyrd is mourning one of their own. The band’s original drummer, Bob Burns, died Friday in a car crash in Cartersville, Georgia. He was 64.

Robert Lewis Burns Jr.always loved music. He formed a band with his teenage friends in the 1960s in Jacksonville, Florida.

Originally called My Backyard, then The Noble Five, and then One Percent, the band members eventually settled on the name Lynyrd Skynyrd in a mockery-turned-tribute to their physical education teacher, Leonard Skinner. Mr. Skinner wouldn’t allow his male students to wear their hair long.

Bob Burns lent his percussion talents to the first two Lynyrd Skynyrd albums, on which hits like ‘Free Bird’ and ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ appeared. He left the band in 1974, after deciding he wasn’t quite cut out for life on the road. Burns was subsequently replaced by Artimus Pyle. When Lynyrd Skynyrd was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, however, Bob Burns performed with the band for the special event.

Artimus Pyle paid tribute to Burns on his band’s Facebook page.

Gary Rossington, who was also a founding member of the band, paid tribute to Bob Burns on the Lynyrd Skynyrd Facebook page.

How sad that the music world has lost such a talented drummer. Bob Burns will forever be remembered for his time with Lynyrd Skynyrd.