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Looking back at the life of the last founding member of Jacksonville’s legendary Lynyrd Skynyrd

The band announced Gary Rossington died Sunday

FILE - Gary Rossington from the band Lynyrd Skynyrd answers questions as Ed King looks on, backstage after being inducted at the annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame dinner in New York, Monday, March 13, 2006. Rossington, Lynyrd Skynyrds last surviving original member who also helped to found the group, died Sunday, March 5, 2023, at the age of 71. (AP Photo/Stuart Ramson, File) (Stuart Ramson, Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The last founder of the Jacksonville-based rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd died Sunday, according to a statement put out by the band’s official Facebook account.

Songwriter and guitarist Gary Rossington was 71.

The band did not say how Rossington died but he suffered from a number of heart problems over the years.

“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. 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,” the band wrote on its Facebook page.

RELATED: Jacksonville’s historic role in the founding of Southern rock

Rossington was one of the surviving members of the 1977 plane crash in Mississippi that killed six people including three of the band’s members.

News4JAX anchor Tom Wills, who traveled to Mississippi to cover the crash, also interviewed Rossington at the Amphitheater in St. Augustine in 2017, where they discussed the horrors of Rossington’s experience in the crash.

The Jacksonville-based band that named itself as a mocking tribute to Robert E. Lee High School, which was recently renamed Riverside High School, physical education teacher Leonard Skinner, who hassled Rossington about his long hair, is widely credited as the first band to bring Southern rock music to an international audience.

The tributes to Rossington’s life came pouring in this following his death.

Metallica frontman James Hetfield said, “RIP Brother Gary. Thank you for bringing me so much joy with your guitar playing and songwriting in one of my all time favorite bands, Lynyrd Skynyrd.”

“The last of the Free Birds has flown home. RIP Gary Rossington, God Bless the Lynyrd @Skynyrd band. Prayers to Dale and the rest of his family,” musician Charlie Daniels wrote.

Country musician Travis Tritt wrote, “I’m heartbroken! Gary was not only a friend, but a collaborator that wrote songs with me and played guitar with me in studio recordings and onstage so many times.”

According to Rolling Stone, during a Little League game, Ronnie Van Zant hit a line drive into the shoulder blades of opposing player Bob Burns.

That’s how the crew met and eventually, Rossington, Burns, Van Zant, and guitarist Allen Collins gathered that afternoon at Burns’ Jacksonville home to play music together.

Rossington once told “Rolling Stone” that he never considered Skynyrd to be a tragic band, despite all the band’s drama and death.

“I don’t think of it as tragedy — I think of it as life,” he said upon the group’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2006. “I think the good outweighs the bad.”

FILE - In this Friday, Feb. 4, 2005 file photo, Members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, from left, Rickey Medlocke, Gary Rossington and Ean Evans, practice at the Jacksonville Production Studio in Jacksonville, Fla. for their Saturday performance as part of the Super Bowl concert series. Lynyrd Skynyrd has pulled out of the Pro Football Hall of Fame concert after guitarist Rickey Medlocke tested positive for COVID-19, Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021. The band was set to co-headline the concert Monday night with Brad Paisley. According to a band statement, Medlockes positive test forced the groups withdrawal. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt, File) (2005 AP)

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