LYNYRD SKYNYRD Cancels More Shows As Singer JOHNNY VAN ZANT’s Daughter Battles ‘Sudden Emergency Illness’

LYNYRD SKYNYRD has canceled more concerts due to singer Johnny Van Zant’s “sudden emergency illness”.On Tuesday (September 24),the legendary Southern rock group announced that it was scrapping its show scheduled for that night in Anchorage, Alaska. The band cited a “medical emergency” as the reason and added that Van Zant had learned his daughter was undergoing emergency surgery.On Wednesday (September 25),LYNYRD SKYNYRD announced that it was calling off four additional shows, explaining that Van Zant’s daughter “had a sudden emergency illness” and that he had “left the tour to be with her while they continue testing, diagnosis, and treatment.”Affected concerts:September 26 – West Valley, UtahSeptember 27 – Loveland, ColoradoSeptember 28 – Colorado Springs, ColoradoSeptember 29 – Albuquerque, New MexicoThis past July, LYNYRD SKYNYRD guitarist Rickey Medlocke told Joe Rock of Long Island’s rock station 102.3 WBAB that he and his bandmates have been talking about making a new LYNYRD SKYNYRD record as a tribute to the group’s late guitarist Gary Rossington.If a new LYNYRD SKYNYRD album materializes, it will be the group’s first since 2012’s “Last Of A Dyin’ Breed”. The band released a single, “Last Of The Street Survivors”, in 2020.”Last Of The Street Survivors” — which shares its name with what was the time of the song’s release supposed to be LYNYRD SKYNYRD’s farewell tour — was penned by Rossington alongside Van Zant, Medlocke and songwriter Tom Hambridge, and found the Southern rockers reminiscing about their career and the bandmates they lost.After four SKYNYRD members were killed in an October 1977 plane crash, Rossington recruited Johnny to fill his brother’s shoes a decade later.Medlocke, who played drums in SKYNYRD in 1970-71 before leaving to lead his own band BLACKFOOT and coming back to SKYNYRD in 1996, defended LYNYRD SKYNYRD’s decision to carry on, telling Cleveland.com in May 2023: “People have beat us up over the years: ‘Ah, you guys ain’t nothin’ but a freakin’ tribute band’ and blah, blah, blah.”There’s a lot of tribute bands out there to LYNYRD SKYNYRD, but none of them holds it as dear to their hearts as the guys who have been there as long as we have,” he explained. “We have the history; I played on the first (recording) sessions. We just know that we have to portray the music with the integrity and the sound and the love as close as we can to when it was originally created.”Rossington was the last surviving founding member of LYNYRD SKYNYRD. On March 5, 2023, his bandmates announced the news of his death in a statement shared on their social media.Posted by Lynyrd Skynyrd on Wednesday, September 25, 2024