Countless bands, many of them Texas Country bands have been influenced by the original Lynyrd Skynyrd band and their southern rock sound. Filming has begun on Street Survivors:The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash in 1977... 

On October 20, 1977, a Convair CV-240 chartered by Lynyrd Skynyrd ran out of fuel and crashed in Gillsburg, Mississippi, near the end of its flight from Greenville, South Carolina, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Lead vocalist/founding member Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist/vocalist Steve Gaines, backing vocalist Cassie Gaines (Steve's older sister), assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary, and co-pilot William Gray all died as a result of the crash. Twenty others survived. Among them, Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer Artimus Pyle who will be telling the story of that tragedy from behind the camera.

I'm sure the film will bring out some interesting facts such as Pyle having told Howard Stern in an interview that the fuel gauge in the older-model plane was known to malfunction and the pilots had neglected to manually check the tanks before taking off.

Another fact is that same chartered plane had been refused by the band Aerosmith due to safety issues only a week before.

Pyle told Deadline...“When that plane crashed, we were at the top of the world, man. I think of that accident every day and what we might have accomplished if we’d have 10 more years … We want this to be a good movie that tells a very passionate, intimate story about the music and the band and a rise and fall that happened so suddenly.”

'Street Survivors', named for the album that Lynyrd Skynyrd released just three days before the deadly plane crash will focus mainly on Pyle’s recollection of the tragedy.

Pyle explained....“I want the movie to portray my band members the way they were: real, funny people who loved the music, loved the success that allowed us to be able to travel the world and play for kings and queens all over this planet. It’s incredibly personal and passionate to me, and I want the movie going public to be able to share the laughs and the tears.”

“This is a much-deserved movie for the fans of Skynyrd, and for people who’ll become fans after they see it,” Pyle says, “and I”m grateful that Cleopatra Films is stepping up the way it has, when nobody else was willing to go against the powers that be, to get this story told.”

Release details for Street Survivors:The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash have not yet been announced.

 

 

More From 103.1 KKCN