Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Gary Rossington performs Sweet Home Alabama as guitarist dies aged 71

The founder and last surviving original member of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd has died aged 71.Gary Rossington died on Sunday March 5, nearly four months before the band was planning to set out on its next tour. His cause of death has not been given. The band is best known for it's 'Sweet Home Alabama' hit in 1974, which reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the band's highest-charting single.In 1977 Rossington survived a plane crash that killed bandmates Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and backing vocalist Cassie Gaines, with two broken arms, a broken leg, and a punctured stomach and liver.Credit: Lynyrd Skynyrd