The co-founder of Lynyrd Skynyrd also reveals that his failing health prompts his band to announce a plan for farewell tour.
- May 7, 2018
AceShowbiz - Lynyrd Skynyrd co-founder Gary Rossington has revealed he pops nitroglycerine pills to prevent heart attacks when he's onstage. The "Sweet Home Alabama" rocker has suffered several heart attacks over the course of the last decade and now the guitarist tells the Tampa Bay Times that doctors have been urging him to give up touring for 15 years.
He reveals his cardiac problems have become such a big part of his life, he has scary health episodes during gigs. "I've had heart attacks onstage a lot," he tells the publication.
His failing health prompted the band to announce plans for a farewell tour, which begins in West Palm Beach, Florida on Friday night, May 4. "That's why I was calling it a farewell tour... I don't want to die and then it (band) end that way, which is a heavy thing to talk about, but I have to," Gary shares.
Meanwhile, in a documentary titled "If I Leave Here Tomorrow: A Film About Lynyrd Skynyrd", the Lynyrd Skynyrd star visits a grave plot at the same Jacksonville, Florida cemetery where the band's late singer Ronnie Van Zant is buried.
Rossington became the only original member left in the band following a 1977 plane crash, which cost his bandmates their lives.
