The legend of Artimus Pyle: Lynyrd Skynyrd’s drummer lives to tell the tale
Artimus Pyle on stage with his band in 2011. On October 20, 1977, a Convair CV-300 carrying the members of Lynyrd Skynyrd crashed in a heavily-wooded swamp just outside Gillsburg, Mississippi. The band was on tour, making their way from Greenville, South Carolina to Baton Rouge, when the aircraft ran out of fuel and took a nosedive into the darkness of the forest below. Six of the 26 people on the plane were killed instantly, including band members Ronnie Van Zant, Cassie Gaines and Steve Gaines. Artimus Pyle, the drummer, survived. “This year will be 36 years since the crash,” Pyle said. “But for me it’s like yesterday. I was never knocked unconscious. I remember all of it.” Pyle still chokes up when he talks about the crash. But he speaks so matter-of-factly about the events that only his extended pauses between sentences give him away. “We hit the ground,” he said. “I forced myself out from under the wreckage. My chest was crushed but I started walking to get help.” Pyle dragged his body, broken ribs and all, through the murky swamp. At one point a helicopter circled overhead. The sound of the crash had alerted paramedics, but because the plane had run out of fuel, there was no…
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