Steve Gaines

Infobox musical artist
Name = PAGENAME


Img_capt =
Born = birth date|1949|9|14|mf=y
Miami, Oklahoma,
United States
Died = death date and age|1977|10|20|1949|9|14
Gillsburg, Mississippi,
United States
Alias = Okie
Background = non_vocal_instrumentalist
Instrument = Guitar
Genre = Southern rock
Associated_acts = Lynyrd Skynyrd
Label = MCA
Notable_instruments =
Years_active = 1970 - 1977
URL = [http://www.stevegaines.com www.stevegaines.com]

Steven Earl Gaines (September 14, 1949 – October 20, 1977) was an American musician. He is most well-known as a guitarist and songwriter for Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Life & Career

Gaines was born in Miami, Oklahoma. He began playing guitar after seeing The Beatles in concert as a teenager. His first band, The Ravens, made its first recording at the famous Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. Gaines later played with bands "RIO Smokehouse", Rusty Day, Detroit and Crawdada in the 1970s. He also recorded several songs with friend and producer John Ryan that were later released in 1988 by MCA Records as his only solo album, "One in the Sun".

In 1976, Gaines' sister, Cassie Gaines, became a member of Lynyrd Skynyrd's female backup singers, The Honkettes. Around the same time, the band was looking for a guitarist to replace Ed King, who left the band the year before. Cassie recommended her brother, and after initial reluctance, the band allowed Gaines to join them onstage for a show. Legend has it that during Gaines' first show with Lynyrd Skynyrd in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Allen Collins turned to the band during Gaines' solo in "T for Texas (Blue Yodel)" holding up three fingers, indicating to the band that it had just found a third guitarist. He became a band member within a month, just in time for the recording of Skynyrd's live album "One More From The Road". In an eerie coincidence, Ed King and Steve Gaines were both born on September 14, 1949.

Gaines' guitar and songwriting skills were a major contribution to the band, as proven on his one studio album with the band, 1977's "Street Survivors". Publicly and privately, Ronnie Van Zant marvelled at the vocal and instrumental skill of Skynyrd's newest member, claiming that the band would "all be in his shadow one day." Gaines' contributions included his co-lead vocal with Van Zant on the co-written "You Got That Right" (a solid hit single released after the plane crash) and the rousing guitar boogie "I Know A Little" which he had written before he joined Skynyrd. So confident was Skynyrd's leader of Gaines' abilities that the album (and some concerts) featured Gaines delivering his self-penned blues "Ain't No Good Life" - the only song in the pre-crash Skynyrd catalog to feature a lead vocalist other than Ronnie Van Zant.

Unfortunately, on October 20, 1977, three days after the album was released (and four dates into the band's most successful tour yet), a plane carrying the band between shows from Greenville, South Carolina to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, crashed outside of Gillsburg, Mississippi. Steve Gaines was killed on impact; he was 28 years old. The crash also killed Ronnie Van Zant, Steve's sister Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, as well as pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray. [Check-Six 2007.]

Gaines was cremated and buried in Orange Park, Florida in 1977, but was relocated to an undisclosed location after vandals broke into his and bandmate Ronnie Van Zant's tombs on June 29, 2000. Their mausoleums remain as memorials for fans to visit.

Gaines is the subject of the 2001 song "Cassie's Brother" by rock band Drive-By Truckers.

Less than two years after the plane crash, the Gaines' mother, Cassie LaRue Gaines, was killed in an automobile accident near the cemetery where Steve and Cassie were buried. She was buried near her children.

Quote

*"This is like a start of what I want to do. This is the beginning. I hope that I can be good enough to keep on going... This is all I ever dreamed about, you know? Just doing this." "October 17, 1977 interview, the day Street Survivors was released. He was killed three days later by the plane crash."

Notes

References

*cite web
author = Check-Six
date = 2007-05
title = The 'Lynyrd Skynyrd' Crash
url = http://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/LynyrdSkynyrd-N55VM.htm
accessdate = 2008-07-05

External links

* [http://www.stevegaines.com Official Steve Gaines site]
* [http://www.lynyrdskynyrdhistory.com Official Lynyrd Skynyrd History site]
* [http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=44587&key=0 US NTSB Report on Plane Crash]