Gary Rossington Recovering From Emergency Heart Surgery

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Gary Rossington with missing teeth after a car wreck in 1976

Photo by Michael Ochs/Getty Images

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Gary Rossington’s heart has gone through a load of issues throughout the past decade. According to a heartfelt message posted on the iconic southern rock band’s Facebook page, the guitarist is now recovering from a surgery where he had an emergency stent put in his heart.

Lynyrd Skynyrd’s post read:

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Gary Rossington as he recovers from emergency heart surgery. Gary is home resting and recovering with his family at home. He wants everyone to know he is doing good and expects a full recovery.

After this past year, the country being shut down and everything we have all been thru, The Rossington’s encouraged the band to go perform in his absence. Music is a powerful healer! We all felt playing the shows and bringing the music to y’all was a better option than cancelling the performances.

We wish Gary a speedy recovery and we will see the Skynyrd Nation very soon!

Please do us a favor and say some prayers for the Rossington family and if you would like to leave him a (positive) message please do! He will look forward to reading them!”

Rossington suffered from a heart attack in 2015 which led to a previous surgery and underwent another procedure to fix a leaky heart valve in 2019. He is expected to make a full recovery while he is at home resting with his family.

Lynyrd Skynyrd is currently on the road for their 2021 “Big Wheels Keep on Turnin'” tour, which is scheduled until September. Rossington, the only original Lynyrd Skynyrd member of the present band, will be replaced by Damon Johnson (of Thin Lizzy and Alice Cooper) until he makes a full recovery.