Lynyrd Skynyrd has had a rough couple of days.
Frontman Johnny Van Zant left the road to be with his ailing youngest daughter, leading to the cancellation of a string of shows. Then Van Zant’s bus driver ended up in the intensive care unit after getting into a scooter accident while on the way to buy a get-well card.
“A couple of days ago, [his daughter] Taylor started having numbing feelings on her right side,” Van Zant says in a new social media video. “She went to the emergency room. They did a CAT scan and they found – the only way to say it, is a mass on her brain. Some of it was bleeding, and that was causing the numbing part.”
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They’ve ruled out cancer, Van Zant added, but his daughter remains under the care of a neurology team. In the meantime, Lynyrd Skynyrd scrubbed a concert on Tuesday in Anchorage, Alaska, before announcing another four cancellations on Wednesday: Tonight in West Valley, Utah; Friday in Loveland, Colorado; Saturday in Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Sunday in Albuquerque.
Now Brad Gibson, Van Zant’s bus driver, has “wrecked the scooter and hit his head. He’s in the ICU,” Van Zant confirms. “I want to get Brad back on his feet, along with Taylor – so if you guys could say a prayer. … He’s been an awesome driver for us. Good guy, and a really freak accident.”
Johnny took over for Ronnie Van Zant in 1987, roughly a decade after his older sibling was killed in a horrific plane crash that nearly ended Lynyrd Skynyrd. He recently paired with another brother, .38 Special’s Donnie Van Zant, to produce a Christian rock album titled Always Look Up.
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