Allen Collins

Allen Collins joined Skynyrd in Jacksonville Florida just two weeks after Ronnie Van Zant and Gary Rossington along with Bob Burns and Larry Junstrom So came the birth of Lynyrd Skynyrd in the summer of 1964 Allen Collins and lead singer Ronnie Van Zant cowrote many of the biggest Skynyrd hits including Free Bird Gimme Three Steps and That Smell The band received national success beginning in 1973 while opening for The Who on their Quadrophenia tour In 1970 Allen married Kathy Johns All of his band mates were in his wedding party but Kathy worried that the bands long haired appearance would disturb her parents To solve this problem it required all the band members to keep their rock and roll image under wigs at the wedding ceremony The wedding reception was one of the first public performances of Freebird complete with the trademark extended guitar jam at the end Allens family grew with the birth of his daughter Amie and followed quickly by Allison On October 20 1977 the Skynyrd plane crashed into a forest in Mississippi killing three band members including Van Zant Collins was seriously injured in the crash suffering two broken vertebrae in his neck and severe damage to his right arm While amputation was recommended Collins father refused and Allen eventually recovered In 1986 Collins was involved in a car accident claiming the life of his girlfriend and leaving the guitarist paralyzed from the waist down with limited use of his arms and hands Collins pled no contest to vehicular manslaughter as well as driving under the influence of alcohol He would never play guitar onstage again In 1986 Collins was involved in a car accident claiming the life of his girlfriend and leaving the guitarist paralyzed from the waist down with limited use of his arms and hands Collins pled no contest to vehicular manslaughter as well as driving under the influence of alcohol He would never play guitar onstage again Allen Collins died January 23 1990 from chronic pneumonia a complication of the paralysis He is buried beside his wife in Jacksonville Florida