LA, Aug 12: Veteran southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd has canceled the first 12 dates on its upcoming tour as the group's leader deals with complications from heart surgery, a spokesman said on Monday. Guitarist Gary Rossington, 51, who underwent quintuple bypass surgery in February, recently suffered a mild seizure and is now battling "some artery blockage," according to a statement.
The seven-man band will now begin its Vicious Cycle tour on Sept. 16 in Trenton, New Jersey; it was supposed to begin on Aug. 23 in Omaha, Nebraska. Rossington's health problems also forced Lynyrd Skynyrd to cancel the remaining dates on its co-headlining tour with former Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar, who is continuing the trek by himself.
Rossington and pianist Billy Powell are the only original members in the band, which is famed for its three guitarists and its hard-living lifestyle during its 1970s heyday.
Singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines were killed when the group's plane crashed in a Mississippi swamp in 1977; most recently, bass player Leon Wilkeson died in 2001, aged 49. Another guitarist, Allen Collins, died of pneumonia in 1990, several years after being paralyzed in a car crash. Bureau Report