Debra Jean Watts entered eternal rest Tuesday, January 28, 2020, in Durango. He was very, very intelligent, but he had a high temper. These were guys who never expected anything, but wanted everything. Debra Lizama is 61. In 1987, Collins and his father decided to re-form Lynyrd Skynyrd for a tribute tour. The remaining Skynyrd members agreed, along with Ronnie Van Zants younger brother, Johnny, who would take center stage. Here, you can discover the world of southern rock with latest news, videos and (eventually) find information on all southern rock bands in one easy location. "When I heard that there had been a plane crash, I just knew Ronnie was one of the ones that didnt make it, Judy Van Zant Jenness recalls. One story has it that Ronnie would point his finger at a spot in water and tell his fishing companion to put his pole at exactly the spot and within minutes a fish would be flapping on the hook. I think it was because he lived hard every day and anyone who does that like Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix is gone by the time theyre 28 or 29. amzn_assoc_search_bar = "true"; I said, Bullshit man. But he said, No, no, I want to go out with my boots on.. No one could mess with Allen. The bearded octogenarian was slumping heavily in his La-Z-Boy Recliner. Log In. It was Friday night. She was preceded in death by her father, Oscar Rudolph Watts, and her mother Reba Brinson Brannon. I take the mic and ask the audience to welcome Allen Collins to Vidalia. With their take-no-prisoners attitude, Skynyrd earned themselves a formidable reputation as contenders. What set him off? The oft-told, star-crossed saga of Lynyrd Skynyrd has been portrayed as the convergence of opportunity, preparedness, talent and luck. Word got around, and the place was packed with Skynyrd fans. What were the chances of Dylan associate, Blues Project founder and producer extraordinaire Al Kooper walking into an Atlanta dive in the summer of 1972 and spotting this band? This is a carousel with slides. I told you, he says. The first of course was to take care of Melody [the couples daughter]; the second was not to worry about Allen and Gary, that they could take care of themselves. Hammered was the operative word. By dawn almost 3,000 people had come to the crash zone and the carcass of the plane had been picked clean. Or a modern day ghost story. With the passion and dedication coursing through his veins, it is no wonder that Allen joined Lynyrd Skynyrd, at the time, My Backyard, just two weeks after . He probably got distracted and swerved. Or the time he knocked out two of Billy Powells teeth, not to mention the time he smashed a bottle and gored the back of Rossingtons hands in Hamburg, Germany, hissing Ill do it without you., What I recall most is Ronnie Van Zant wasnt the sort of person Id want to have an argument with, recalls Chris Charlesworth, a former Melody Maker journalist who became Skynyrds press officer. Punk or alternative wouldnt have damaged them. Keith Richards, he said, had shown it to him personally (this was a credible claim since the Stones and Skynyrd at one point shared a manager, Peter Rudge). You may not upload any more photos to this memorial, This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 20 photos, This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 5 photos to this memorial, This photo was not uploaded because this memorial already has 30 photos, This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 15 photos to this memorial. Paralysing car wrecks. She was thrown from the car when it veered into a ditch, hit a concrete culvert and landed on its roof before rolling onto its wheels. Skynyrd manager Rudge chartered three planes to take family members to the small Mississippi town to see the survivors and in six instances, identify their dead. I said Allen, please dont get on that plane. He said, Jo, its funny youd mention that, because I was looking out the window yesterday and I saw fire come out of the wing. [When I heard about the crash] the first thing I thought was, God saved my life. The Lord gave me that dream to warn me, and I did the only thing I could do and warned them. All gone. Born on May 4, 1950, in Seattle, she was the daughter of the late Fred and Mary Dahlin. They wanted to be crazier than [Keith] Moon; they wanted to be more everything than The Who. Rossington was raised by a single mother, his father dying when he was just a tyke. Collins served as musical director. Allen Larkin Collins: July 19th 1952 January 23rd 1990. amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit0"; Debra Watts Lizama, 31, who lived with Collins, was killed in the accident, said Mike Kee, a police spokesman. After paying dues with his first band The Mods, he joined Lynyrd Skynyrd and never looked back. Wife of Private. USA. They went through our suitcases. She was thrown from the car when it veered into a ditch, hit a concrete culvert and landed on its roof before rolling onto its wheels. Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person. Seven years of hard luck comin down on me/From a motorboat, yes, up in Nashville, Tennessee/I worked in every joint you can name, yes, every honky tonk/ They all come to see Yankee slicker saying, baby, youre what I want.. Jittery types like to avoid the still waters of Lake Delancy, one of Van Zants favourite fishing spots, where people have claimed to have spotted his ghost, dressed in black and striding purposely towards the water with the yellow cane fishing pole he was buried with tucked under his right arm. One of the first women to work in rock journalism, Jaan Uhelszki got her start alongside Lester Bangs, Ben Edmonds and Dave Marsh considered the dream team of rock writing at Creem Magazine in the mid-1970s. Man, all the signs were there., It didnt stop there. So devastating was Skynyrds assault that the other acts showcased at Sounds Of The South, Mose Jones and Elijah, were forgotten. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). He hit a stop sign on the way back. Van Zant told journalist Jim Farber three months before the plane crash. This article originally appeared in Classic Rock 121, in June 2006. We had a day off, then a show, then a day off flying. Bill Beemont 04/29/1924 - 12/09/2022 Bill Beemont, 98, passed away, December 9, 2022. The offending driver was Collins, of course. I had been trained never to stop playing in the middle of a song no matter what happens, because if theres a melee, stopping will draw everyones attention, whereas if you keep playing, a lot of people wont notice. No longer able to play guitar, Collins' career was over. You are only allowed to leave one flower per day for any given memorial. Collins was leaning against a wall outside the club, long and lean, dressed entirely in white, looking like John Lennon on the cover of The Beatles Abbey Road. Allen never took any music lessons, but will always be remembered for unique songwriting and guitar playing skills. The first time I saw Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Allen Collins was in 1969, when I went with a group of hippies to the Comic Book Club in downtown Jacksonville, where One Percent was the house band, to score some acid. They all looked at Lacy through stitches and swelling and he told me not to say anything about Ronnie. After few months in the hospital in late 1989, Allen Collins passed away due to chronic pneumonia as a result from complications of his earlier accidents in January 23, 1990. Weve updated the security on the site. Theresa [Gaines] decided she wanted Steve and Cassie there too., She wasnt the only one who had trouble keeping it together. Reynolds opens the garage door to get something out of the Continentals trunk. We start playing The Last Time. During the intro, Collins falls headfirst over the railing and hits the floor with his face. He wanders over to a table where there is a birthday cake set out. Obituary. Charlesworth, however, chalks the plane crash up to just dumb bad luck. Having achieved several awards at Midway College including the Dorothy Hanna Award . Collins was driving his new Ford Thunderbird home down Plummer Grant Road with his fiance, Debra Jean Watts, in the passenger seat. Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings to use this part of Geni. I was there that day and that was not a pretty day. Remove advertising from a memorial by sponsoring it for just $5. Lacy Van Zant wore a Lynyrd Skynyrd t-shirt to the 10-minute long funeral service, and had to be hospitalised for nervous exhaustion for three days afterward. or don't show this againI am good at figuring things out. Lois worked at NORPAC for part of her life. That was my purpose. All photos appear on this tab and here you can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage. Ill kick anyones ass in this room right now.. If you didnt fight for it, somebody would take it from you., By most accounts, Van Zant was largely full of ire when he drank. Try again later. Artimus, with a broken sternum and three of his ribs poking out of the skin in his chest, made his way to a farm house a painful three-quarters of a mile away, impelled by one thought. I knew that I had to keep putting one foot in front of another.. Because people just steal them the same day. It doesnt hurt and freak me out like it used to, but its in the back of my mind and hard all that day. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/169042187/debra-jean-lizama. Right around the evening time when it happened, thats when it really gets weird, and [my wife] Dale leaves me alone.. He pleaded no contest to a charge of drunken . There was an error deleting this problem. Reynolds, who was very close to Collins and Collins father, Larkin, doesnt agree with the conclusions of the police report. We have set your language to Resend Activation Email, Please check the I'm not a robot checkbox, If you want to be a Photo Volunteer you must enter a ZIP Code or select your location on the map. Oops, some error occurred while uploading your photo(s). Ed King remembers it another way. I said, Yes, of course. While I was talking to him I felt this strange feeling and I heard this word, Wait. My spirit was talking to me. With little choice, Allen pleaded guilty to DUI charges. He dove into a bottle and never came out.. I said, Well, we were planning to come to Little Rock anyway. This account has been disabled. Lacy came up and reached down and scooped up a handful of the dirt and wiped it across my mouth and said, Kiss this ground youre walking on. Duval County . Im on the bandstand; Collins comes rushing toward me with a key-lime pie; I duck; he misses me and flings key-lime goo into my Echoplex. Send flowers. It was last year and Allen [Collins, Skynyrd guitarist] and Billy [Powell, keyboards] also were in car accidents all in the space of six months. But now the post is broken off about two feet up, no stop sign in sight. Featured Obituary. Why don t I just meet you there? And he said, Good, bring all your stuff. I went back to sleep at my moms, and that night I had the most vivid dream. The members of Lynyrd Skynyrd were strangely united by one thing. Artimus Pyles dad had perished in a plane crash that chillingly resembled the one that felled the band, leaving from the same Greenville, South Carolina airport that the band did on that final flight. The five of us wound up at the Sugar Bowl, a teen club in a working-class subdivision called Cedar Hills, where several prominent musicians were raised, including Collins and future Skynyrd members Leon Wilkeson and Billy Powell, guitarist Jeff Carlisi (of .38 Special), singer-guitarist Don Barnes (also of .38), and keyboardist Kevin Elson (later sound mixer, recording engineer and producer). Michels-Lundquist Funeral Home will be handling the arrangements. Collins wanted to put a new Allen Collins Band together, and he wanted me as lead singer and second guitarist. Collins and Reynolds drove up from Jacksonville to see us on a Saturday. There is something unnerving about the Northern Florida swamps at night. (Associated Press, 31 January, 1986). You know, prior to starting the Survivor tour, Ronnie gave my brother EC his best black hat and a beautiful ring that he used to wear. How old is Debra Jean Lizama? It was so weird because some of them thought that maybe I had something to do with it, but I had nothing to do with it.. If you have questions, please contact [emailprotected]. This sweltering shed, which quickly earned the nickname Hell House, became the boot camp where Van Zant moulded his raw recruits into musical men. People are looking at each other wondering what to think. Collins also claimed he had boinked Chaka Khan on Skynyrds tour bus. They go to the motel, get their stuff, and head back to Jacksonville, a two-hour drive. I had a creepy feeling things were going against us, so I thought Id write a morbid song.. Van Zant had written the song as a cautionary tale to his band members, inspired by Rossingtons near-fatal 1977 car crash and the feeling that some of them were pissing away their future with excessive drinking, drugging, and carousing. Except Cassie [Gaines], explains Elson. This was his idea of fun. Debra Watts. Here we are, doing 50 miles per hour through a 7-11 parking lot. They hadnt even finished receiving their directions when the left engine also went and the small plane began its death glide into the Mississippi swamp. Since reforming in 1987 with Ronnies younger brother Johnny on lead vocals, Rossington has held the reins of Lynyrd Skynyrd, putting him in a position that he never imagined nor wanted. He was not supposed to be driving. Steves sister Cassie, one of the Honkettes Skynyrds backing vocalists. Year should not be greater than current year. Mr. Travis O'Neal Watts was born, as the youngest of 10 siblings, July 18, 1980, in Gainesville, Florida to the late Mr. George Earl Watts and Mrs. Jennie V. Osborne Watts. He was in serious but stable condition this morning, said University Hospital spokeswoman Leslie Heinrich.
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