On October 20, 1977, an aircraft crashed during a performance at the South Carolina venue Greenville Memorial Auditorium. They boarded the aircraft without incident as Lynyrd Skynyrd planned to arrive in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for their subsequent performance. But after a while, the pilots realized they were running low on gasoline. They attempted an emergency landing as a result, but it was unsuccessful, and the plane crashed.
Ronnie Van Zant disregarded these warnings and didn’t even consider buying a new jet so they wouldn’t have to postpone their upcoming shows, despite the fact that several band members saw enormous sparks and flames emerging from the plane’s engine the day before the tragic incident while en route to their performance on October 19. After the incident, the band members took a hiatus since they were so stunned before coming back for a special event in January 1979.
The crash, however, was allegedly foreseen in their song “Street Survivors,” according to certain fans and conspiracy theorists. These theorists contended that the band members who were directly affected by the flames on the “Street Survivors” album cover were the only ones that perished. MCA Records altered the initial cover and utilized a simple black backdrop, even though this wasn’t the case.
On addition to this theory, some people thought that Lynyrd Skynyrd’s song “That Smell,” which was included in the album “Street Survivors,” was another indicator of the disaster. Van Zant drew inspiration from the band members’ carelessness, drug usage, and vehicle accident involving Gary Rossington, however some questioned the lyrics ‘the smell of death surrounds you,’ ‘angel of darkness is upon you,’ and ‘tomorrow might not be here for you’ unconsciously predicted the horror.
Listen to the song below: