Bob Burns (drummer)
Robert Lewis Burns Jr. (November 24, 1950 – April 3, 2015) was an American drummer in the original line-up of the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. Biography. Burns was born in Gainesville, Florida on November 24, 1950. He helped to form Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1964 with Ronnie Van Zant, Gary Rossington, Allen Collins and Larry Junstrom and remained until 1974, although by some accounts he left the band for a while during the early 1970s. Burns played on the band's early recordings, but on the album "Skynyrd's First and... Last," a collection of early demos  made in Muscle Shoals, the drum parts of some songs recorded in 1971 were played by Rickey Medlocke. That album also contains songs recorded in 1972 which feature Burns on drums, suggesting that Burns left the band in 1971 and had returned by 1972. During a brief period in the early 1970s, Medlocke occasionally played alongside Burns on drums for live shows, a two-drummer line-up similar to The Allman Brothers Band. In addition to "Skynyrd's First And... Last", Burns played on the band's first two official albums: "(Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd)" and "Second Helping". He had a  mental breakdown while on a European tour and left the band in 1975. In 1996, he participated in a performance to promote "Freebird: The Movie". On March 13, 2006, he rejoined Lynyrd Skynyrd for one performance as he played alongside Gary Rossington, Billy Powell, Ed King, Artimus Pyle and The Honkettes at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. Death. Burns died on April 3, 2015, in a single car crash after hitting a mailbox and tree on a sharp curve on Tower Ridge Road in Cartersville, Georgia, shortly after leaving his home.