I heard that they opened for the Stones once and blew them away.
And in 3 1/2 months later their plane would crash killing founder Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist/vocalist Steve Gaines, backing vocalist Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary, and copilot William Gray.
Back in the mid-70's, Gaines played in a band called Crawdad, from Joplin, Mo. A friend of mine who managed a club called
The Ranch in Galena, KS took me to his home one night and introduced me. He lived with two other members of the band in a two-room shack/motel with no furniture. They crashed on the floor, ate on the floor and slept on the floor.
I met him a couple more times at
The Ranch but I'm pretty sure he was in no shape to remember me.
Great guitarist and a pretty nice guy, if memory serves.
Interestingly enough,
Kansas used to play at the same club before becoming famous. It was just a little hole-in-the-wall, rock and roll club but it always served for a great time. Soon after, disco took over all the small clubs but
The Ranch went country. Wow, memories.