Ronnie Van Zant was the famed frontman of the group, but he also had the eerie gift of foresight. Van Zant missed the 27 club (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, etc), but that didn’t stop him from predicting his death to come before he turned 30 years old. Despite the death of their lead singer, an iteration Lynyrd Skynyrd still tours to this day.
He made the mark, beating his premonition by just 87 days. His gift came out in his music too, as his lyrics and style took a dark turn toward the end as well. “Ronnie was the only one of my children who had second sight,” his father used to brag.
‘I Never Dreamed’
Van Zant needed reinforcements on the tour, so he called Jo Jo Billingsley, who was the lead singer of The Honkettes and asked her to join the band on tour. In an interview years later she said: “That night I had the most vivid dream. I saw the plane smack the ground.”
“I saw them screaming and crying, and I saw fire. I woke up screaming, and my mom came running in going, ‘Honey what is it?’ I said ‘Mama, I dreamed the plane crashed!’ And she said, ‘No, honey, it’s just a dream.’ And I said, ‘No, mom, it’s too real!'” Unfortunately, it was all too real.
