Steve Gaines

Steven Earl "Steve" Gaines (September 14, 1949 – October 20, 1977) was an American musician. He is best known as a guitarist, vocalist and songwriter of Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd from May 11, 1976, until his death on October 20, 1977, and was the younger brother of Cassie Gaines, who was a backup vocalist for the band\'s live performances.\n', '

Gaines was born and raised in Miami, Oklahoma. When he was 15 years old, he saw The Beatles live in Kansas City. After being driven home from the concert, he pestered his father enough to buy him his first guitar. His band, Manalive, recorded at the famous Sun Records Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. In the 1970s Steve played with bands ILMO Smokehouse from Quincy, Il, Detroit with Rusty Day (an offshoot of The Detroit Wheels) and Crawdad (a band that Steve had started around 1974). In 1975, he recorded several songs with Crawdad at Caprico…