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 Capricorn studios in Macon, Georgia which were released by MCA in 1988 as One in the Sun (when the present day Lynyrd Skynyrd band began touring) and is listed as his only official solo album. Steve has two other albums, which are known to be very rare CDs from Steve\'s widow Teresa: I Know a Little (a collection of live recordings with Crawdad as well as Manalive) and Okie Special (a collection of live recordings with Crawdad as well as Detroit). Only 100 copies of each of the two CDs have been made.\n', ' In December 1975, Steve\'s older sister, Cassie, became a member of Lynyrd Skynyrd\'s female backup singers, The Honkettes. During this time, the band was in the midst of searching for a guitarist to replace Ed King, who left the band in mid-1975. Cassie recommended her brother, and after initial reluctance, the band allowed Steve to join them onstage for a show at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri on May 11, 1976. The song was T-For Texas, (Blue Yodel #1) a Jimmie Rodgers song. Although the band themselves couldn\'t hear Steve\'s playing onstage, soundman Kevin Elson was listening through headphones and told the band that Steve was an outstanding player. They jammed with him informally a couple of times more, then invited him into the band just in time for the recording of Skynyrd\'s live album One More from the Road. The first of three shows recorded for the album was Gaines\' third gig with the band. Ed King and Steve Gaines were both born on September 14, 1949.\n', '