Steve Gaines

This article is about the musician. For the clergyman, see Steve Gaines (pastor).

Steve Gaines
File:Steve Gaines.jpg
Background information
Birth name	Steven Earl Gaines
Also known as	Okie Crawdaddy
Born	(1949-09-14)September 14, 1949 Seneca, Missouri
Origin	Miami, Oklahoma
Died	Gillsburg, Mississippi, United States
Genres	Blues Southern rock
Instruments	Guitar, vocals
Years active	1964–1977
Labels	MCA
Associated acts	The Ravens (Steve's High School Band), Pink Peach Mob, Manalive, Rio Smokehouse, Detroit, Rusty Day, Crawdad, Lynyrd Skynyrd
Notable instruments
Fender Stratocaster Gibson Les Paul Custom

Steven Earl "Steve" Gaines (September 14, 1949 – October 20, 1977) was an American musician. He is most well known as a guitarist and songwriter for southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, and is the younger brother of Cassie Gaines, who was a back up vocalist for the band's live performances.

Life and career

Gaines was born in Seneca, Missouri, 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 Rio Smokehouse, 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.

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 Hoch Auditorium (University of Kansas) in Lawrence, Kansas on May 11, 1976. 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. Interestingly, Ed King and Steve Gaines were both born on September 14, 1949.

His guitar-picking and songwriting skills were a major revelation to the band, as proven on his one studio album, 1977's Street Survivors. Publicly and privately, Ronnie VanZant marveled at the vocal and instrumental skill of Skynyrd's newest member, claiming that the band would "all be in his shadow one day". Steve's contributions included his co-lead vocal with Ronnie on the co-written "You've Got That Right" (a solid hit single released after the plane crash) and the rousing guitar boogie "I Know A Little" which he had written before he joined Skynyrd. So confident was Skynyrd's leader of Steve's abilities that the album (and some concerts) featured Steve delivering his self-penned bluesy "Ain't No Good Life" – one of the few songs in the pre-crash Skynyrd catalog to feature a lead vocalist other than Ronnie VanZant.

Death

On October 20, 1977, three days after the album Street Survivors was released (and five dates into the band's most successful tour yet), a plane carrying the band between shows from Greenville, South Carolina to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, crashed outside of Gillsburg, Mississippi. The plane landed in a swampy area and crashed into trees. Gaines died from blunt-force trauma to the head; he was 28 years old and likely was killed on impact. The crash also killed Ronnie Van Zant, Steve's sister Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary, and co-pilot William Gray.

Steve Gaines was cremated and buried in Orange Park, Florida in 1977, but was relocated to an undisclosed location after vandals broke into his and bandmate Ronnie Van Zant's tombs on June 29, 2000. Their mausoleums remain as memorials for fans to visit.

He is the subject of the 2001 song "Cassie's Brother" by rock band Drive-By Truckers.

Less than two years after the plane crash, the Gaines' mother, Cassie LaRue Gaines, was killed in an automobile accident near the cemetery where Steve and Cassie were buried. She was buried near her children.

External links

• Official Website at the Wayback Machine (archived January 2, 2012)
• Official Lynyrd Skynyrd Homepage
• Official Lynyrd Skynyrd History site
• US NTSB Report on Plane Crash
• Steve Gaines at Find a Grave