Country star BILLY RAY CYRUS has penned an emotional tribute to the three members of LYNYRD SKYNYRD who died in a 1977 plane crash, after a phone conversation discussing the tragedy with drummer ARTIMUS PYLE.
Cyrus was chatting to Pyle about the accident, which cost the lives of singer RONNIE VAN ZANT, guitarist STEVE GAINES, his backing singer sister CASSIE GAINES and road manager DEAN KILPATRICK.
Pyle told Cyrus how he clambered out of the wreckage in Louisiana swampland and staggered to find help with several broken ribs, only to be shot in the shoulder by a farmer who was frightened of the long-haired and bearded rocker covered in blood.
And Cyrus was so moved he immediately wrote THE FREEBIRD FELL - named after Lynyrd Skynyrd's epic track FREEBIRD - for his new album WANNA BE YOUR JOE.
He says, "When they crashed, Artimus climbed out of the wreckage and crawled to a farmer's house to get help.
"Artimus was telling that story to me over the phone, and I just said to him, 'Well, I think I was in the 10th grade at the time, and I never will forget the day the Freebird fell.' He said, 'Cyrus, if I could write a song, that would be the one I'd write.' I said, 'Well, let me see if I can go to work on it.'
"That evening, I started thinking about that particular album (STREET SURVIVORS) that just came out at the time of the Skynyrd crash. It was the one with the band on it that had flames in the background. And all of a sudden the song just started coming to me.
"Then I thought, 'You know what? To have a tribute to Ronnie Van Zant and the fallen members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, it's got to be authentic Southern rock, and nobody does it better than (former Skynyrd guitarist) Ed King.' So I called Ed King, and he came out to the house and we finished it up."
