Died On This Date (September 20, 2010) Leonard Skinner / Inspired Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Name
themusicsover Leonard Skinner
DOB Unknown – September 20, 2010
Leonard Skinner was a Jacksonville, Florida high school gym teacher who, during the late 1960s sent a group of his students to the principal’s audience for wearing their hair too long. A few years later, those school friends, Ronnie Van Zant, Allen Collins and Gary Rossington, named their newly formed rock band, Lynyrd Skynyrd as an inside joke tribute to their former coach at Robert E. Lee High School. Skinner later became a local real estate agent and shared a mutual admiration for the band. He even allowed them to use a photo of him inside 1975’s Nuthin’ Fancy. Suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease in recent years, Leonard Skinner passed away in a Jacksonville health care facility on September 20, 2010. He was 77.
Bruce Waibel was a rock bass guitarist who played for numerous bands, but most notably, the Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker, and Firehouse. Basically a professional musician by the time he turned 13, Waibel began his career as a roadie for 
Allen Woody was a bass player best remembered for his work with the Allman Brothers Band and Gov’t Mule. Woody joined the Allman Brothers when they reunited in 1989. He played on such albums as Seven Turns, Shades Of Two Worlds, and Where It All Begins. In 1994, Woody and Warren Haynes formed Gov’t Mule, first as an Allman’s side project, then as a full-fledged band in 1997. Woody died of a heroin overdose on August 26, 2000.
Richie Hayward is perhaps best remembered as the founding drummer for legendary southern rock band, Little Feat. Formed by 