Died On This Date (June 24, 2010) JoJo Billingsley / Back Up Singer For Lynyrd Skynyrd
themusicsover JoJo Billingsley (Born Deborah Jo White)
1952 – June 24, 2010
JoJo Billingsley was a songwriter and vocalist who is perhaps best remembered as a member of the “Honkettes,” the so-nicknamed back-up singers for Lynyrd Skynyrd for nearly four years. Billingsley joined the group in 1975, touring the world during their peak years. That all came to a tragic end on October 20, 1977 when she was the only member of the band not killed in a plane crash that took the lives of Ronnie Van Zant, Cassie Gaines, Steve Gaines, Dean Kilpatrick (the band’s road manager) the pilot and co-pilot. Billingsley has always maintained that she had a dream that the plane would crash just two nights prior and tried to stop the others from taking it. The accident lead her to devote her life to the Lord as both a singer and later, minister. In 2006, she reunited with the then-current members of Lynyrd Skynyrd at a their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She also performed with members of the group at occasional charity or memorial events in recent years. Jojo Billingsley was 58 when she died of cancer on June 24, 2010.
Thanks to Craig Rosen of Number1Albums for the assist.
Frank C. Starr was a charismatic lead vocalist for hard rock bands, Alien, SIN, and most famously, the Four Horsemen. Raised on Long Island, NY, Starr eventually landed in Los Angeles to take his shot at the big time. After a short run in a band called Alien, Starr began to make a name for himself fronting a band called SIN through the mid ’80s, but struggled to get noticed in the same Sunset Strip scene that gave us Guns ‘n Roses, Ratt, and Great White. After the band called it quits in 1984, Starr landed in the Four Horsemen, a rock band that took its cue more from ’70s rockers like Lynyrd Skynyrd or AC/DC than such contemporaries as Poison or Faster Pussycat. After self-releasing a four-song EP in 1989, the band were snatched up by Rick Rubin’s Def American label and went into the studio with Rubin producing. The resulting album Nobody Said It Was Easy, garnered enough critical praise and fan support to land them on the road touring with the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Black Crowes as well as regular video rotation on MTV. But all this wasn’t enough to translate into significant album sales. At the same time, word was getting around that Starr was developing a reputation for his drug use and subsequent run-ins with the law, reportedly leading to a stint in jail on drug charges forcing the label to drop the band. But all were false claims according to the band, the only reason they were dropped was because of poor record sales. The sudden rise of grunge as well as some internal fighting seemed to be the end of the Four Horsemen, but after some personnel changes, they regrouped and began working on a new album in 1994. But after losing original drummer, 
Ean Evans was most recently the bassist for Lynyrd Skynyrd, having joined the band in 2001, replacing 
