You hate to hear this.
Johnny Van Zant has been the lead singer of Lynyrd Skynyrd since 1987, after the death of the band’s founder and Johnny’s brother Ronnie Van Zant in a plane crash in 1977.
While the band only has one member, Rickey Medlocke, left who was with Lynyrd Skynyrd before the plane crash, they’ve continued to tour as Lynyrd Skynyrd since reuniting with Johnny as their frontman.
But unfortunately, they’ve had to put their tour on hold recently after a scary situation involving Johnny’s youngest daughter, Taylor.
On Tuesday, the legendary southern rock band was forced to cancel a scheduled show in Anchorage, Alaska. A statement from the band revealed that Van Zant was informed that morning that his daughter had suffered a medical emergency and would be forced to undergo emergency surgery.
And yesterday, Lynyrd Skynyrd canceled four more shows. In a statement, the band said:
“Johnny Van Zant’s daughter had a sudden emergency illness. He has left the tour to be with her while they continue testing, diagnosis, and treatment.”
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The band didn’t give any further information, but today Van Zant released a video elaborating further on the situation his family is facing:
“I think a lot of you know that it’s my youngest daughter, Taylor Marion…
A couple of days ago, Taylor started having numbing feeling on her right side. She went to the emergency room, they did a CAT scan, and they found a – the only way to say it is a mass on her brain, and some of it was bleeding. That was causing the numbing part.”
While he stressed that Taylor is not out of the woods yet, he did say that the doctors don’t believe the mass is cancer, and he believes they’re in “a lot better position than we were in the beginning.”
Van Zant expressed his thanks for all of the prayers and well-wishes, while also revealing that the band recently suffered another emergency: While their bus driver was out riding a scooter to get a card for Van Zant and his family, he wrecked his scooter and hit his head, ending up in the ICU himself.
As Van Zant says, when it rains it pours.
He ended by asking for continued prayers for both Taylor and his bus driver, Brad Gibson, while maintaining his faith through tough times:
“I’m gonna fight it all the way with Jesus Christ…
I’m gonna look up myself. Always look up, so you guys do the same.”
Amen. Praying for a quick recovery for Taylor, and for Brad too.
