Lynyrd Skynyrd bio adds Steven Tyler, Joe Perry roles

PanARMENIAN.Net - Neill Byrnes and Anthony Rocco Bovo will play Aerosmith rockers Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, respectively, in the Lynyrd Skynyrd biopic “Street Survivors: The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash,” Variety said.

The film, which begins shooting in Los Angeles on Monday, April 25, centers on drummer Artimus Pyle’s recollection of the events surrounding the crash of the group’s touring plane in Mississippi on Oct. 20, 1977. The accident killed original band members Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines, backing vocalist Cassie Gaines, an assistant road manager, and the two pilots.

Ian Shultis plays Pyle, with Taylor Clift as Van Zant, Samuel Kay Forrest as Gaines, and Rich Dally III as Allen Collins. Jared Cohn is directing from his own script and Brian Perera, founder of Cleopatra Records, produces.

One week before Lynyrd Skynyrd boarded the doomed flight, members of Aerosmith were scheduled to board the same Convair CV-300. The band deemed the plane unsafe and decided not to lease the Convair. Byrnes is the lead singer of Aerosmith tribute band Draw the Line.

Also newly cast in the film are Keith Sutliff, who plays an air controller caught up in the fateful flight; Hudson Long plays Skynyrd keyboardist Billy Powell, and Nick Cairo Chandler plays bassist Leon Wilkeson.