Gospel Singer Remembers Her Roots In Lynyrd Skynyrd

Like a witness to a prophecy, Deborah Jo Billingsley White woke up crying.
It was October of 1977, and White had a vivid dream that her friends and band mates had fallen from the sky in an airplane crash.
“I woke up screaming and crying,” White said during a recent telephone interview.
The singer – then known on stage as “JoJo Billingsley” – was not traveling with the band at the time. But she made frantic phone calls and finally heard back from one band member, guitarist Allen Collins, who said their band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, would switch planes after one more trip.
But that last trip ended with an airplane crash on Oct. 20, 1977, and it was the final flight for singer Ronnie Van Zant and several others aboard.
Just a few days after, in Jacksonville, Fla., the singer’s father, Lacy Van Zant, remembered how White had tried to warn the band.
“At Ronnie’s funeral,” White said, “he came up to me in Jacksonville Memorial Gardens, scooped down and got a handful of sandy dirt and wiped it across my mouth and said, ‘Girl, kiss this ground you’re walking on’ and left me standing there.”
What did that mean?
“He was just so upset that they didn’t listen, evidently,” White said. “Because, I tried to warn them, and they didn’t listen. And I was there, and Ronnie was dead.”

‘YOU, FOOL, YOU!’
Born in Memphis, Tenn., White grew up in Senatovia, Miss., and, at 57, she still calls herself “just a little girl from Mississippi.”
White participated in church choirs and joined a band at age 17 – about the time her father died.
She won a place singing with Lynyrd Skynyrd by early 1976. In concert, along with singers Cassie Gaines and Leslie Hawkins, White crooned backups for “Travelin’ Man,” “Tuesday’s Gone” and “Sweet Home Alabama.”
White loved Van Zant’s leadership.
“Ronnie was a formidable foe, and, so, it was his way or the highway,” she said. “He knew what he liked. He knew what sounded good. He wouldn’t tolerate any foolishness. He was a songwriter and a great storyteller.”
In 1976, at Knebworth, England, White sang on stage with Skynyrd when the group opened for The Rolling Stones. Footage of that show would turn up in 1996 with the release of an in-concert film, “Free Bird: The Movie.”
Along the way, White helped write a couple of lines – including “You, fool, you!” – in Skynyrd’s anti-drug song “That Smell,” a guitar-charged epic primarily written by Collins and Van Zant.

‘I WILL OBEY’
Following the plane crash, White’s life took a downward spiral.
She had problems with drinking and drugs, she said, and a series of post-Skynyrd musical projects, like recording an album with a group called Alias, mustered little hope.
Finally, in 1980, White left the music business. She got married and, later, became a gospel singer.
Now working as a receptionist at the Spirit Life Church in Cullman, Ala., White has released a string of praise and worship records, including her latest, “I Will Obey,” featuring the recent Christian rock hit “I’ve Got a Right.”
Occasionally, too, she jumps on stage with surviving members of the original Lynyrd Skynyrd. She was there a few years ago, for example, when Skynyrd was inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame.
On Saturday night, you can also find her on stage at Grahamfest at Grahams Forge, Va., along with Skynyrd drummer Artimus Pyle and a tribute band, the Long Island Street Survivors, fronted by singer Willie Stranger.
“I love singing that music,” White said. “It’s part of my life, and I’m happy whenever anybody wants me to come and sing like that.”

YOU SHOULD KNOW
Who: Deborah Jo “JoJo” Billingsley White sings with Long Island Street Survivors featuring drummer Artimus
Pyle
When: Sept. 5, 9 p.m.
Where: Grahamfest, Grahams Forge, Va., off I-81 Exit 84
Tickets: $40 for one-day pass (also features several other bands)
Info: (276) 284-0006
Web: www.jojobillingsley.com