Future unclear for band Lynyrd Skynyrd

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Lynyrd Skynyrd's co-manager said those involved with the Florida band will collectively decide its future following the death of keyboard player Billy Powell.

Powell, a married father of four, died early Wednesday at the age of 56. Although a heart attack is suspected, the cause of his death will be determined after an autopsy is conducted and toxicology test results analyzed, officials said.

At the time of his death, Powell and guitarist Gary Rossington were the only remaining members from the band's early days in the 1970s.

"I can't say it's over," Larkin Collins -- father of original guitarist Allen Collins, who died in 1990 of pneumonia -- told the Jacksonville Florida Times-Union. "It depends on Gary. As far as I'm concerned, if Gary wants to stay out on that stage, then we'll try to help him."

Larkin Collins holds control of the Lynyrd Skynyrd name, along with Rossington and Judy Van Zant Jenness, widow of Ronnie Van Zant -- the band's original lead singer, who was killed with the group's guitarist, female vocalist and assistant road manager in a 1977 plane crash.

Collins said he expects a decision to be made in three or four weeks.

"The band will get together, the estates will get together, and the decision will be made collectively what to do. We're talking about human beings and lives and families; I think everyone's very civil to each other in the organization -- associates and partners and friends and families. They'll get together, and that will be a private discussion," the southern rock group's co-manager Ross Schilling told the Times-Union.