Lynyrd Skynyrd frontman Johnny Van Zant has revealed his daughter has been diagnosed with “brain mass” following the cancellation of the group’s shows.
On Thursday the Free Bird rockers announced that four forthcoming shows would not be going ahead as Johnny, 63, would be leaving the tour to be with his daughter following an “emergency illness”.
The rock legend has now elaborated on the matter, revealing that it is his youngest daughter who has been diagnosed with brain mass, an abnormality often associated with a tumour.
“First of all, I want to thank you all for saying prayers for my family,” Van Zant said in a Facebook video. “I did not announce my daughter’s name because she is very private. In saying that, I think that a lot of you know it’s my youngest daughter Taylor.’
“A couple of days ago, Taylor started feeling numbing on her right side. She went to the emergency room, they did a CAT scan, and they found the only way to say it is a mass on her brain, and some of it was bleeding. That was causing the numbing part.”
Johnny said that doctors do not believe the mass is cancerous, but tests are ongoing, he added: “We are not out of the woods yet, but we are in a lot better position than we thought we were in in the beginning.”
The musician also revealed that his longtime tour bus driver, Brad Gibson, is currently in intensive care following a freak accident on a scooter.
Johnny took over frontman and songwriting duties from his late brother, Lynyrd Skynyrd founder, Ronnie Van Zant, when the band was revived in 1987. The elder Van Zant was killed along with two other group members Steve Gaines, and his sister Cassie, in a plane crash in 1977.
