Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Johnny Van Zant Says Daughter Is Hospitalized With Brain Mass

Lynyrd Skynyrd frontman Johnny Van Zant is asking for prayers for his youngest daughter amid a health scare. On Thursday, the 64-year-old singer revealed in a Facebook and Instagram video that his daughter, Taylor, was recently treated at an emergency room after having a “numbing feeling on her right side” before doctors discovered a mass on her brain last week.

Van Zant told fans that doctors found a mass on Taylor’s brain following a CAT scan but that they don’t believe it to be cancerous. “Some of it was bleeding, that was causing the numbing part,” he explained. “Saying this, we’ve had her with a great neurology team, a group of doctors and they don’t think it’s the C-word, so that’s a good thing.”

“But they’re still doing a lot of testing and we’re not out of the woods yet, but we’re in a lot better position than we thought we were in the beginning,” he continued. He encouraged fans to “keep saying prayers” for Taylor. “It means everything to me and my family,” he said.

On Sunday, he shared an update on her condition, explaining that she was diagnosed with cavernomas, or cerebral cavernous malformation, which according to the Mayo Clinic are “groups of tightly packed, irregular blood vessels with thins walls.” They can cause blood to leak in the brain or spinal cord and look like “a cluster of grapes.”

He said, “Due to your prayer and the will of God, she is at our house now and resting.”

Lynyrd Skynyrd canceled a performance in Alaska on Sept. 24, saying in their statement that Van Zant’s daughter “must undergo emergency surgery.” They went on to cancel the rest of their September shows in Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. Van Zant left the tour to be with Taylor while doctors “continue testing, diagnosis and treatment.”

Van Zant, who first joined Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1987, also asked fans to keep bus driver Brad Gibson in their thoughts after he was in the ICU following a scooter accident while apparently on his way to get a card for Van Zant’s family.

“I want to get Brad back on his feet, along with Taylor, so if you guys could say a prayer for Brad and his family,” he said. “… But hey, I’m gonna tell you this, ’cause that’s what I’m doing now and I always tell you guys to. I’m gonna look up, myself, always look up. So you guys do the same. God bless you all and thank you.”

Lynyrd Skynyrd rejoined behind Van Zant in 1987, ten years after the 1977 plane crash that took the lives of four band members, including Van Zant’s brother Ronnie Van Zant. Gary Rossington, the last surviving original member of the band, died last year at age 71.

The band was the top southern rock group of the 1970s with hits like “Gimme Three Steps,” “Tuesday’s Gone” and the iconic “Free Bird.” The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.