Bob Burns, the original drummer for the iconic 1970s rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, was killed late Friday in a single-car wreck in unincorporated Cartersville, Bartow County, according to the Georgia State Patrol.

The crash occurred about 11:56 p.m. April 3 when Burns was driving northbound on Tower Ridge Road and his vehicle left the westside of the roadway while approaching a right curve, said patrol spokesperson Tracey Watson. "After leaving the roadway, the driver struck a mailbox and a tree with the front of the vehicle," Watson said.

Watson said the 64-year-old Burns was not wearing a seatbelt and was the only occupant in the vehicle. Watson added "it was raining heavily at the time of the crash," and there's no probable cause to suggest Burns was under the influence at the time of the accident. Robert Lewis "Bob" Burns was born on November 24, 1950, according to his Wikipedia bio, and helped form what would become Lynyrd Skynyrd while still a teen.

Named in 1968 following stints as The Noble Five and One Percent, the band helped popularize southern rock in the 1970s with signature songs "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Freebird." After three band members were killed in a 1977 plane crash, Lynyrd Skynyrd re-formed for a reunion tour in the late 1980s and continues to play around the country.

Burns remained in the band until 1974, playing on Lynyrd Skynyrd's earliest demos, recorded in 1970, though conflicting reports have him taking a hiatus sometime during the early '70s. In a 2011 interview with The Examiner, he said he left for nine months in 1969 because his parents moved from their Florida home and he was barely a teenager.

"Yeah, I had no place to stay," he said at the time. "I was 15 and 16 years old, I was crashing in people's bushes. I was crashing wherever I could ...I was borrowing clothes from the roadies to play shows with. I didn't even have any shoes and it just got to me."

In that same interview, he revealed that at about age 18 he left the band briefly when he was hospitalized because of unexplained and severe mood swings. "And they found the problem," he said. "They found that I was Bi-Polar. They gave me medication and I've been a free man ever since."