Hughie Thomasson, 55; founding member of Southern rock band the Outlaws

Hughie Thomasson, 55, a singer, guitarist and founding member of the popular Southern rock band the Outlaws, died Sunday of an apparent heart attack at his home in Brooksville, Fla., the band announced.

Thomasson, an architect of the sound that produced the 1970s rock anthems “There Goes Another Love Song” and “Green Grass and High Tides,” was a teenager when he joined the Tampa, Fla.-based band in the late 1960s.

After various lineup changes, the group released its debut album, “The Outlaws,” in 1975.

The album spent weeks on the charts and established the Outlaws as one of the pioneers of the Southern rock sound alongside such bands as Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Marshall Tucker Band and the Allman Brothers Band.

The Outlaws disbanded in the 1990s, and Thomasson played with a revamped Lynyrd Skynyrd lineup until 2005, when the Outlaws reunited.