Musical artists whose death saddened you.

Boom

Silver Member
I'm asking for you to share the musical artists that you really enjoyed or admired that passed away and you felt real sadness. Preferably this list would be people you did not know. I started thinking about this after the recent death of MCA, Adam Yauch, of the Beastie Boys. I was sadder about it than I would have expected.

If I had been older, I'm sure I would have been very saddened by the deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Keith Moon, John Bonham, John Lennon and Jim Morrison. I'm sure I'm forgetting many.

But the death's that I can remember strongly because I felt really down about it...

Layne Staley (lead singer of Alice in Chains)
Kurt Cobain (lead singer/songwriter Nirvana)
Dimebag Darrel Abbott (Lead guitar of Pantera)
Adam Yauch aka MCA (Beastie Boys)

For reasons that weren't clear, I was also sad about the passing of Joe Morello. I didn't grow up listening to his music, but from videos, interviews and interviews of people that admired him, I was sad when he passed.

Maybe by reading some of your lists, I'll be reminded of others in my lifetime. Or maybe I'll be sparked to look closer into the music of someone on your list.
 
Re: Musical artists who's death saddened you.

Is this supposed to be in Off topic? Probably. I don't know what I'm doing. Sorry.
 
Re: Musical artists who's death saddened you.

Jim Chapin, Joe Morello, Sonny Igoe, Richard Wright (Pink Floyd). Hmm, mostly drummers there!

Probably more but that's off the top of my head.
 
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Tony Williams. I had just gone through a period of getting deep into Tony's playing and he was my unquestioned hero at that point. When I heard the news he had passed, I can vividly recall where I was. I was in the Burger King drive-thru and they were playing his version of Poinciana on WDET, the local public radio station. I was excited to hear Tony on the radio, until I realized why they were featuring him; immediately after the tune, they announced he had passed away.

I was fairly devastated. Tony was one of the great jazz drummers I hadn't caught live and I had hoped to soon rectify that, but now it was too late. I was genuinely affected by that.
 
Re: Musical artists who's death saddened you.

8mile, I knew this wouldn't get far before Tony Williams was mentioned. That is the kind of post I was looking for...where you remember where you were.

When Cobain died, I lived out on my own for the first time with 3 other roommates. I can still remember sitting outside in our crappy back yard of this slum lord of a place and just staring. We had a huge party/wake with tons of people over that night or the next and I just played nirvana songs (we were terrible musicians) and listened to the music.
 
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There's a lot of drummers already mentioned in the thread that I'm missing dearly.

I was really sad when Cozy Powell and Jeff Porcaro died, they both left us far too early and they were both an influence and inspiration for me, they're deeply missed.
 
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Ronnie James Dio. His music was such and still is such a huge influence on me.
.
Gary Moore. What a guitar player. He bled the blues.
 
Re: Musical artists who's death saddened you.

Only two ... Jaco Pastorius and Josef Zawinul.

I remember finding out a while after Jaco's death and being genuinely devastated.

I saw Zawinul play shortly before his death. He was amazing.

Massive musicians.

Davo
 
Re: Musical artists who's death saddened you.

everyone listed on the RRHF list last night. it was a heavy year for losses.

and more.
 
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I was saddened when Jerry Garcia died and when I heard that Bradley Nowell from Sublime died. The world was robbed of some great music.

But the only musician I can remember where I was at and what I was doing at the time was when Kurt Cobain died. I was living up in Sacramento, at work sanding plantation shutters, it was in the morning. It just didn't make sense and I still think he was killed.
 
Re: Musical artists who's death saddened you.

I was saddened when Jerry Garcia died and when I heard that Bradley Nowell from Sublime died. The world was robbed of some great music.

But the only musician I can remember where I was at and what I was doing at the time was when Kurt Cobain died. I was living up in Sacramento, at work sanding plantation shutters, it was in the morning. It just didn't make sense and I still think he was killed.

I don't want to derail this topic, but I just wanted to remind you that the last song Cobain wrote was titled "I hate myself and want to die." So, it wasn't that big of a surprise, even though, I was shocked at the time.
 
Re: Musical artists who's death saddened you.

I don't want to derail this topic, but I just wanted to remind you that the last song Cobain wrote was titled "I hate myself and want to die." So, it wasn't that big of a surprise, even though, I was shocked at the time.

That's cool. He probably did. I'm just a conspiracy theory junky and naturally suspicious. I don't even reveal half of what I think about things because it's just better that way.
 
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In addition to many already mentioned...

John Lennon
John Rutsey
Karen Carpenter
Phil Lynott
Buddy Holly
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Randy Rhodes
 
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Dimebag
Randy Castillo
Eric Carr
Mark St John (Ex-KISS guitarist)
 
Re: Musical artists who's death saddened you.

Many of these people died at a time when I wasn't paying attention to the news, or at a time when I didn't care for their music, or at times know about their music.

John Lennon was a big one. Pierre Moerlen too.
 
Re: Musical artists who's death saddened you.

John Lennon
George Harrison
Ricky Nelson
Buddy Holly
Elvis
John Denver
Jim Croce
Karen Carpenter
Richie Valens
 
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Layne staley
Kurt cobain
John bonham
Hillel slovak
Jimi hendrix

Sir, were you alive and fans of all of those artists when they died? If so, you have phenomenal taste because I don't think many people that were alive to be saddened by Hendrix' death would even know who Slovak is or care a whole lot about Cobain. This is a fascinating list.

Ps. I already looked up some of the artists in the lists and learned some stuff. Sad to admit I didn't realize what an awesome cat Croce was. Beautiful music. I was only 2 when he died.
 
Re: Musical artists who's death saddened you.

I guess there's been a few. But Lennon was a big one. Although I was only 8 when he died, I was certainly aware of who he was and where he fit in. But the way in which that one went down certainly had an effect on my young mind......the senseless waste of him. For what? I still remember where I was and what I was doing when I heard that one.

Freddy Mercury was another. I'd only just read in the paper that he had AIDS......24 hours later, he was dead.

And SRV was yet another. I'd really only started getting right into the blues a few years earlier. He was one of my favs. and I remember being saddened by the fact that I was never gonna see him play.

Many of my other favourite muso's....I was either too young for them to have been favourites yet......or I could see the writing on the wall and their deaths came as no real surprise anyway. Even Cobain surprised me only in the way that it happened rather than the fact that it happened in the first place. Although Jeff Buckley was a bit of a shock.
 
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I still miss Jerry (Garcia). I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I learned that he had died. The only other case where I have such a clear memory was when Lennon was shot.
 
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