Which musician's passing affected you the most?

Question

abc3643 · Accepted Answer

Well, when Elvis died in 1977, that was huge as was John Lennon's death in 1980. Lennon's death was shocking and, worse, it forced us to have to listen to his recently released comeback album "Double Fantasy" over and over and it was an insipid album.

Keith Moon's death in 1978 and John Bonham's death in 1980 sucked because those ended tours and concerts I would have gone to.

Jerry Garcia's death at age just-turned-53 in 1995 was an enormous shock especially to the Grateful Dead universe. I was something of a Deadhead as a teen and my roommate was an active Deadhead at the time so, to her, it was like the end of the world.

When Michael Jackson died in 2009, that was overrated because he was overrated - although he was definitely talented and I liked his early work. What was inconvenient the day he died was that Farrah Fawcett, another icon, died that day. So, news coverage should have been more on Farrah and would have been had Michael not died.

Lemmie's death sucked and was surprising. He was only diagnosed with cancer like days before he died.

Neil Peart of Rush in 2020, David Bowie in 2016, and Keith Emerson's death in 2016 all bothered me a bit.
Peart's death was monumental in a way because that ended Rush.

Bowie was Bowie, of course. Another huge death like Lennon's that spiked album sales of his final album released just before he died.

Keith's suicide was heartbreaking because he couldn't stand no being the Keith Emerson of old. At the end of 2016, Greg Lake died of cancer, so that just left Carl Palmer of ELP.

Chris Squire's death surprised me.

George Harrison's death in 2001 at age 58 bothered me too; he was the second Beatle to go. It's hard to think that I am older than he was when he died.

Fellow Traveling Willbourghy, Tom Petty's death was very surprising. Roy Orbison's too - just as he was making a comeback with them.

Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis... so many old-timers all gone in recent years...

Rock 'N' Roll really is dying off.

Olivia Newton John's death was saddening...
I was pissed at Whitney Houston's death... She was a month younger than me, beautiful, and she threw her life away. Her daughter is now dead too.

But, still, after 40 years, Karen Carpenter's death just before turning 33 still bothers me because it was such a waste at such a young age of perhaps the greatest female vocal talent in the last 100 years. At least her death of anorexia brought eating disorders into the public consciousness and so her death likely saved hundreds of thousands of women's lives.

Lliam · Accepted Answer

Jimi Hendrix. I still idolize him more than any other musician.

In April, 1969, when I was barely 15 and had just started high school (10th grade), a new friend asked if I wanted to go see Jimi at the Los Angeles Forum. I had never bee to a concert before. Being young and rather inexperienced with the world, I think I was a bit concerned about riding through town to the Forum, so I took a pass. I said I'd catch him the next time he was in town.

He never made it. He died in Sept, 1970. To this day, it one of my greatest regrets.

Not only was Jimi one of the most talented musicians and would, no doubt, made many more contributions to music, but he was also becoming more and more activist in the field of race relations between blacks and whites, and more vocal about the Viet Nam war. He was a threat to the establishment, just like other civil rights leaders whom the government had assassinated. After reading a lot about him, it seems apparent that he was murdered.

I think he would have been a great man if he had lived.

DeeDeeDeVour · Accepted Answer

Numerous:  I was only 5 when  Elvis  passed away but I remember feeling sad when he died in '77, especially since we've been watching him on TV.  Karen Carpenter  was another favorite of the family and her '83 death kinda hit us hard.  I had a crush on  Andy Gibb  and his '88 death affected me significantly too.  Freddie Mercury 's '91 death felt like a "tragedy" to my family & friends.  I love Jazz and  Grover Washington Jr 's '99 heart attack was definitely sad news for me and my dad who was a personal friend of Grover.  Covering the news of  Michael Jackson  being rushed to the hospital and later dying in '09 felt surreal & unbelievable.  I was very upset when  Whitney Houston  "left us" in '12.  David Bowie 's &  Prince 's "back-to-back" deaths in '16 were also hard to swallow.  Another Jazz legend who's passing brought me tears is  Al Jarreau  who died in '17.  I mourned the '20 death of  Eddie Van Halen .  An inspiration to me was  Olivia Newton John  whose death in '22 brought me in tears.  And, now, we've just recently lost  Burt Bacharach  who died 12 days before my birthday.  All of the aforementioned deceased musicians (and many more) grace the screensaver on one of my desktop computers.

AmandaYVR · Accepted Answer

Kurt Cobain

ChiTown33 · Answer

Dolores O'Riordan

singer of The Cranberries if you don't know.

Because she had such a beautiful voice and was only 46. I also heard about her eating disorder afterwards and even though the cause of death was alcohol and intoxication and drowning I can't help but feel it stemmed from depression. Which is tragic when you consider how many people loved her. It's sad she didn't love herself more.

This is my favorite Cranberries song.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zz-DJr1Qs54

Finchie40 · Answer

Neil Peart , Rush is my favorite band of all time , I been a Rush fan since I was 11 years old , When I heard that Neil passed away , part of my life was shattered , Rush was the band that brought me joy and happiness no matter how shitty life could get Rush would turn that around for me

D_Bone_Steak · Answer

Curt Cobain affected me a lot. I felt like he was keeping a music scene relevant to normies... and then he just offs himself. I mean your basic normie doesn't even know what band NoFx is... it did damage to that scene.

TaureanBull81 · Answer

Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington. Such talented musical 🎼 artists plus I'll never be able to see Linkin Park again nor will I ever have the chance to see Audioslave live in concert 💔

TrueConfection · Answer

There are so many, but I really wish I had the chance to see Stevie Ray Vaughn in concert.

AdithyaR · Answer

None of my favourites have passed as of yet, they're all very young, in their 20s. Eventually it's gonna hurt like hell when they pass.

metalheadphysicist · Answer

I still wonder what Metallica would have been if Cliff had been alive. Very tragic indeed.

exitseven · Answer

Definitely Elvis. It seemed like he was around forever.

Bricealan · Answer

Christine McVie - Fleetwood Mac who just died recently. Such a talented woman

ShadezMcgee · Answer

Probably Chris Cornell or Scott Weiland for me. Loved their time with Soundgarden and Stone Temple Pilots

LemiaOfThunder · Answer

Freddie Mercury and Chester Bonnington and the Rev, my top 3 bands all lost key memembers

AngryCarl2 · Answer

He's in your picture. Keep on rocking Lemmy, wherever you are.

Wish4UrB00ty · Answer

Eric Clapton’s passing was a big one for our family.

Andres77 · Answer

Chester Bennington. I was drawn to the rage in his voice. He was my voice for a while. When I heard he'd died it physically hurt. When I heard why, my heart wept.

Dayman343 · Answer

Japanese musician Isao Tomita. He made whimsical electronic versions of classical music. Was at the forefront of bringing electronic music to the masses.

MysticDevice · Answer

Neal Peart for sure. His legacy as a musicial and a lyricist is undeniable. https://youtu. be/LWRMOJQDiLU

CrimsonAngel09 · Answer

Chester Bennington and Tom Petty.

AviatorTom · Answer

Olivia Newton-John

Jamie05rhs · Answer

I'm gonna have to say either Richie Valens or Sonny Bono. (George Harrison a little bit. But he had stopped making good music by then anyway.)

progboy · Answer

Good choice and I was gutted when Lemmy died. So sad that he was finally killed by death :(

Which musician's passing affected you the most?

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