Nicolette Larson
July 17, 1952 - December 16, 1997

Nicolette Larson was a talented singer best known for her 1978 cover of Neil Young's "Lotta Love". She also sang on Young's American Stars 'n Bars and Comes a Time albums and contributed vocals to the Doobie Brothers album Minute by Minute.

Larson's worked with Commander Cody led to her being signed to Warner Bros. Records. Her debut album, Nicolette, released September 29, 1978, was produced by Ted Templeman. The album reached #15 on the strength of the single "Lotta Love."

Larson was featured on 1979's No Nukes album; the Doobie Brothers back her in her performance of "Lotta Love." Larson can be seen in the No Nukes film but her performance was not shown in the film.

Larson died as a result of a cerebral edema triggered by liver failure and is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) in Los Angeles.

12/14/1997	51	Kurt Winter	The Guess Who	Kidney Failure
12/01/1997	89	Stéphane Grappelli	French jazz violinist		Paris, France
11/28/1997	43	Michael Hedges	guitarist	Car Accident	Mendocino County, California
11/22/1997	37	Michael Hutchence	INXS	Suicide (hanging)	Sydney, Australia
11/10/1997	67	Tommy Tedesco	session guitarist	Lung Cancer	Northridge, California
11/05/1997	37	Epic Soundtracks	Swell Maps		West Hampstead, London
10/31/1997	36	John Dougherty	Flipper, bassist	Heroin Overdose
10/21/1997	52	Henry "Sunflower" Vestine	Canned Heat	Heart Failure	Paris, France

Henry "Sunflower" Vestine
December 25, 1944 - October 21, 1997

10/19/1997	49	Glen Buxton	Alice Cooper band, guitarist	Pneumonia	Mason City, Iowa
10/12/1997	53	John Denver	singer/songwriter	Plane Crash	Pacific Grove, California

John Denver
December 31, 1943 - October 12, 1997

John Denver, one of the most important and successful singer-songwriters of the 1970's, died after his experimental aircraft crashed into California's Monterey Bay. He was just 53.

John sang about his love for nature (especially Colorado's Rocky Mountains), and his love for life and music. Denver's records have sold over 33 million copies. His 1973 Greatest Hits album sold more than 10 million copies in the first six months alone.

Born Henry John Deutschendorf Jr., he was the son of an Air Force officer famed for piloting the B-58 Hustler bomber to speed records. John is also the nephew of singer Dave Deutschendorf of The New Christy Minstrels.

John's big break into the music business came in 1965 when he was invited to be a member of the Chad Mitchell trio, replacing founder Chad Mitchell who left to begin a solo career. The trio became known for their social activism and protest songs.

In 1969, Denver started his solo career, eventually signing with RCA records and releasing Rhymes & Reasons. The album contained his song "Leaving on a Jet Plane," which became a #1 hit when covered by Peter, Paul & Mary.

Hollywood producer Jerry Weintraub signed Denver in 1970 and helped guide his career to great success, building on the strength of the single "Take Me Home, Country Roads", which went to number 2 on the Billboard charts. A string of hits soon followed and gave us his classics "Rocky Mountain High", "Sunshine on My Shoulders", "Annie's Song", "Thank God I'm a Country Boy", and "I'm Sorry."

Denver also had great success on television. His seasonal special, Rocky Mountain Christmas, was watched by more than 60 million people. He was a frequent guest star on The Muppet Show. He also tried acting, appearing in The Colorado Cattle Caper episode of the McCloud television movie on February 24, 1974, and starring in the 1977 film Oh, God! opposite George Burns.

Denver was also known for his political activism and his support of a number of charitable causes for the environment, the homeless, the poor, the hungry, and the African AIDS crisis. He also founded two environmental groups; the Windstar Foundation and Plant-It 2020.

On October 12, 1997, Denver was killed when flying his recently acquired experimental Adrian Davis Long-EZ plane. He was apparently unable to switch fuel tanks and ran out of fuel, causing the place to crash into Monterey Bay near Pacific Grove, California. On September 24, 2007, the California Friends of John Denver and The Windstar Foundation unveiled a bronze plaque near the spot where his plane went down.

On October 24, 2014, Denver was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California, which was accepted by his children Zachary and Jesse. His star is located at 7065 Hollywood Boulevard.

09/21/1997	19	Nick Traina	Link 80, vocalist	Suicide (Morphine Overdose)
08/02/1997	83	William S. Burroughs	author	Heart Attack	Lawrence, Kansas
07/10/1997		Wanda Day	4 Non-Blondes, drummer		Salt Lake City, Utah
08/12/1997	57	Luther Allison	Blues guitarist	Lung Cancer	Madison, Wisconsin
06/20/1997	59	Lawrence Payton	The Four Tops	Liver Cancer	Southfield, Michigan
06/15/1997	52	John Wolters	Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, drummer	Liver Cancer	San Francisco, California
06/05/1997	51	Ronnie Lane	Small Faces	Multiple Sclerosis	Trinidad, Colorado

Ronnie Lane
April 1, 1946 - June 4, 1997

Ronald Frederick "Ronnie" Lane was an English singer, songwriter and bassist best known for his membership in the Small Faces.

Lane met Kenney Jones at a London pub and they decided to form a group they named "The Outcasts". While visiting the J60 Music Bar in Manor Park, London with his father in order to buy a bass guitar, Lane met Steve Marriott who was working there. Lane formed Small Faces with Steve Marriott and Kenney Jones in 1965, who were soon joined by Ian McLagan. This lineup lasted until 1969, when Marriott left the group. Lane formed a new group, Faces, with McLagan, Jones, Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart in 1969. He was the primary songwriter of Faces, composing many of their best loved pieces including "Ooh La La" and "Debris." Lane quit the Faces in 1973, in part because of the increasing popularity of Rod Stewart.

Pete Townshend recorded an album with Lane Rough Mix, released in 1977. During the recording of Rough Mix, Lane was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (his mother died from the disease in 1990). Nonetheless, he toured, wrote, and recorded (with Eric Clapton, among many others) and managed to release yet another album, See Me, which features several songs written by Lane and Clapton.

05/29/1997	30	Jeff Buckley	singer/songwriter	Drowned in Mississippi River	Memphis, Tennessee
04/09/1997	87	James "Yank" Rachell	blues musician		Indianapolis, Indiana
04/08/1997	49	Laura Nyro	singer/songwriter	Ovarian Cancer	Danbury, Connecticut
04/05/1997	70	Allen Ginsberg	beat poet	Liver Cancer	New York, New York
03/24/1997	57	Harold Melvin	Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes
03/24/1997	60	Carroll James, Jr.	First DJ to play the Beatles in USA	Cancer	Silver Spring, Maryland
03/10/1997	67	LaVern Baker	R&B singer		New York, New York

LaVern Baker
November 11, 1929 - March 10, 1997

LaVern Baker was an R&B singer from Chicago who had several hit records from the 1950s and early 1960s. She is remembered for recordings such as "Tweedle Dee" (1955), "Jim Dandy" (1956), and "I Cried a Tear" (1958).

The song "Jim Dandy" (sometimes known as "Jim Dandy to the Rescue") was written by Lincoln Chase and recorded by Baker in 1956; it quickly climbed to the top of the charts. In 1973, the song was covered by southern rock band Black Oak Arkansas. Their version reached #25 on the pop chart and featured Jim Mangrum (who had already been using "Jim Dandy" as a stage name before they covered the song) and female vocalist Ruby Starr trading off vocals. It was the first single from their 1973 album High on the Hog, the band's most commercially successful album.

Baker died of cardiovascular disease on March 10, 1997, at the age of 67. She was buried in an unmarked plot in Maple Grove Cemetery, in Kew Gardens, New York. Local historians raised funds for a headstone, which was erected on May 4, 2008.

03/07/1997

24

The Notorious B.I.G.

rapper

Murdered

Los Angeles, California

The Notorious B.I.G.
May 21, 1972 - March 7, 1997

Christopher George Latore Wallace, better known by his stage names The Notorious B.I.G, Biggie, or Biggie Smalls, was an American rapper, considered one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time.

On March 9, 1997, Wallace was shot and killed by an unknown assailant in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. His murder has never been solved.

His double-disc album Life After Death, released 16 days after his death, rose to No. 1 on the U.S. album charts and has sold well over 10 million copies.

02/09/1997

45

Miss Cynderella

The GTO's

?

Palm Desert, California

Miss Cynderella
January 26, 1952 - February 19, 1997

Cynthia Sue Well, known as Miss Cynderella, was born in Los Angeles on January 26, 1952. She was a member of the all-girl group The GTO's (Girls Together Outrageously).

She married John Cale of the Velvet Underground in 1971, but they divorced in 1975. In Cale's song "Guts" he sings: "The bugger in the short sleeves f*cked my wife" (referring to Kevin Ayers sleeping with Miss Cindy in 1974)

Miss Cynderella's death was not widely reported until 2007, when Pamela Des Barres mentioned it in her book Let's Spend the Night Together.

Several other members of The GTO's have passed: Miss Christine died in 1972 of a drug overdose; Miss Lucy died of AIDS in 1991; Miss Sandra died of cancer in Albion, California on April 23, 1991 at age 42.

02/09/1997

51

Brian Connolly

The Sweet, vocalist

Alcohol related

Slough, Berkshire, England

Brian Connolly
October 5, 1945 - February 9, 1997

01/22/1997	39	Billy Mackenzie	Associates, singer	Suicide	Auchterhouse, Dundee, Scotland
01/21/1997	87	Colonel Tom Parker	Elvis's manager	Stroke	Las Vegas, Nevada

Colonel Tom Parker
June 26, 1909 – January 21, 1997

Colonel Thomas Andrew "Tom" Parker was Elvis Presley's manager. "The Colonel" displayed a ruthless devotion to his own financial gain and took more than the traditional 10–15 percent management fee (reaching up to 50 percent by the end of Presley's life).

Parker first became involved in the music industry as a music promoter in 1938, working with popular singer Gene Austin. In 1945, Parker became Eddy Arnold's full-time manager, signing a contract for 25% of the star's earnings.

In 1948, Jimmie Davis, the governor of Louisiana, awarded Parker the rank of colonel in the Louisiana State Militia. Parker used the title throughout his life, becoming known simply as "the Colonel" to many.

His Las Vegas funeral was attended by many, including Eddy Arnold and Sam Phillips, with Priscilla Presley giving a Eulogy. She said: "Elvis and the Colonel made history together, and the world is richer, better and far more interesting because of their collaboration. And now I need to locate my wallet, because I noticed there was no ticket booth on the way in here, but I'm sure that the Colonel must have arranged for some toll on the way out."

Colonel Tom Parker has a sidewalk star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars.

01/10/1997	54	Kenny Pickett	The Creation		London, England
01/02/1997	45	Randy California	Spirit	Drowned	Molokai, Hawaii

Randy California
February 20, 1951 - January 2, 1997

01/01/1997

45

Townes Van Zandt

singer/songwriter

Pulmonary Embolism

Nashville, Tennessee

Townes Van Zandt
March 7, 1944 - January 1, 1997

Townes Van Zandt is remembered as a singer/songwriter widely admired by other songwriters, but one who was never able to reach a wide commercial audience. He authored classic songs such as "Pancho and Lefty" (recorded by Willie Nelson) and "If I Needed You" (recorded by EmmyLou Harris).

A live version of Van Zandt's cover of The Rolling Stones' Dead Flowers was used during the final scene of the 1998 film "The Big Lebowski".

Townes Van Zandt died on New Year's Day in Nashville of a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lungs) following hip surgery.

*** 1996 ***

12/09/1996	40	Patty Donahue	The Waitresses	Lung Cancer	New York, New York
11/30/1996	64	Herbert Khaury	Tiny Tim	Heart Failure	Minneapolis, Minnesota

Tiny Tim
April 12, 1932 - November 30, 1996

Tiny Tim, known for his quirky ukulele rendition of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips," died after suffering a heart attack onstage at the age of 64.

Born in Manhattan as Herbert Butros Khaury, he exhibited an early interest in music, spending much of his free time exploring the sheet music archives at the New York City Public Library. At age 11, he began playing the violin, and later the mandolin and ukulele, which became his signature instrument. He started performing at dance club amateur nights under different names, such as Texarkana Tex, Judas K. Foxglove, Vernon Castle, and Emmett Swink. To stand out from the crowd of performers he wore wild clothing and, after seeing an old poster of a long-haired Rudolph Valentino, grew his own hair out to shoulder length and wore pasty white facial makeup.

In 1963, he landed his first paying gig at Page 3, a gay and lesbian club in Greenwich Village, playing 6 hours a night, 6 nights a week, for $96 per month. He performed for the next two years as "Dary Dover", and after that, "Sir Timothy Timms". After being booked to follow a "midget" act, his manager, George King, billed the 6'1" Khaury using the ironic stage name "Tiny Tim". The name stuck.

His first of many television appearances was on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, a popular American television comedy-variety show. The singer entered carrying a shopping bag, pulled his Martin soprano ukulele from it, and sang a medley of "A Tisket A Tasket" and "On The Good Ship Lollipop." He reappeared and sang a third song, his signature "Tiptoe Through the Tulips."

In 1968, his first album God Bless Tiny Tim was released. It contained an orchestrated version of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips," a popular song first published in 1929. Tiny Tim's recording of the song became a hit after being released as a single. This was followed by 1969's For All My Little Friends, a collection of children's songs that was nominated for a Grammy Award.

He married Vicki Budinger ("Miss Vicki") on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show on December 17, 1969, before an audience of 40 million viewers. They had a daughter, Tulip Victoria, before they divorced.

After his career highlights in the late 1960s, Tiny Tim's television appearances dwindled, and his popularity began to wane. He continued to play concerts around the United States, making several lucrative appearances in Las Vegas. When his recording contract ended with Reprise, he founded his own record label and humorously named it Vic Tim Records, as a pun on the combination of his wife's name with that of his own.

He performed with the American alternative rock band Camper Van Beethoven in 1986.

On September 28, 1996, Tiny suffered a heart attack just as he began singing at a ukulele festival at the Montague Grange Hall in Montague, Massachusetts. Doctors advised that he quit performing, but he ignored the advice.

On November 30, 1996, he was playing at a gala benefit hosted by the Women's Club of Minneapolis. He had let his third wife ("Miss Sue") know before the show that he was not feeling well, but did not want to disappoint the fans. While performing his last number of the evening, he suffered another heart attack on stage in the middle of a rendition of his hit, "Tiptoe Through the Tulips". His wife was helping him back to their table when he collapsed, and never regained consciousness. His remains are entombed in a mausoleum in Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis.

11/02/1996	33	Eva Cassidy	folk singer	Cancer	Bowie, Maryland
10/17/1996	30	Chris Acland	Lush, drummer	Suicide (hanging)	Burneside, England
09/13/1996	25	Tupac Shakur	rapper	Murdered	Las Vegas, Nevada

Tupac Shakur
June 16, 1971 - September 13, 1996

On September 7, 1996, Tupac Shakur was leaving a boxing event in Las Vegas when he was shot multiple times. Six days after the drive-by shooting, he was dead at 25.

A persistent theory is that his death was the result of the era's volatile East Coast/West Coast rap war. New York rapper Notorious B.I.G. was murdered only six months later. Both murders remain unsolved to this day.

09/10/1996	52	Lee Baker	Mud Boy and the Neutrons	Murdered	Horseshoe Lake, Arkansas
09/09/1996	84	Bill Monroe	"The father of Bluegrass"	Stroke	Springfield, Tennessee

Bill Monroe
September 13, 1911 - September 9, 1996

08/11/1996	62	Mel Taylor	The Ventures, Drummer	Lung Cancer	Los Angeles, California
07/29/1996	28	Jason Thirsk	Pennywise, bassist	Suicide (gunshot)
07/28/1996	48	Margie Ganser Dorste	The Shangri-Las	Breast Cancer	New York, New York
07/22/1996	41	Rob Collins	The Charlatans, keyboardist	Car Accident	Near Monmouth, Wales, UK
07/17/1996	57	Bryan "Chas" Chandler	Animals, bassist	Heart Failure	Newcastle upon Tyne, England

Bryan "Chas" Chandler
December 18, 1938 – July 17, 1996

Chas Chandler was the original bassist in the Animals. He also managed the band Slade and Jimi Hendrix, about whom he was regularly interviewed until his death in 1996.

07/16/1996	47	John Panozzo	Styx	Alcohol	Chicago, Illinois
07/11/1996	34	Jonathan Melvoin	Smashing Pumpkins	Heroin Overdose	New York, New York
06/10/1996	54	Alan Blakely	The Tremeloes	Cancer	London, England
05/31/1996	59	Elsbeary Hobbs, Jr.	The Drifters, bass vocalist	Lung Cancer	New York, New York
05/31/1996	75	Dr. Timothy Leary	LSD Guru	Cancer	Hollywood, California
05/30/1996	48	John Kahn	Jerry Garcia Band, bassist	Drug Overdose	Mill Valley, California
05/25/1996	28	Bradley Nowell	Sublime	Drug Overdose	San Francisco, California

Bradley Nowell
February 22, 1968 – May 25, 1996

Bradley James Nowell was the lead singer and guitarist of the ska punk band Sublime.

Born and raised Long Beach, California, Bradley showed an interest in music from a young age. While attending California State University at Long Beach, he met bassist Eric Wilson and drummer Bud Gaugh and together they formed Sublime. In his lifetime, Sublime released the albums 40oz. to Freedom and Robbin' the Hood to critical and commercial success.

Nowell struggled with heroin addiction. He became sober after his son Jakob was born, but relapsed and died of a heroin overdose in a San Francisco hotel while Sublime was on tour. He was 28.

05/17/1996	61	Johnny "Guitar" Watson	blues guitarist	Heart Attack	Yokohama, Japan
05/17/1996	29	Kevin Gilbert		Autoerotic Asphyxiation	Pasadena, California

Kevin Gilbert
November 20, 1966 – May 17, 1996

Kevin Gilbert, who shared a Grammy nomination for the hit Sheryl Crow song "All I Wanna Do," was found dead in his bed on May 18, 1996 at his home in Pasadena, California. The coroner listed the cause of death as "asphyxia due to partial suspension hanging." MTV more bluntly reported the cause of death as autoerotic asphyxiation.

Kevin may be best remembered for discovering Sheryl Crow. Crow was an unknown when she auditioned to be a keyboardist with Gilbert's band Toy Matinee, which released a self-titled CD in 1989. Crow and Gilbert dated for about two years. During that time Gilbert joined in a weekly jam session known as the "Tuesday Music Club." Crow named her album after the group and described it in the disc's liner notes. Gilbert did not tour with Crow, and the two parted on less than cordial terms.

Gilbert was a big fan of the rock group Genesis, and wowed crowds with his performance of Genesis covers. According to friends, he was scheduled to fly to London the week after his death to audition to replace Phil Collins.

While never capturing the spotlight for himself, Kevin Gilbert worked with many music giants: playing keys on Eddie Money's Nothing to Lose album in 1988, engineering a single for Michael Jackson, and writing songs for Madonna's Dick Tracy soundtrack.

05/11/1996

46

Walter Hyatt

Uncle Walt's Band

Plane Crash

Everglades, Florida

Walter Hyatt
October 25, 1949 - May 11, 1996

Walter Hyatt was a singer/songwriter who formed Uncle Walt's Band in 1972. Popular in the Austin, Texas music scene, the band had a cult following around the world and a fan in musician Lyle Lovett, who produced their album King Tears, Lovett's first work as a producer.

Tragically, Walter Hyatt was one of the 110 killed when ValuJet Flight 592 caught fire after take-off from Miami and crashed into a remote and swampy area of the Florida Everglades.

Hyatt's Some Unfinished Business (Volume One) was released in January 2008 to rave reviews. The album contains songs Hyatt was working on at the time of his death.

04/18/1996	43	Bernard Edwards	Chic	Pneumonia	Tokyo, Japan
04/05/1996	50	Monika Dannemann	last girlfriend of Jimi Hendrix	suicide	Seaford, East Sussex, England
03/31/1996	80	Jeffrey Lee Pierce	The Gun Club	Stroke	Salt Lake City, Utah
03/22/1996	50	Don Murray	The Turtles, drummer	complications from ulcer surgery
03/17/1996	54	Terry Stafford	singer/songwriter	Liver Problems	Amarillo, Texas

Terry Stafford
November 22, 1941 - March 17, 1996

One-hit wonder Terry Stafford was known for his 1964 Elvis sound-alike single "Suspicion."

03/16/1996	80	Joe Pope	The Tams	Heart Failure
03/04/1996	83	Minnie Pearl	Grand Ole Opry star / Country Comedian	Stroke	Nashville, Tennessee
02/16/1996	80	Brownie McGhee	folk/blues singer	Stomach Cancer	Oakland, California

Brownie McGhee
November 30, 1915 - February 16, 1996

Brownie McGhee was a folk-blues singer and guitarist best known for his collaboration with Sonny Terry.

01/31/1996

Rick Curtis

Crazy Horse, vocalist

Ventura, California

Richard Curtis

Rick Curtis and his brothers and sisters formed the psych-folk band These Vizitors in 1965. They recorded with Phil Ramone in 1967.

In 1972, Rick was a guitarist and vocalist for Crazy Horse, formerly Neil Young's backup band. He and his brother Michael wrote many of the songs on their 1972 album At Crooked Lake. Former Crazy Horse member Danny Whitten died of a drug overdose just a month after this album was released.

A prolific songwriter, Curtis co-wrote "Southern Cross" for Crosby, Stills & Nash and "Blue Letter" for Fleetwood Mac. Both songs were originally demos recorded with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

01/16/1996

49

Richard Kermode

Janis Joplin's Kosmic Blues Band

Denver, Colorado

Richard Kermode
October 5, 1946 - January 16, 1996

Richard Kermode was a respected jazz keyboardist in Buffalo, New York. In 1969, he moved to California and joined Janis Joplin's band. He joined her on the stage at Woodstock. He later played with Carlos Santana, Patti LaBelle and Malo.

---

*** 1995 ***

12/30/1995	55	Clarence "Satch" Satchell	The Ohio Players, saxophonist	Aneurysm	Dayton, Ohio
12/25/1995	78	Dean Martin	pop singer and actor	Respiratory Failure	Beverly Hills, California
12/21/1995	46	Charlie Tumahai	Be-Bop Deluxe, bassist	Heart Failure	Auckland, New Zealand
11/23/1995	64	Junior Walker	saxophonist	Cancer	Battle Creek, Michigan

Junior Walker
June 14, 1931 - November 23, 1995

Junior Walker (born Autry DeWalt Mixon, Jr. in Blytheville, Arkansas) was the leader of the Motown group Junior Walker and the All Stars. His saxophone style was the anchor for the band's overall sound. Their first and signature hit was "Shotgun", written by Junior Walker and produced by Berry Gordy.

Walker contributed to Rock 'n' Roll by playing saxophone on Foreigner's smash radio hit "Urgent" in 1981.

11/21/1995	60	Peter Grant	Led Zeppelin, manager	Heart Failure	Sussex, England
11/21/1995	35	Matthew James Ashman	Adam Ant / Bow Wow Wow, guitarist	Diabetes	London, England
11/08/1995	40	Country Dick Montana	Beat Farmers, drummer	Heart Attack	Whistler, British Columbia
10/21/1995	28	Shannon Hoon	Blind Melon	Drug Overdose	New Orleans, Louisiana
09/08/1995	21	Jack Vigliatura IV	For Squirrels, vocalist	Car Accident	Georgia
09/08/1995	23	Bill White	For Squirrels, bassist	Car Accident	Georgia
09/08/1995	23	Tim Bender	For Squirrels, tour manager	Car Accident	Georgia
08/30/1995	53	Sterling Morrison	Velvet Underground	Cancer	Poughkeepsie, New York
08/26/1995	56	Ronald White	The Miracles	Leukemia	Detroit, Michigan
08/23/1995	31	Dwayne Goettel	Skinny Puppy	Heroin Overdose	Edmonton, Alberta
08/16/1995	39	Bobby DeBarge	Switch / DeBarge	AIDS	Grand Rapids, Michigan
08/09/1995	53	Jerry Garcia	Grateful Dead	Heart Failure	San Francisco, California

Jerry Garcia
August 1, 1942 - August 9, 1995

Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia gained fame as co-founder of the band the Grateful Dead, a band he lead from 1965 until death his death. Garcia also founded and participated in a variety of side projects, including the Saunders-Garcia Band with longtime friend Merl Saunders, Jerry Garcia Band, the bluegrass combo Old and in the Way, the Jerry Garcia/David Grisman acoustic duo, and Legion of Mary.

Jerry Garcia was born August 1, 1942 in San Francisco, California; he was named after showtune composer Jerome Kern. Jerry's Father, Jose, a retired jazz musician turned tavern owner, drowned while fishing when Jerry was five.

At age four, much of Jerry's right middle finger had to be amputated after an accident when chopping wood.

Raised by his mother and grandparents, Jerry displayed an early interest in music, first learning piano in early childhood. His mother bought him an accordion for his 15th birthday, but Jerry didn't like the instrument and persuaded her to exchange it for an electric guitar. Garcia became an avid student of folk, old-time country, and bluegrass music, playing both the acoustic guitar and banjo.

He dropped out of high school in 1960 and joined the army, but was dishonorably discharged a few months later. In February 1961, Garcia was a passenger in a car involved in a fatal accident that killed his friend Paul Speegle. He was thrown from the car and escaped with a broken collarbone.

In 1962 Garcia met Phil Lesh, the eventual bassist of the Grateful Dead, during a party in Palo Alto's bohemian Perry Lane neighborhood (where Ken Kesey lived).

During 1964, he began playing in a jug band, Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, that also featured guitarist/singer Bob Weir and singer/harmonica player/keyboardist Ron McKernan (aka Pigpen). At the turn of 1965, the group took up electric instruments and became a rock & roll band, adding drummer Bill Kreutzmann and renaming themselves the Warlocks. Phil Lesh, a friend of Garcia's since 1962, joined them on bass by June 1965, and in December the quintet first performed under its new name, the Grateful Dead.

Garcia was lead guitarist, a principal vocalist and a songwriter for the Grateful Dead for their entire career. The band toured relentlessly.

On July 10, 1986, following a strenuous Grateful Dead tour, Garcia fell into a diabetic coma lasting three days and nearly died. Garcia's coma had a profound effect on him: it forced him to have to relearn how to play the guitar, as well as other, more basic skills.

Garcia was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Grateful Dead in 1994.

Early on the morning of August 9, 1995, Garcia's unconscious body was discovered on the floor of his room at the Serenity Knolls treatment center in Forest Knolls, California. The cause of death was a heart attack.

07/25/1995

62

Charlie Rich

"The Silver Fox", country singer

pulmonary embolism

Hammond, Louisiana

Charlie Rich
December 14, 1932 - July 25, 1995

Charlie Rich (nicknamed "The Silver Fox" in the latter part of his life) was a Grammy-award winning country and popular music singer. He is perhaps best remembered for a pair of 1973 hits, "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl". "The Most Beautiful Girl" topped the U.S. country singles charts, as well as the pop singles charts.

Charlie Rich was traveling with his wife to Florida from Natchez, Mississippi, where he watched his son perform with Freddy Fender at a local casino, when he experienced a bout of severe coughing. After visiting a doctor in St. Francisville, Louisiana, and receiving antibiotics, he continued traveling until he stopped to rest for the night. Charlie Rich died in his sleep on July 25, 1995, in a Hammond, Louisiana, motel. He was 62 years old. The cause of death was a blood clot in his lung. He was buried in the Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee.

07/01/1995	45	Ian Parkin	Be-Bop Deluxe, guitarist	Cancer?
07/01/1995	56	Wolfman Jack	Disc Jockey	Heart Attack	Belvidere, North Carolina
06/14/1995	47	Rory Gallagher	Taste	Alcohol, Liver Transplant	London, England
04/14/1995	85	Burl Ives	Folk Revivalist		Anacortes, Washington
03/31/1995	23	Selena	Tejano singer	Murdered	Corpus Christi, Texas
03/30/1995	59	Paul A. Rothchild	producer	Lung Cancer	Los Angeles, California
03/23/1995	41	Alan Barton	Black Lace	Car Accident	Cologne, Germany
03/08/1995	29	Ingo Schwichtenberg	Helloween	Suicide by Train	Germany
03/07/1995	34	David Loucks	Racer / Tin Ear	Murdered	Seattle, Washington
03/05/1995	51	Vivian Stanshall	Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band	House Fire	London, England
02/26/1995	44	Frank O'Keefe	The Outlaws, bassist	Drug Overdose	Clearwater, Florida

Frank O'Keefe
March 18, 1950 - February 26, 1995

Frank O'Keefe was the original bassist for southern rock band, the Outlaws. Although the band was riding high on a string of what would eventually become classic rock staples, O'Keefe decided to leave the band after suffering a broken neck from a fall in July, 1976. The trials of a hectic life on the road also helped in that decision. That neck injury lead to his reliance on pain medication for the rest of his life.

On February 26, 1995, O'Keefe's lifeless body was found by his roommate in his Clearwater, Florida home. He apparently died as a result of drug and alcohol abuse.

02/23/1995	52	Melvin Franklin	The Temptations		Los Angeles, California
02/18/1995	35	Bob Stinson	The Replacements		Minneapolis, Minnesota
02/12/1995	42	Philip Taylor Kramer	Iron Butterfly	Car Accident	Malibu, California

Philip Taylor Kramer
July 12, 1952 - February 12, 1995

Philip Taylor Kramer was the bass guitar player for the rock group Iron Butterfly during the 1970s. He joined the band in 1974. He later obtained a degree in aerospace engineering and worked on missile guidance systems for a contractor of the US Department of Defense. With his father, Kramer had also been working on a data compression and transmission project which he believed could result in faster-than-light speed communications (their work also involved a long-running family effort to discredit Albert Einstein's theories).

On February 12, 1995 he drove to Los Angeles International Airport to pick up an investor. After waiting an hour for the business contact who never arrived, Kramer called both his wife and Iron Butterfly drummer and co-founder Ron Bushy from the cell phone in his car, leaving Bushy a cryptic message about seeing him "...on the other side." Kramer also called the police and said, "I’m going to kill myself. And I want everyone to know O.J. Simpson is innocent. They did it."

Kramer was never heard from again. This led to a massive search and many news reports, talk show segments (including an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show) and even an episode on Unsolved Mysteries some years later. There was wild speculation, fueled by his longtime friend Ron Bushy, that agents from the United States government had abducted Kramer. Bushy, who had been talking with Kramer about a reunion tour for the band, said "I honestly believe that he has been abducted by our government or an agency that is part of it or maybe a foreign government or a company." Ohio Democrat Rep. James Traficant is reported to have said, "Someone may have grabbed him," suggesting he might have been brainwashed by terrorists for "nefarious purposes."

On Saturday, May 29, 1999, Kramer's 1993 green Ford Aerostar minivan, driver's license and skeletal remains were found by photographers looking for old car wrecks to shoot at the bottom of Decker Canyon near Malibu, California. Based on forensic evidence and Kramer's emergency call to the police, his death was ruled as a probable suicide committed on the day on which he was last heard.

02/07/1995	45	Billy Jones	The Outlaws	Suicide	Spring Hill, Florida
02/01/1995	27	Richey Edwards	Manic Street Preachers	disappeared mysteriously	London, England

Richey Edwards
December 22, 1967 - February 1, 1995 (?)

Richey Edwards was a Welsh musician who was the singer for the alternative rock band Manic Street Preachers.

He mysteriously disappeared from a London hotel on Feb. 1, 1995 after withdrawing a large amount of cash and renewing his passport. His abandoned car was found within walking distance of the Severn Bridge, a notorious suicide spot.

Having never been located, he was declared presumed deceased November 28, 2008.

01/29/1995		Ken Jensen	DOA	House Fire	Vancouver, BC, Canada
01/24/1995	32	David Cole	C+C Music Factory	Spinal Meningitis	New York, New York
01/14/1995	45	Ruby Starr	Black Oak Arkansas, singer	Cancer	Toledo, Ohio

---

*** 1994 ***

11/18/1994	86	Cab Calloway	jazz singer	Stroke	Hockessin, Delaware
11/16/1994	57	Dino Valenti	Quicksilver Messenger Service		Santa Rosa, California
11/10/1994	74	Carmen McRae	jazz singer		Beverly Hills, California
11/04/1994	45	Fred "Sonic" Smith	MC5	Heart Failure	Detroit, Michigan
10/27/1994	57	Robert White	The Funk Brothers, guitarist	Heart Failure	Los Angeles, California
10/26/1994	65	Wilbert Harrison	recorded "Kansas City"		Spencer, North Carolina
10/22/1994	52	Jimmy Miller	Rolling Stones, producer	Liver Failure	Denver, Colorado

Jimmy Miller
March 23, 1942 – October 22, 1994

James "Jimmy" Miller was an American record producer and musician who produced dozens of albums between the mid-1960s and early 1990s, including landmark recordings for Blind Faith, Spooky Tooth, Traffic, Motörhead, the Plasmatics, and Primal Scream. He produced some of the Rolling Stones most famous albums: Beggars Banquet (1968), Let It Bleed (1969), Sticky Fingers (1971), Exile on Main St. (1972) and Goats Head Soup (1973).

A drummer himself, Miller was known for his distinctive drum sounds, especially his work with the Rolling Stones, on whose recordings he occasionally played percussion parts such as the famous opening cowbell on "Honky Tonk Women" and the full drum kit on "You Can't Always Get What You Want," "Happy," "Tumbling Dice" and "Shine a Light."

Prior to working with the Rolling Stones, Miller rose to fame by producing successful releases for the Spencer Davis Group including their breakthrough hit "Gimme Some Lovin'" and the follow-up smash "I'm A Man," which Miller co-wrote with the band's singer-keyboardist, Steve Winwood. Miller also contributed the lyrics to the Traffic song "Medicated Goo."

Miller is also famous for being the "Mr. Jimmy" mentioned in the lyrics to the Stones song "You Can't Always Get What You Want."

09/06/1994

50

Nicky Hopkins

Rolling Stones, keyboardist

Intestinal complications

Nashville, Tennessee

Nicky Hopkins
February 24, 1944 - Sept 6, 1994

Nicky Hopkins, a British keyboardist whose work is heard on many great rock songs, has died at the age of 50. His death was from complications resulting from intestinal surgery related to his lifelong battle with Crohn's disease.

Hopkins recorded and toured with many famous artists from the 1960s on, most notably the Rolling Stones. His work is also heard on music by the Easybeats, the Kinks, the Pretty Things, the Move and The Who. He also had a successful solo career.

Nicky's musical career began at age 16 when he joined Screaming Lord Sutch's Savages as a pianist. Two years later, he and fellow Savages Bernie Watson, Rick Brown (aka Ricky Fenson) and Carlo Little, joined the renowned blues harmonica player Cyril Davies, who had just left Blues Incorporated.

In 1967 he joined the Jeff Beck Group, playing on the LPs Truth and Beck-Ola. The following year, Hopkins recorded Beggars Banquet with the Rolling Stones, having previously worked for them on their 1967 single "We Love You" and the album Their Satanic Majesties Request. He also recorded for several San Franciscan groups, playing on albums by Jefferson Airplane (with whom he performed at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969), the New Riders of the Purple Sage and the Steve Miller Band. He briefly joined Quicksilver Messenger Service and also appeared with the Jerry Garcia Band.

07/27/1994		Ken Montgomery	DOA	Heroin Overdose
07/11/1994	23	Shannon Wilsey	pornographic actress	Suicide by gunshot	Burbank, California

Savannah
October 9, 1970 - July 11, 1994

Shannon Michelle Wilsey, better known by her stage name of Savannah, was an American pornographic actress known for her ties to rock stars. She lived with musician Gregg Allman for two years and later had relationships with Billy Idol, comedian Pauly Shore, bassist Billy Sheehan, guitarist Slash, and Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe.

Savannah took her own life after injuring her face in an accident while driving her Corvette.

06/26/1994

Mick Wayne

guitarist

Fire

Michigan

Mick Wayne
1945 - June 26, 1994

Mick Wayne was a talented guitarist who played on David Bowie's Space Oddity. He was in Bowie's backing band, Junior's Eyes, and recorded some sessions for the BBC in 1969 under the name David Bowie & Junior's Eyes.

Before Junior's Eyes was formed in 1968, Wayne was a member of a series of other British bands. His first band, 'The Outsiders', had Jimmy Page on guitar. In 1968, he helped record James Taylor's debut album. After more projects, he eventually retired from the music business.

On June 26, 1994, while working on a comeback solo album, Mick died in a tragic fire at his producer's house. He is survived by his daughters Sarah and Abbegail.

06/16/1994	27	Kristen Pfaff	Hole, bassist	Heroin Overdose	Seattle, Washington
06/04/1994	51	Derek Leckenby	Herman's Hermits	non-Hodgkins lymphoma	Manchester, England
04/07/1994	41	Lee Brilleaux	Dr. Feelgood	Throat Cancer	Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, England
04/05/1994	27	Kurt Cobain	Nirvana	Suicide (Shotgun)	Seattle, Washington

Kurt Cobain
February 20, 1967 - April 5, 1994

On April 5, 1994, Kurt Cobain wrote a suicide note in which he said he couldn't stand to think of his daughter becoming "the miserable self-destructive, death rocker that I've become." He went into the greenhouse of his Seattle mansion and injected himself with a massive dose of heroin (an estimated 225mg). He put a 20-gauge shotgun against the roof of his mouth, and fired.

There are some strange circumstances and many unanswered questions surrounding the death of Kurt Cobain. Was Cobain murdered? This has been the subject of books, television shows, radio shows, quite a few magazine and newspaper stories, and the film "Kurt and Courtney"

Read more about the controversy:

Cobain Was Killed

Private Detective Tom Grant's web site

Kurt Cobain is also a member of the "Forever 27" Club of musicians that have all mysteriously passed away at age 27. Other members include Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Brian Jones.

03/22/1994	43	Dan Hartman	Edgar Winter Group	Brain Cancer	Westport, Connecticut
02/22/1994	76	Papa John Creach	Jefferson Airplane	Pneumonia	Los Angeles, California
01/22/1994	37	Rhett Forrester	Riot, singer	Murdered	Atlanta, Georgia
01/15/1994	52	Harry Nilsson	singer/songwriter	Heart Attack	Los Angeles, California

Harry Nilsson
June 15, 1941 - January 15, 1994

Harry Edward Nilsson III, credited on most of his recordings simply as Nilsson, was known for being a witty and idiosyncratic songwriter.

After having some of his songs recorded by Glen Campbell, Fred Astaire, the Shangri-Las, and the Yardbirds, Nilsson signed with RCA in 1966 and the following year released Pandemonium Shadow Show.

Nilsson's second RCA album, Aerial Ballet, included his recording of Fred Neil's song "Everybody's Talkin'". Director John Schlesinger used this recording in the movie Midnight Cowboy and the song became a hit - reaching number 6 on Billboard's Hot 100 and earning Nilsson a Grammy. Nilsson's success continued as Three Dog Night's recording of his song "One" reached number 5 on the charts and went on to sell more than a million copies.

Nilsson's 1969 album Harry included a song written by Randy Newman. In 1970, Nilsson recorded an entire album of songs by Newman, Nilsson Sings Newman.

In early 1971, The Point!, the first 90-minute, "made-for-television," animated film debuted on ABC. Based on a story by Nilsson, The Point! featured several songs by Nilsson including "Me And My Arrow".

Nilsson's 1971 album, Nilsson Schmilsson, became his best-selling album and "Without You", the album's first single, became a world-wide hit in 1972.

In 1974, Nilsson and John Lennon generated newspaper headlines by being thrown out of the Troubadour for heckling a Smothers Brothers performance. The same year, Lennon produced Nilsson's Pussy Cats album.

---

*** 1993 ***

12/19/1993

47

Michael Clarke

The Byrds

Liver Failure

Treasure Island, Florida

Michael Clarke
June 3, 1946 - December 19, 1993

Michael Clarke (born Michael James Dick) was the drummer for the Byrds from 1964 until 1967. He was fired from the band after the The Notorious Byrd Brothers album was completed.

Between 1969 and 1973, Clarke drummed with the Flying Burrito Brothers, including an appearance with the band at the infamous Altamont Free Concert, documented in the Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter film.

During the 1974-1981 period, Clarke was a member of the soft rock band Firefall, followed by a period as the drummer for Jerry Jeff Walker, ending in 1982.

He died at age 47 due to liver failure, a direct result of more than three decades of heavy alcohol consumption.

12/05/1993

32

Doug Hopkins

Gin Blossoms

Suicide

Tempe, Arizona

Doug Hopkins
April 11, 1961 - December 5, 1993

Doug Hopkins was the lead guitarist and principal songwriter of Gin Blossoms, a popular modern rock band of the early 1990s. Hopkins' writing credits include the hit songs "Hey Jealousy", "Found Out About You", "Hold Me Down," and "Lost Horizons".

12/04/1993

52

Frank Zappa

Mothers of Invention

Stomach Cancer

Los Angeles, California

Frank Zappa
December 21, 1940 - December 4, 1993

12/03/1993	32	Ray Gillen	Black Sabbath	AIDS	New York, New York
11/28/1993	47	Jerry Edmonton	Steppenwolf	Car Accident	Santa Ynez, California
11/24/1993	61	Albert Collins	blues legend	Cancer	Las Vegas, Nevada
10/31/1993	23	River Phoenix	actor	Drug Overdose	Los Angeles, California

River Phoenix
August 23, 1970 - October 31, 1993

Although River Phoenix is best remembered as an actor, his true passion may have been music. Phoenix was a singer, songwriter and an accomplished guitarist.
On Halloween morning, 1993, Phoenix died of a drug overdose on the sidewalk outside the West Hollywood nightclub the Viper Room.

10/25/1993

44

Howard Arthur Blauvelt

Ram Jam, bassist

Heart Attack

New York, New York

Howie Arthur Blauvelt

Howie Arthur Blauvelt was the bassist for Ram Jam, a New York Band remembered for their 1977 hit Black Betty. The song, a reinterpretation of a Lead Belly classic, caused some conflict with the NAACP and the Congress of Racial Equality calling for a boycott due to the lyrics.

Prior to his work with Ram Jam, Blauvelt played with Billy Joel in several bands, most notably The Hassles.

Ram Jam drummer Pete Charles died in 2002.

10/23/1993

82

Vincent Price

Vincent Price, actor / voice artist

Lung Cancer

Los Angeles, California

Vincent Price
May 27, 1911 - October 23, 1993

Vincent Price, known for his starring roles in many Hollywood horror movies, has died of lung cancer and emphysema. He was a life-long smoker.

He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price also contributed his distinctive voice to a number of musical recordings. Price provided a monologue for the Alice Cooper song Devil's Food in 1975, and he appeared in the corresponding TV special Alice Cooper: The Nightmare.

In 1976, Price recorded a cover of Bobby "Boris" Pickett's "Monster Mash" as a 45rpm single.

In 1982, Price provided the spoken-word sequence to the end of the Michael Jackson song "Thriller". It goes like this:

Darkness falls across the land
The midnight hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize y'all's neighborhood
And whomsoever shall be found
Without the soul for getting down
Must stand and face the hounds of hell
And rot inside a corpse's shell

The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of forty thousand years
And grisly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom
And though you fight to stay alive
Your body starts to shiver
For no mere mortal can resist
The evil of the thriller

(Long maniacal laugh...)

10/17/1993

30

Criss Oliva

Savatage, guitarist

Car Accident

Zephyrhills, Florida

Criss Oliva
April 3, 1963 - October 17, 1993

10/13/1993

53

Wade Flemons

Earth Wind & Fire

Cancer

Battle Creek, Michigan

Wade Flemons
September 25, 1940 – October 13, 1993

Flemons was the lead singer of the musical group, Wade Flemons & The Newcomers. A native of Coffeyville, Kansas, he moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, where he started The Newcomers. In 1958, his first single, 'Here I Stand,' was released on the Vee-Jay Record Label. In 1960, Flemons released his biggest hit, 'Easy Lovin,' which landed on the R&B Top Ten. After more solo work, Flemons joined Vee-Jay session musician Maurice White's group, 'The Salty Peppers' on their debut single, 'La La Time,' on Capitol Records. Following the release of their next single, 'Your Love Is Life,' the group became better known as 'Earth, Wind & Fire.' Flemons remained with EWF contributing vocals, electric piano, and vibes, until he and other members were dismissed by White in 1973. After leaving Earth, Wind & Fire, Flemons continued with his solo career.

On October 13, 1993, Flemons died in Battle Creek, Michigan after a battle with cancer. A veteran of the Vietnam War, he served as a Private First Class in the United States Army and is buried in Fort Custer National Cemetery, Kalamazoo County, Michigan.

08/05/1993	45	Randy Jo Hobbs	Johnny Winter, Montrose	Drug Overdose?	Dayton, Ohio
07/30/1993	53	Don Myrick	Earth Wind & Fire, saxophonist	Murdered by police	Los Angeles, California

Don Myrick
April 6, 1940 – July 30, 1993

Don Myrick played alto, tenor and soprano saxophone as a member of Earth, Wind & Fire's original horn section, The Phenix Horns Esq. from 1975 through 1982.

Myrick was fatally shot in Los Angeles, California by a Santa Monica policeman during a narcotics investigation. While attempting to serve a search warrant, Police Officer Gary Barbaro mistook a cigarette lighter in Myrick's hand for a weapon. He fired a single bullet that hit Myrick in the chest. Myrick died in the hospital shortly afterwards. A wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles was settled for $400,000.

He was buried in an unmarked grave (Lot 1034, Grave B, West end of plot) in the 'El Portal' section of the Inglewood Park Cemetery.

07/07/1993	27	Mia Zapata	The Gits	Murdered	Seattle, Washington
07/01/1993	29	Dave Insurgent	Reagan Youth	Suicide (Heroin Overdose)	New York, New York

Dave Insurgent
September 5, 1964 - July 1, 1993

David Rubinstein founded New York punk-rock Band Reagan Youth with guitarist Paul Bakija while both were in high school. Changing their names to Dave Insurgent and Paul Cripple, they played in the Manhattan scene in clubs like CBGB's. The band often used Nazi and Ku Klux Klan imagery to express their left-wing politics and to point out the perceived parallels between the policies of Ronald Reagan and the Christian Right and the beliefs of the hate groups. Their songs included "Jesus Was a Communist," a stab at the Christian fundamentalists in the United States, and "New Aryans," an anti-conservative/yuppie and also anti-racist anthem. It should be noted that both of Dave Rubinstein's parents were Holocaust survivors.

The group disbanded at the end of President Reagan's term of office. Dave became addicted to Heroin and his girlfriend, Tiffany Bresciani, became a prostitute to fund her own addiction.

The Evening of June 24, 1993, David and Tiffany were waiting on the street when a familiar customer pulled up in a Mazda pick-up truck. Tiffany got in, telling David that she would return in twenty minutes. She never came back. David called the police with a description of the truck and went to all the hospital emergency rooms in the city searching for Tiffany. Four days later, New York state troopers spotted the truck and gave chase. After the truck hit a utility pole, police found Tiffany's body in the back, covered with a sheet. They arrested the driver, Joel Rifkin, one of Long Island's most famous serial killers, who was later linked to killing 17 prostitutes.

Distraught over Tiffany's death and that of his mother a month earlier in a car accident, David intentionally overdosed himself on Heroin.

06/28/1993	36	GG Allin	punk rock singer	Heroin Overdose	New York, New York
06/18/1993	57	Luther Tucker	blues guitarist	Heart Attack	Greenbrae, California
06/05/1993	59	Conway Twitty	country music singer	Abdominal Aneurysm	Springfield, Missouri
05/30/1993	79	Sun Ra	avant-garde jazz artist		Birmingham, Alabama
05/28/1993	67	Doctor Ross "The Harmonica Boss"	blues		Flint, Michigan
05/12/1993	40	Randy L. Delay	The Georgia Satellites, drummer
04/29/1993	46	Mick Ronson	David Bowie	Liver Cancer	London, England

Mick Ronson
May 26, 1946 - April 29, 1993

Michael "Mick" Ronson was multi-instrumentalist session musician, best known for his work as one of David Bowie's The Spiders from Mars.

He also recorded several solo albums, the most notable example of which was Slaughter on 10th Avenue.

Ronson died of liver cancer on April 29, 1993 at the age of 46.

03/19/1993	30	Jeff Ward	Nine Inch Nails / Ministry, drummer	Suicide (carbon monoxide poisoning)	Chicago, Illinois
02/25/1993	45	Toy Caldwell	Marshall Tucker Band	Heart Disease	Spartanburg, South Carolina
01/06/1993	75	Dizzy Gillespie	jazz trumpeter	Pancreatic Cancer	Englewood, New Jersey

Dizzy Gillespie
October 21, 1917 - January 6, 1993

Considered one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time, John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz.

Dizzy was born in Cheraw, South Carolina, the youngest of nine children. His father, James, was a bricklayer, pianist and band leader. His mother’s name was Lottie. Dizzy’s father stored the band’s instruments at the family home and the young maestro was never far from a trumpet, saxophone, guitar or his father’s upright piano.

Dizzy's wife, Lorraine, was a chorus dancer at New York City's famed Apollo Theatre. They married in 1940 and remained together until his death.

Gillespie was known for his trademark "bent" trumpet, in which the horn was bent upwards in a 45 degree angle. According to Gillespie's autobiography, the bent trumpet was originally the result of accidental damage caused by someone sitting on his instrument. Gillespie liked the altered the tone of the damaged instrument and commissioned a professionally made trumpet of the bent design.

---

*** 1992 ***

12/24/1992	47	Bobby LaKind	The Doobie Brothers, drummer	Colon Cancer	Los Angeles, California
12/23/1992	42	Eddie Hazel	Parliament-Funkadelic	Liver Failure	Plainfield, New Jersey

Eddie Hazel
"Maggot Brain"
April 10, 1950 - December 23, 1992

Eddie Hazel played lead guitar with funk rock legends Parliament-Funkadelic.

Hazel is a posthumous member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic.

12/21/1992

69

Albert King

blues artist

Heart Failure

Memphis, Tennessee

Albert King
"The Velvet Bulldozer"
April 25, 1923 - December 21, 1992

Albert King was born Albert Nelson, on April 25, 1923, in Indianola, Mississippi (also the birthplace of B.B. King, no relation).

King was a large man, standing over 6-foot-4-inches and weighing about 250 pounds. He was left-handed and taught himself to play the guitar upside-down while keeping the strings strung for a right-handed player. He made several recordings for small labels, but didn't experience real success until moving to Memphis and recording for the Stax label. Backed by the label's house band, Booker T and The MGs, he recorded a number of songs such as "Laundromat Blues", "Crosscut Saw", and "Born under a Bad Sign". These were released on the landmark 1967 album Born under a Bad Sign.

On February 1, 1968, Albert King, John Mayall and Jimi Hendrix headlined a show for the opening night of the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. Later in 1968, King released a live album Live Wire / Blues Power

In 2010, a two-disc CD/DVD set entitled In Session was released. It contains a December 6, 1983 concert of Albert King with Stevie Ray Vaughan, recorded for Canadian television.

11/23/1992

89

Roy Acuff

country singer

Heart Failure

Nashville, Tennessee

Roy Acuff
"The King of Country Music"
September 15, 1903 - November 23, 1992

Roy Acuff, a country music singer known as the "The King of Country Music," has died of heart failure at age 89.

Acuff began his music career in the 1930s and gained regional fame as the singer and fiddler for his group, the Smoky Mountain Boys. He joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1938 and remained one of the Opry's key figures and promoters for nearly four decades.

In 1942, Acuff and Fred Rose founded Acuff-Rose Music, the first major Nashville-based country music publishing company, which signed such artists as Hank Williams, Roy Orbison, and the Everly Brothers.

In 1972, Acuff's career received a brief resurgence in the folk revival movement after he appeared on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken.

A life-size statue of Roy Acuff sits on a pew alongside a statue of Minnie Pearl in the lobby of Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. He is also honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1541 Vine Street).

Roy Acuff died at the Baptist Hospital in Nashville on November 23, 1992 of congestive heart failure. He was 89. He is buried in the Hillcrest section (grave 6, lot 9) of Spring Hill Cemetery on Gallatin Road in Nashville.

11/21/1992		Ricky Williams	Flipper, vocalist	Respiratory Failure
11/19/1992	52	Bobby Russell	singer/songwriter	Coronary Artery Disease	Nicholasville, Kentucky
11/14/1992	45	John Cascella	John Mellencamp, keyboardist	Car Accident
11/13/1992	52	Ronnie Bond	The Troggs, drummer		Winchester, Hampshire, England
10/25/1992	56	Roger Miller	King of the Road	Throat Cancer	Los Angeles, California
10/05/1992	52	Eddie Kendricks	The Temptations	Lung Cancer	Birmingham, Alabama
09/29/1992	66	Bud Cowsill	The Cowsills, manager	Leukemia	Mexico
09/18/1992	62	Earl Van Dyke	The Funk Brothers, keyboardist	Prostate Caner	Detroit, Michigan
08/14/1992	64	Tony Williams	The Platters	Emphysema	New York
08/05/1992	38	Jeff Porcaro	Toto / Steely Dan, drummer	Heart Attack	Los Angeles, California
07/26/1992	49	Mary Wells	soul singer	Cancer	Los Angeles, California
06/27/1992	24	Stefanie Sargent	7 Year Bitch	Heroin Overdose	Seattle, Washington
05/15/1992	44	Barbara Lee	The Chiffons, singer	Heart Attack
04/25/1992		Brian "Too Loud" MacLeod	Chilliwack / The Headpins	Cancer	Vancouver, British Columbia
01/29/1992	76	Willie Dixon	blues pioneer	Heart Failure	Burbank, California

Willie Dixon
July 1, 1915 - January 29, 1992

William James "Willie" Dixon was an American blues double-bassist, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He is credited with writing more than 500 songs including blues classics "Little Red Rooster", "Hoochie Coochie Man", "Evil", "Spoonful", "Back Door Man", "I Just Want to Make Love to You", "I Ain't Superstitious", "My Babe", "Wang Dang Doodle", and "Bring It On Home".

Dixon died of heart failure in Burbank, California on January 29, 1992, and is buried in the Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.

Actor and comedian Cedric the Entertainer portrayed Dixon in Cadillac Records, a 2008 film based on the early history of Chess Records. Willie Dixon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

01/21/1992	45	Champion Jack Dupree	blues pianist	Cancer	Hannover, Germany
01/15/1992	45	Dee Murray	Elton John, bassist	Stroke	Nashville, Tennessee

Dee Murray
April 3, 1946 - January 15, 1992

Dee Murray (born David Murray Oates) was a rock bassist most famous for his tenure with Elton John. He was a member of the Spencer Davis Group from 1969-1970 and also worked with Procol Harum, Alice Cooper, Yvonne Elliman, England Dan & John Ford Coley, John Prine, Rick Springfield and even Barry Manilow.

He died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville of a stroke after a long bout with skin cancer.

01/14/1992

45

Jerry Nolan

New York Dolls

Stroke

New York, New York

Jerry Nolan
May 7, 1946 – January 14, 1992

Jerry Nolan was the drummer for the New York Dolls.

Nolan died in a hospital that was treating him for pneumonia and meningitis. He suffered a stroke and went into a coma from which he never recovered. He spent his final weeks on a life support system, before passing away on January 14th 1992. He was 45 years old.

---

*** 1991 ***

12/12/1991

58

Ronnie Ross

saxophonist

London, England

Ronnie Ross
October 2, 1933 - December 12, 1991

Ronnie Ross was a British jazz baritone saxophonist who became a saxophone tutor for a young David Bowie. Ross played tenor saxophone on The Beatles White Album track "Savoy Truffle" and is also remembered for the outstanding sax solo at the end of the Lou Reed song "Walk on the Wild Side", which was co-produced by Bowie. Ross also had guest appearances as a soloist on several Matt Bianco albums.

11/24/1991	41	Eric Carr	Kiss, drummer	Cancer	New York, New York
11/23/1991	45	Freddie Mercury	Queen	AIDS	London, England

Freddie Mercury
September 5, 1946 - November 24, 1991

Freddie Mercury was a British musician, singer/songwriter and vocalist for the rock band Queen.

10/25/1991	60	Bill Graham	concert promoter	Helicopter Crash	Concord, California
10/17/1991	72	Tennessee Ernie Ford	country singer	Liver Failure	Los Angeles, California
09/28/1991	65	Miles Davis	jazz trumpeter	Pneumonia, Stroke	Santa Monica, California

Miles Davis
May 26, 1926 - September 28, 1991

Miles Davis, born Miles Dewey Davis III, was an important and influential jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer.

In 2006, Davis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which recognized him as "one of the key figures in the history of jazz".

09/17/1991	46	Rob Tyner	MC5	Heart Failure	Royal Oak, Michigan
09/04/1991	58	Dottie West	country singer	Car Accident	Nashville, Tennessee
06/06/1991	64	Stan Getz	Jazz saxophonist	Liver Cancer	Malibu, California
06/01/1991	50	David Ruffin	The Temptations	Cocaine Overdose	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
05/24/1991	46	Gene Clark	The Byrds	Heart Failure	Sherman Oaks, California
04/23/1991	42	Sandra Leano (Miss Sandra)	The GTOs	Ovarian Cancer	Albion, California

Sandra Leano
January 18, 1949 - April 23, 1991

04/23/1991

38

Johnny Thunders

New York Dolls

Drug Overdose

New Orleans, Louisiana

Johnny Thunders
July 15, 1952 - April 23, 1991

Johnny Thunders, born John Anthony Genzale, Jr., in Queens, New York City, was a member of the New York Dolls.

Thunders died of a drug overdose at St. Peter House, a New Orleans hotel. Reportedly, alcohol and methadone were found nearby in the room. He was also suffering from advanced Leukemia.

04/20/1991

44

Steve Marriott

Humble Pie

Fire

Arkesden, Essex, England

Steve Marriott
January 30, 1947 - April 20, 1991

Steve Marriott was an English rock musician and member of the bands the Small Faces and Humble Pie.

Born Stephen Peter Marriott at East Ham Hospital, Manor Park, London, England, he showed an early interest in singing and performing and became a huge fan of singer Buddy Holly. He formed his first band at age 12. At the age of thirteen, Marriott landed a role in the popular musical Oliver!, based on the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. Marriott stayed with the show for a total of twelve months. The next year he was accepted as a student at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London. Soon, however, he lost interest in acting and returned to his first love, music.

In 1963, Marriott wrote "Imaginary Love" and used the song to secure a record deal with Decca Records. The single was released in July 1963 and promptly vanished. Other early projects did not fare much better. On July 28, 1964, Marriott first met Ronnie Lane and 16-year-old drummer Kenney Jones. With their shared love of R&B, the trio were soon firm friends and their musical endeavors evolved into the Small Faces. They were signed by Don Arden and quickly became a successful mod band in the London scene. Marriott wrote or co-wrote most of Small Faces' hit singles.

After the success of the group's number one hit concept album Ogdens Nut Gone Flake Marriott was keen for the group to evolve and wanted to bring in ex-Herd frontman Peter Frampton, but the other members refused. Marriott quit the group, storming off stage during a disastrous live performance on New Year's Eve, 1968.

Shortly after leaving Small Faces, Marriott joined the newly formed rock band Humble Pie with Frampton, drummer Jerry Shirley and bassist Greg Ridley. Their debut album As Safe As Yesterday Is was released on Immediate Records. Humble Pie toured constantly over the next three years. The band's next album releases, on A&M Records, were Humble Pie and Rock On. Their live album Rockin' the Fillmore (1971) became the band's most successful release to date.

Humble Pie disbanded in 1975. Marriott released his first solo album, Marriott, in 1976.

In 1991 Marriott flew to Los Angeles to record some tracks in Peter Frampton's studio for a reformed Humble Pie. The project was never completed, as Marriott had a change of heart and returned home.

Marriott died on the morning of Saturday, April 20, 1991 when a fire, thought to have been caused by a cigarette, swept through his home in Arkesden, Essex. The 16th-century cottage was also used for location shots for the home of the title character in the BBC's long-running television series Lovejoy, starring Ian McShane

03/22/1991	56	Dave Guard	The Kingston Trio	Lymphoma	Concord, New Hampshire
03/21/1991	81	Leo Fender	guitar designer	Parkinson's disease	Fullerton, California
03/17/1991	53	Max Lipscomb (AKA Scotty McKay)	Gene Vincent & the Bluecaps, pianist	Heart Attack
03/16/1991	65	Bill Gazzarri	nightclub owner
03/16/1991	27	Chris Austin	Reba McEntire, guitarist	Plane Crash	San Diego, California
03/16/1991	28	Kirk Capello	Reba McEntire, keyboardist	Plane Crash	San Diego, California
03/16/1991	27	Joey Cigainero	Reba McEntire, synthesizer player	Plane Crash	San Diego, California
03/16/1991	33	Paula Kaye Evans	Reba McEntire, backup vocalist	Plane Crash	San Diego, California
03/16/1991	40	Jim Hammon	Reba McEntire, road manager	Plane Crash	San Diego, California
03/16/1991	28	Terry Jackson	Reba McEntire, bass guitarist	Plane Crash	San Diego, California
03/16/1991	34	Tony Saputo	Reba McEntire, drummer	Plane Crash	San Diego, California
03/16/1991	34	Michael Thomas	Reba McEntire, guitarist	Plane Crash	San Diego, California

Reba McEntire's Band
March 16, 1991

After completing a Friday evening corporate gig for IBM'S "top performers" at San Diego's Sheraton Harbor Island Hotel, members of Reba McEntire's band boarded a twin-engine Hawker Siddeley jet bound for their next gig in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

On board where seven members of Reba's band, her tour manager, and a pilot and copilot. The flight took off from Brown Field, south of San Diego, at 1:40 AM on Saturday, March 16. Northeast of the airfield the jet's wing clipped an outcropping of rock near the 3,572-foot peak of Otay Mountain. All on board were killed.

McEntire had skipped the flight to stay at the hotel and rest, planning to take a later commercial flight. Also spared were band members Joe McGlohon and Pete Finney, who had left from Brown Field in a different plane, minutes behind the doomed jet.

McEntire dedicated her 1991 album For My Broken Heart to her lost bandmates.

03/14/1991	65	Doc Pomus	singer/songwriter	Lung Cancer	New York, New York
03/01/1991	42	Frank Esler-Smith	Air Supply, keyboardist	Pneumonia	Australia
02/24/1991	69	Webb Pierce	country guitarist	Pancreatic Cancer
01/21/1991		Rob Graves	The Gun Club	Heroin Overdose	New York
01/20/1991	48	Stan Szelest	The Band	Heart Attack	Woodstock, New York
01/08/1991	30	Steve Clark	Def Leppard	Alcohol & Drugs	London, England
01/08/1991	15	Jeremy Delle	inspiration for Pearl Jam's song Jeremy	Suicide	Richardson, Texas

Jeremy Delle
January 8, 1991

The story of Jeremy Delle inspired Pearl Jam's controversial song and video, Jeremy.

Jeremy Delle was 15 years old on January 8, 1991, when he walked into his English class at Richardson High School and shot himself with a revolver in front of a room full of students. Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder read about the tragic suicide in a newspaper, and this became the immediate inspiration for Jeremy, the third single off the band's debut album Ten.

As the song suggests in its opening lines "At home drawing pictures / Of mountaintops," Jeremy was already an accomplished artist at the time of his death. His artwork won awards at state fairs, including Best of Show, all before he was 12 years old.

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*** 1990 ***

10/08/1990	43	B. J. Wilson	Procol Harem, drummer	Drug Overdose	Eugene, Oregon
09/06/1990	48	Tom Fogerty	Creedence Clearwater Revival	Tuberculosis	Scottsdale, Arizona
09/05/1990	45	Charlie Charles	Ian Dury and the Blockheads	Cancer	London, England
08/27/1990	35	Stevie Ray Vaughan	guitarist	Helicopter Crash	East Troy, Wisconsin

Stevie Ray Vaughan
October 3, 1954 - August 27, 1990

08/17/1990	72	Pearl Bailey	singer/actress	Heart Disease	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
08/08/1990	24	Joel Rundell	Better Than Ezra, guitarist	Suicide
07/27/1990	62	Bobby Day	Hollywood Flames	Cancer	Los Angeles, California
07/26/1990	37	Brent Mydland	Grateful Dead	Drug Overdose	Lafayette, California
07/23/1990	41	Bert Sommer	folksinger	Respiratory Illness	Troy, New York
06/23/1990	44	Isaac Payton Sweat	Johnny Winter, bassist	Suicide	Richmond, Texas
06/05/1990	42	Jim Hodder	Steely Dan, drummer	Drowned	Point Arena, California
06/03/1990	37	Richard Sohl	Patti Smith, keyboardist	Heart Attack
06/02/1990	40	Stiv Bators	Dead Boys	Car Accident	Paris, France

Stiv Bators
October 22, 1949 - June 2, 1990

Stiv Bators, born Steven John Bator, was a punk rock singer who performed with the bands The Dead Boys and The Lords of the New Church.

He was run over by a taxi while crossing a street in Paris, France. After leaving the hospital, he died in his sleep, apparently due to a concussion. Bators was a fan of Jim Morrison. Reportedly, his girlfriend spread his ashes over Morrison's Paris grave site.

05/16/1990	64	Sammy Davis Jr.	pop singer/dancer/comedian	Throat Cancer	Beverly Hills, California
03/19/1990	24	Andrew Wood	Mother Love Bone	Heroin Overdose	Seattle, Washington
03/17/1990	43	Ric Grech	Traffic / Blind Faith	renal failure due to alcoholism	Leicester, England

Ric Grech
November 1, 1946 - March 17, 1990

02/28/1990

26

Dave Prichard

Armored Saint, guitarist

Leukemia

David Earl “Red” Prichard
November 27, 1963 - February 28, 1990

Dave Prichard was a founding member of the heavy metal band "Armored Saint", which formed in 1982 in Pasadena, California.

On tour, Armored Saint opened for acts including Metallica, Saxon, Michael Schenker Group, WASP, and Whitesnake.

Dave Prichard fought a two-year battle with leukemia, but died in February 1990 at age 26 after a failed bone marrow transplant.

02/26/1990	53	Cornell Gunter	The Coasters	Murdered	Las Vegas, Nevada
02/08/1990	55	Charles Westover	Del Shannon	Suicide (gunshot)	Santa Clarita, California
01/23/1990	37	Allen Collins	Lynyrd Skynyrd	Pneumonia	Jacksonville, Florida

Allen Collins
July 19, 1952 - January 23, 1990

Allen Collins (Born Larkin Allen Collins Jr.) was a founding member and guitarist for the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. He co-wrote many of the bands most famous songs.

Allen survived the October 20, 1977 plane crash that killed several of his fellow band members. He was seriously injured in the crash; suffering two broken vertebrae in his neck and a mangled right arm.

After Skynyrd, Allen's next major project was Rossington-Collins Band's 1980 debut album Anytime Anyplace Anywhere, an under-rated Southern rock classic. Allen began a downward spiral, using drugs and alcohol after his wife Kathy suddenly died of a hemorrhage following a miscarriage in 1980. Missed concerts and conflicts within the band resulted in the disbanding of Rossington-Collins in 1982 shortly after the release of their second album, This is the Way. Next, Allen teamed with Skynyrd keyboardist Billy Powell and bassist Leon Wilkeson, along with lead singer Jimmy Dougherty, drummer Derek Hess, and guitarists Barry Lee Harwood and Randall Hall forming a new band, the Allen Collins Band. They issued a single album Here There in Back in 1983. This album is now very difficult to find.

In 1986, a car accident killed Collins' girlfriend and left the guitarist paralyzed from the waist down, with limited use of his arms and hands. Collins pled no contest to vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence of alcohol.

All remaining members of Lynyrd Skynyrd reunited to perform in 1987, but due to his injury Collins was only able to participate as musical director. As part of his plea bargain for the 1986 accident, Collins addressed fans at every Skynyrd concert with an explanation of why he could not perform, citing the dangers of drinking and driving, as well as drugs and alcohol.

Allen Collins died January 23, 1990 from chronic pneumonia, a complication of the paralysis. He is buried beside his wife in Riverside Memorial Park Cemetery, Jacksonville, Florida.

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