Well they say you cannot take it with you die.........as i am not into the after life ....... and the bullshit of funerals....... and all the horseshite .....that goes with it ....not to mention the lies ......no one tells the truth at funerals /////...they say ologies .......... but they do not say that......... some times you were a cunt .......... all nice stuff ......the dead do not care a fuck ........it's regret for the times you should have seen them when they were alive ........ guilt.......that's why they cry ............like i say if you cannot make the effort when i am alive ..... ....do not bother when i am dead ........
THINGS ROCK STARS WERE BURIED WITH
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BY KATHY BENJAMIN/UPDATED: OCT. 28, 2022 11:10 AM EST
While people like to think that, deep down, the rich and famous are – as the tabloid puts it – just like us, in reality, their lives are so very, very different. Living as, say, a rock star even for one day would blow a regular Joe's mind, what with all the fan adoration, the ability to buy anything they want, and the strange job requirements. No human can be really normal after living like that for very long.
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So it should come as no surprise that, considering how bizarre their lives are, the deaths of rock stars are often just as strange. Sure, many of them die in sudden or tragic ways, but after their loved ones get the news and things calm down, even then the late rockers can still manage to be so weird. Take their funerals, for instance. They might need walls of security guards, or be attended by thousands of fans, or even be broadcast live.
The trend continues even into those things that go into the ground with rock stars' bodies. When you have tons of money, priceless items, famous friends, and an odd personality molded from years of being way too famous, the resulting decisions of what a rock star is buried with can be eyebrow-raising. While some of the famous musicians on this list chose to be buried with keepsakes anyone could understand not wanting to leave behind, others decided they were going to go a much more rock-star route, even in death.
RONNIE VAN ZANT
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Frontman of the iconic rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd saw plenty of excitement in life, but his death – and, weirdly, his afterlife – have been even more chaotic. According to Britannica, after their first two albums resulted in the hits "Free Bird" and "Sweet Home Alabama," things went horribly wrong. In 1977, a plane carrying the band and others crashed. Ronnie Van Zant was among the casualties.
In an interview with News 4 Jax in 2022, Ronnie's widow Judy Van Zant explained how difficult his sudden and unexpected death made planning the funeral: "emotions were high and decisions had to be made quickly." However, one decision that was apparently easy to make was burying Ronnie with his favorite fishing pole, per History 101. Louder Sound records that while this was a lovely touch and made sense since Ronnie loved to fish, people had to make it weird, claiming they have seen his ghost carrying the pole walking to Lake Delancy.
One thing Ronnie Van Zant was almost certainly not buried with was a Neil Young t-shirt. This urban legend, which even got a mention in Rolling Stone, probably started because after Neil Young's song "Southern Man" and Lynyrd Skynyrd's response with "Sweet Home Alabama," many fans thought the two were feuding. Ronnie decided to start wearing Neil Young t-shirts on tour, to mess with that idea. The blog Report From the Florida Zone notes that when Ronnie Van Zant's grave was vandalized in 2000, people speculated those responsible were trying to find out if the legend was true or not.
DIMEBAG DARRELL ABBOTT
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"Dimebag" Darrell Abbott of the band Pantera was, like many people, a massive fan of Van Halen. According to Van Halen News Desk, even as Pantera became an iconic band in their own right, with Dimebag Darrell in the thick of it for two decades, he still talked constantly in interviews about how much he loved, respected, and was inspired by the other band.
Dimebag Darrell was tragically killed while performing in 2004. On December 8, he was on stage at a venue in Ohio, headbanging and "doing his thing" according to a witness (via Rolling Stone), when a "deranged fan" jumped on the stage, pulled a gun, and shot him dead. The gunman killed three others before being shot by a police officer.
Eddie Van Halen had only met Dimebag Darrell once, a few weeks before the latter died. But when the late singer's brother asked for a copy of the iconic yellow and black "Bumblebee" guitar Van Halen made famous to put in the coffin with Dimebag Darrell, the rocker did one better. When Van Halen arrived for the memorial, he was carrying his actual guitar from the 1970s. His reasoning? "An original should have an original." Van Halen didn't place the guitar in the casket himself, saying he preferred to remember Dimebag Darrell as he was in life, the one time they met.
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VINNIE PAUL ABBOTT
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The members of KISS knew their fans would want to trumpet their membership in the KISS Army even unto death. So the band did the logical thing and licensed a KISS coffin. "This is the ultimate Kiss collectible," Gene Simmons said when he unveiled the coffin in 2001, per Ultimate Classic Rock. "I love living, but this makes the alternative look pretty damn good."
When he died in 2018, Vinnie Paul Abbott of the band Pantera was buried in one of these coffins. Even more meaningfully for the drummer and massive KISS fan, the coffin was a gift from Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, according to Blabbermouth. Nor was he the first member of Pantera, or even the Abbott family, to be buried in one of them. In 2004, Vinnie Paul's brother Dimebag Darrell was also laid to rest in a KISS coffin.
KISS guitarist Ace Frehley was not part of the coffin donation, and it came as quite a shock to him – especially since he was a participant in the funeral ceremony. Frehley told the Not Never Funny podcast (via Rock and Roll Garage), "It was crazy, because I had a speech planned, and it went over perfectly. In the church, I'm at the podium, and I spoke for about 10, 12 minutes. And then we get out to the cemetery, and he's in a KISS casket. Vinnie Paul got buried in a KISS casket, and I see my face on the casket, and it weirded me out."
ELVIS PRESLEY
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Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll, was a phenomenon. However, people commented on his physical appearance in his last years, which betrayed the fact he was unwell. Still, his death in 1977 at the age of just 42 was a shock.
It was also an event. Elvis in death was almost bigger than Elvis in life. According to The Express, by the time Elvis' body was returned to his Graceland Estate from the hospital, thousands of people were already surrounding his home. His father decided the public would be allowed to walk past Elvis' coffin. This meant he had to look his best. A BBC reporter was allowed in to see the body before everyone else, and decades later, he wrote in The Daily Mail that the rock star was dressed in a black suit and white cravat. The official fan club Elvis Australia records he was also wearing one of his famous "TCB" (Taking Care of Business) lightning bolt rings (a different one is pictured above).
The funeral director, Robert Kendall, later told the poignant story (via The Express) of how Elvis' daughter, the 9-year-old Lisa Marie, put something personal in her father's coffin. Approaching him with a thin bracelet, she asked, "Mister Kendall, can I give this to my daddy?" He agreed, and put it on Elvis' right wrist, as instructed by Lisa Marie, although he made sure to hide it under the rocker's sleeve cuff so none of the thousands of fans who were about to walk past would be tempted to grab a memento to take home.
BOB MARLEY
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Bob Marley wasn't just an amazing musician, Biography says he was the first international superstar from a developing country. He and his band, the Wailers, sold tens of millions of albums and introduced reggae to the wider world. Exposure to Marley's music was also the first time many people learned about the Rastafarian religion.
In 1977, doctors discovered a cancerous growth on Marley's toe. It was serious enough that they wanted to remove the toe in order to stop the cancer from spreading. But since Rastafarianism doesn't allow amputation, Marley decided not to follow medical advice. Sadly, the cancer did spread, and he died in 1981 at the age of 36.
A music journalist who attended (along with 30,000 other people) wrote decades later in The Guardian that Bob Marley's state funeral in Jamaica was often more like a concert. Many people and groups performed, including the Wailers. He also records that in the coffin with Marley were a Bible and his guitar. During the funeral, his widow also placed a cannabis stalk on Marley. While to many the association is just a cliché, the Rastafarian religion believes the Bible commands them to smoke "ganja," and uses marijuana in other religious rituals, including burning it as an offering, per U.S. News and World Report. Some other sources, including the Zambian Telegraph, record there was also a soccer ball in Marley's coffin, and that he was wearing a lion ring given to him by an Ethiopian prince.
GG ALLIN
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Kevin Michael "GG" Allin, frontman of the Murder Junkies, was ... unique, to say the least. Kerrang! explained how Allin was the punkiest of punk rockers, a "poop-smeared man from New Hampshire" who would "slice open his skull with a broken bottle" on stage during a performance, and top it off by eating a women's sanitary product. That wasn't something he did once and it became infamous, either. That was every show. Or at least, the quieter ones.
Allin's life offstage was no less terrifying. As a boy, his father used to dig pits in the basement and threaten the family by saying that's where he would bury them. Allin escaped, at least mentally, by abusing drugs and alcohol. This eventually culminated in an overdose in 1993, when Allin was 36.
The funeral for GG Allin was never going to be normal. According to "Death and the Rock Star," Allin went to the grave as he had requested, with his body unwashed or cleaned in any way after he died. Mourners fed the five-days old corpse — displayed in an open casket — drugs and alcohol, added stickers to his coffin, and drew on the body in marker. Allin went to the grave in a jockstrap, leather jacket, and wearing headphones connected to a Walkman playing one of his albums. (He would have brought a bottle of whiskey as well, but the mourners took it out of the coffin and drank it.)
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
CHUCK BERRY
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While the families of many celebrities go to great lengths to keep the funeral of their famous loved one private, this was not the case with Chuck Berry. If you ever find yourself googling his name, you will almost certainly be presented with images of the iconic musician in his coffin at his funeral in 2017. The major event saw 1,000 mourners attend, according to The New York Times, and seemingly all of them took photos and put them online.
However, this does make it very easy to confirm that Berry's coffin was modified to hold one of his Gibson guitars. Attached to the interior of the coffin lid, the head of the red guitar pointed towards Berry's feet, and the lid was deep enough that the coffin could close with the guitar in it. As U Discover Music notes, Berry was also wearing a sailor hat and a sparkly purple shirt.
At least some guitar fans were appalled that Berry was subsequently buried with the guitar. In a 2017 thread in The Les Paul Forums, one poster asked, "Why bury him with a guitar at all? Any guitar associated with him for any extended time would fetch a nice premium at auction." When another poster opined that it was just "for show," they were happy to believe this without proof: "Well THAT is a relief ... what a waste of a perfectly good guitar, otherwise! Seriously, put it in a museum or something." Sorry, y'all.
CHRIS BELL
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Chris Bell's name might not ring a bell to most people, but his band Big Star has achieved cult status, according to Memphis news site Commercial Appeal. However, at the time, it wasn't clear they would ever make it big. After being signed to a small local label and releasing their first LP, the cockily named "#1 Album," to rave reviews, their success was hampered by distribution issues, a drug arrest that ended their tour, and limited radio play.
While he would go on to release a brilliant solo album as well, Chris was deeply hurt by what seemed like the failure of his band. "Depression can come on very strongly at a time of loss," his older brother David Bell told the website. "And it was almost my sense that he had put such an enormous amount of effort into this project, that ["#1 Album's"] failure was a crushing blow."
In 1978, things were finally looking up and the album was being rediscovered. It was even rereleased by a British record company. "[Chris] was over the moon about that," David said. "Because the LP had imprinted on the back 'EMI Records: Hayes, Middlesex, England' — just like all Beatles albums." But just after Christmas, Chris was in a single-car accident and died on impact. He was 27. At his funeral, his love for the music he'd worked so hard on was memorialized: His sister Sarah made sure someone brought a vinyl copy of "#1 Album" to put in the coffin and bury with Chris.
JIM MORRISON
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Jim Morrison was the controversial frontman for The Doors, whose looks, talent, and gift for performance helped rocket them to fame. But it wasn't all good. According to Biography, after a difficult few years with numerous arrests, as well as an increasingly concerning drug problem, Morrison moved to Paris with his common-law wife Paula Courson to try and get his life together. Sadly, he would meet his death there. Infamously a member of The 27 Club, Morrison died suddenly in his apartment in 1971. While his official cause of death was recorded as heart failure, there was no autopsy and it's widely accepted his drug use was the underlying cause.
"Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend" records that the rock star's unexpected death in a foreign country meant his burial was rushed and chaotic. While his gravesite in Paris' Pere Lachaise Cemetery seems like a fancy, exclusive location today, at the time, the only good thing about it was that it was available. Jim was dressed in a baggy suit and laid out in the cheapest coffin available, even though it was too small. Before the coffin was closed forever, Courson says she found every photo of her and Morrison she had in their apartment and put them in with him.
These days, Morrison's gravesite is one of the most visited in Pere Lachaise.
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
JAMES BROWN AND MICHAEL JACKSON
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For two musical icons like James Brown and Michael Jackson, who lived lives as big as the performances they gave on stage, it's no surprise that they both went out the same way, with massive funerals that were just as much a show.
Brown was the first of the two to die, passing away in 2006. According to Yahoo! Entertainment, his funeral took place in the famous Apollo Theater in New York City and saw thousands of mourners attend. This means Brown is another one of those celebrities whose corpses are plastered across the internet. The most shocking thing about those photos, however, might be the coffin his body was in. It even has a name: The Promethean. Costing up to $30,000 in 2006 money, it was solid bronze and plated in 24-carat gold.
One of the many celebrities who got to spend time with Brown's body before the larger ceremony was Michael Jackson. He was obviously transfixed. "He stood there, I guess, an hour or so just looking," funeral director Charles Reid told the New York Daily News (via Yahoo! Entertainment). "He asked who requested the gold-plated casket. I said, 'Well, it's the family's decision.' He asked if that's something Mr. Brown wanted. I said, 'Entertainers, they always say solid gold.'"
Jackson must have taken this to heart. When he died in 2009, he too was buried in The Promethean (pictured), per TMZ.
MICHAEL HUTCHENCE
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As the frontman for INXS, Michael Hutchence was a major sex symbol and world-famous. Before his sudden death in 1997 at age 37, he had released a solo album, and had a child with Paula Yates. From the outside, things looked really good for him.
In 2004, Michael's brother Rhett released the memoir "Total XS," which was excerpted in The Sydney Morning Herald. He wrote at length about the difficulty finding out what had happened to Michael when rumors were swirling that he had died. Everyone Rhett contacted was evasive. Finally, he was told his brother had died by suicide in an Australian hotel room.
Michael Hutchence was cremated (which Rhett says was a controversy in the family), but before that, he did have a viewing in a coffin. Rhett remembers watching his mother clip some locks of Michael's hair, and take some buttons off his suit. Rhett, however, placed items in the coffin. Michael wouldn't have been cremated with them later, but they still symbolically meant a lot. Rhett writes that "[I] placed a Marlboro Light in his inside jacket pocket. It was a personal thing: he was always asking me for a ciggie. I also placed a photo of [my wife] Mandy and me." However, Michael's partner had a more concerning memento for his coffin: "Paula [Yates] later told me she put a gram of smack in his pocket."
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
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ROCK STARS WHO DIED TRAGICALLY
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BY DANIEL JOHNSON/UPDATED: JAN. 23, 2023 12:42 PM EST
The mythology of rock 'n' roll is eternal youth and jubilation. When the music genre burst on the scene in the post-WWII, conservative United States during the 1950s, it immediately became the target for ire and hate from members of the Greatest Generation and the Silent Generation, while becoming an everyday part of life for the Baby Boomers. Elvis Presley's shaking hips, Chuck Berry's duck walk, Little Richard's and Jerry Lee Lewis' showmanship on the piano, and many other performers captured the hearts of teenagers, and rock laid the foundation for popular music over the second half of the 20th century.
Unfortunately, the human body can only take so much sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. The phrase "Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse" became reality for many of these rock stars. Performers who seemed like demigods to their fans were still very human and still held the same limitations as their legions of followers. Behind all the glitz and fun, musicians still suffered from depression, dependency on drugs or alcohol, or diseases and other health concerns. And sometimes, they were just at the wrong place at the wrong time, leading to tragic accidents. Here are just a few rock stars who died prematurely.
EDDIE COCHRAN PREDICTED HIS YOUNG DEATH
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On the morning of February 3, 1959, early rock 'n' roll icons Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson, known as "The Big Bopper," died in a plane crash while touring together through the Midwest. The event became known as "The Day the Music Died" and saw the first premature deaths of young and popular musicians in the early history of the genre.
The crash also had a large impact on one of their fellow musicians. Eddie Cochran was a part of the first wave of rock 'n' roll stars, along with the three musicians who passed. His songs "Summertime Blues" and "Twenty Flight Rock" became early classics in the young genre and very popular among his teenage fan base. His appearance in films such as The Girl Can't Help It and Go Johnny Go helped his popularity grow further. According to John Collis' biography, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran, people close to Cochran said he became obsessed with his own death, believing it was around the corner after the deaths of Holly, Valens, and Richardson.
While touring in the United Kingdom in 1960 with fellow musician Gene Vincent, Cochran's premonition came true. Following a performance on Saturday, April 16, Vincent, Cochran, and others were involved in a single-car accident. Cochran died the next day, Easter Sunday, at the age of 21. He was only one killed in the crash.
DUANE ALLMAN AND BERRY OAKLEY'S EERILY SIMILAR DEATHS
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Third time's the charm, they say. At Fillmore East, the Allman Brothers Band's third album, released in July 1971, launched them to superstardom after their first two albums failed commercially. The live album is hailed as a masterpiece today — Rolling Stone ranked it No. 49 on their "500 Greatest Albums of All Time."
The band's strength and leader was their guitarist, Duane Allman. Allman had spent the mid- to late 1960s as a must-have studio guitarist, working with artists such as Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, and fellow guitar god Eric Clapton. Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top fame said this of Duane's guitar playing to Rolling Stone magazine: "Duane began doing things no one had ever done before. [...] He was just a stunning and singular musician who was gone way too soon."
On October 29, 1971, Allman was driving his motorcycle through Macon, Georgia, when he hit a stopped truck. His bike jumped in the air and landed on him, causing internal injures. Though still conscious when he was taken to the hospital, the guitarist died hours later from his injures. As the band continued without their leader, tragedy struck again. On November 11, 1972, bassist Berry Oakley hit a bus on his own motorcycle and died from cerebral swelling. The accident took place a few blocks from Allman's fatal crash. Both men were 24 and are buried next to each other at Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon.
CASS ELLIOT'S HEART ATTACK PROMPTED A TERRIBLE RUMOR
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"Mama" Cass Elliot's weight has followed her throughout her life and death. As a part of the folk-pop group the Mamas and the Papas, Cass Elliot became a household name. However, her weight almost kept her out of the band since John Phillips didn't want to put Cass in the band because of it. Phillips and Elliot would try to hide this fact following their breakthrough to the mainstream, but in Cass' biography, Dream a Little Dream of Me by Eddi Fiegel, this fact came to light and was backed by bandmate Dennis Doherty as well as John himself.
After the Mamas and the Papas ended, Cass still maintained a steady career in music and television. On July 29, 1974, she passed away from a heart attack in Mayfair, London, England, at 32 years old.
Even in death, Elliot's weight was still the story — a rumor spread that she died choking on a ham sandwich. Many publications, such as Time, ran with the now-debunked ham sandwich story. Cass' only son, Owen, who was seven at the time of her death, angrily called the rumor "one last slap at the fat lady," as told by The Guardian. Cass was staying in a flat owned by singer Harry Nilsson that he loaned to her for her shows in England. The flat would become infamous for another death four years later.
KEITH MOON DIED IN THE SAME ROOM AS MAMA CASS
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No rock musician lived life to the fullest more so than Keith Moon. His chaotic drumming made him a legend, placing him second on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Drummers, and was the driving force behind one of the greatest bands of the era, The Who. Moon, as described by his former bandmate Roger Daltry to GQ, "lived his entire life as a fantasy." Moon helped create many of the stereotypes that still exist today in rock 'n' roll, like smashing hotel rooms and his own instrument, outrageous spending, and frequent alcohol and drug use that usually landed him in trouble.
On Jan 4, 1970, Moon and his entourage left a pub mobbed with skinheads that were harassing him. While trying to escape, Moon took the wheel of the car and accidentally ran over his friend and chauffeur, killing him. The judge cleared Moon of the three charges he pleaded guilty to — drunk driving, driving without a license, and driving without insurance — because of the circumstances at the pub. However, according to his friend Larry Smith, the moment had an effect on the drummer. Smith said that Moon was "shell-shocked."
Moon's predictable demise finally came eight years later on September 7, 1978. Moon was pronounced dead at the age of 32 from an overdose of Heminevrin. He died at the same age and in the same place where Mama Cass died four years prior.
KEITH RELF ELECTROCUTED HIMSELF WHILE WORKING ON MUSIC
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It is understandable to forget about a band's frontman when the lineup also featured a young Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and pre-Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page during its run. That's what has happened to Keith Relf of the Yardbirds.
When American blues music hit England in the late 1950s and early 1960s, bands like the Rolling Stones (named after a popular Muddy Waters song) and the Yardbirds formed with the desire to put their own touch on the music they loved. For Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Artists, frontman Steven Tyler of Aerosmith described the difference between Relf and the more popular frontman for the Stones, Mick Jagger: "He was a white boy who pushed it to the max. And he was a great harmonica player. You never heard Jagger hanging out on a single note the way Keith Relf could."
After the Yardbirds fell apart in 1968, Relf continued his music career with various bands as his more well-known bandmates achieved greater commercial and critical success throughout the 1970s. According to Ultimate Classic Rock, on May 14, 1976, while playing an electric guitar in his basement, Relf accidentally electrocuted himself, ending his life. He was 33 years old.
RICHARD MANUEL KILLED HIMSELF WHILE ON TOUR
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Musician Taj Mahal said of The Band in the documentary Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band, "If there were any American musicians that were comparable to what the Beatles were, it would have been them."
The Band featured (among others) drummer Levon Helm, bassist Rick Danko, and de-facto lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Richard Manuel, known for having a very soulful voice and the ability to sing in falsetto. Helm said of Manuel, "He was about the best singer I'd ever heard." Danko called Manuel "a force of nature in the band." Despite his immense talent, according to AllMusic, Manuel struggled throughout his life with alcohol and drug addiction.
In 1977, the group split up but reformed six years later without guitarist and lead songwriter Robbie Robertson. On the early morning of March 4, 1986, following a show at Winter Park, Florida, Manuel committed suicide. For years, Manuel had struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, as well as depression following the death of manager and mentor Albert Grossman earlier in the year, according to Chicago Now. Manuel was 42 years old at the time of his death. His former bandmates penned tribute songs to their friend, as did friend and admirer Eric Clapton with his song "Holy Mother."
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
PAUL BUTTERFIELD PLAYED AND LIVED THE BLUES
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According to Nick Talevski in his book Rock Obituaries — Knocking On Heaven's Door, when Paul Butterfield was only a teenager, he was already being tutored and performing with blues legend Muddy Waters in Chicago. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band helped popularize blues music, a predominately African-American genre, to a white audience. Living in Chicago, Butterfield was at the epicenter for the blues, as artists such as Waters, Willie Dixon, and his professional inspiration Little Walter lived and performed on Chicago's South Side. The rhythm section for his band, Sam Lay and Jerome Arnold, were hired from blues legend Howlin' Wolf.
Butterfield's aggressive blues harmonica playing led his bandmate and friend Michael Bloomfield to call him "the finest blues harmonica player in the world." Amid the backdrop of the early and mid-1960s, Butterfield would defend his racially integrated band and often get into confrontations from racist concertgoers, according to guitarist Paul Feiten. Butterfield was a living legend during his time. Author and journalist Greil Marcus said that during Woodstock, he saw other musicians from The Band and Blood, Sweat, and Tears act "deferential" towards Butterfield.
By the mid-1980s, Butterfield had developed a heroin addiction which had put a financial strain on him, and he'd been hurt by the loss of many of his close friends like Bloomfield, Waters, and his manager Albert Grossman during the decade. On May 4, 1987, Butterfield died of a drug overdose at the age of 44.
TOM FOGERTY SUCCUMBED TO AIDS STILL FEUDING WITH HIS BROTHER
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From Oasis' Liam and Noel Gallagher to the Kinks' Ray and Dave Davies to the Jackson 5's Michael and Jermaine Jackson, sibling rivalries are not uncommon in music.
However, few were as tumultuous and tragic as Creedence Clearwater Revival's feud between their two guitarists, John and Tom Fogerty. Despite being the younger sibling, John became the band's driving force, taking over all the singing and songwriting duties previously held by his brother. Tom did not enjoy losing control of his band to John, according to Ultimate Classic Rock. However, John's control of the band drove it superstardom in the late 1960s. After the 1970 album Pendulum, Tom left the band. Two years later, CCR dissolved from more internal conflict between John and the two remaining members.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, John became entangled in a series of contemptuous legal fights with the head of Fantasy Records, Saul Zaentz. In these fights, Tom was firmly in Zaentz's camp. John described Tom as having "some sort of weird Patti Hearst syndrome." During the 1980s, Tom was infected with AIDS from a blood transfusion. Even with death coming around, the brothers stayed at odds. John said one of the last letters he got from his brother read, "Saul is my best friend." Tom died of tuberculosis on September 6, 1990, at the age of 48.
STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN DIED IN A HELICOPTER CRASH FOLLOWING A SHOW
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Most people first heard Stevie Ray Vaughan's guitar on the hit David Bowie song "Let's Dance." Bowie said in an interview with MTV in 1983 that when he first heard Vaughan, "This little kid from Austin, Texas, just played some of the most devastating city rhythm and blues I've heard in years." BB King described Vaughan's guitar playing as "fluent" and said, "He could get something going [...] and it would go on and on and ideas continuously flowed."
Vaughan was a music legend to other legends. Throughout the 1980s, he released four studio albums with his band Double Trouble. His guitar abilities placed him No. 12 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists, and Vaughan is credited for helping to re-popularize blues music during the decade.
Unfortunately, during the early morning of August 27, 1990, his career came to an abrupt end. According to Guitar World, Double Trouble had done two shows with fellow blues guitarist Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, and Stevie's older brother Jimmie Vaughan in East Troy, Wisconsin. Vaughan then boarded a helicopter to fly back to Chicago, but it crashed, killing all four people on board as well as the pilot. He was 35 years old. One month later, Vaughan's last album of original material, Family Style, was released, a duel album with his brother.
A SPEEDBOAT ACCIDENT TOOK SINGER KIRSTY MACCOLL
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Though mostly known in the United States for a single song, Kirsty MacColl was regarded as one of the finest artists of her generation in the United Kingdom. The BBC reported that U2 frontman Bono called MacColl "the Noel Coward of her generation," and Johnny Marr of the Smiths said she had "the wit of Ray Davies and the harmonic invention of the Beach Boys."
Her duet with the Pogues, "Fairytale of New York" has become a modern-day holiday season classic. Jem Finer, songwriter and banjoist of the Pogues, told The Guardian that he questioned whether MacColl could handle her side of the duet, but lead singer Shane McGowan had been a fan of her of music and said, "She could make a song her own and she made Fairytale her own."
On December 18, 2000, the 41-year-old singer and her two sons were swimming in Cozumel, Mexico, when a speedboat illegally entered the area they were in. She moved one of her sons out of the way of the boat but was struck and killed instantly. Kirsty's mother Jean MacColl launched the website justiceforkirsty.org, believing that the Mexican government hadn't been forthcoming throughout the investigation. The boat was owned by businessman Carlos Gonzalez Nova, who was on the boat. Deckhand José Cen Yam was found guilty of culpable homicide, although according to Kirsty's biography, written by Jean MacColl, Yam's wife and father-in-law both said he was not the driver.
A DERANGED FAN SHOT METAL LEGEND DIMEBAG DARRELL
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December 8 is a somber day in music history. The night of December 8, 1980, former Beatles guitarist and songwriter John Lennon was shot in the back while walking into his apartment building in New York City by a crazed former fan, Mark David Chapman. Twenty-four years later, another legendary guitar player would be murdered.
While performing with his new band Damageplan, Darrell Abbott, known as "Dimebag" Darrell, was shot during his band's set. He was 38. In 1981, Darrell helped formed the heavy metal band Pantera, and his guitar riffs helped drive the band to success until they split in 2003. Pantera reshaped the metal genre over their two-decade run. Pantera's drummer, Darrell's older brother Vinny Paul Abbott, said of the band in an interview with Rolling Stone in 1992 that, "We pulled the very best out of each one of ourselves, and with each record that we made, that mountain got taller and taller to climb."
The gunman, Nathan Gale, also took the lives of three other people: club employee Erin A. Halk, fan Nathan Bray, and Damageplan crew member Jeff "Mayhem" Thompson. He was killed by Columbus police officers minutes after the shooting. Rolling Stone reports that another fan saw Gale waiting in the parking lot and asked him if he wanted to come inside to stay warm. He responded that he was "gonna wait for Damageplan."
Read More: https://www.grunge.com/226083/rock-stars-who-died-tragically/
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