What famous musicians death most shocked you

[dmccombe7]

Not sure if this has been done before but can't remember seeing it before. If it has then Moderators can just close it down

What musician that you've been a fan off has most shocked or surprised you and why. ?

Any style of music, any musician doesn't have to be a bass player.

For me it was Phil Lynott. Was a big fan of the band and his solo work and spent an afternoon with him playing pool and having a few beers. He was such a nice approachable guy.

Dave

[Chris2112]

Probably George Michael. You just expect these larger-than-life talents to live forever. 

[Guest oZZma]

Kurt Cobain. I was 17, naive and still too sensitive.

[JellyKnees]

Undoubtedly Prince. He always seemed pretty on top of his game to me.

[Cato]

Kurt Cobain.

I was only about 20 and found out through Ceefax of all things.

[Hobbayne]

George Harrison.  I knew he was ill, but he was cremated even before the news of his death was released.

[redbandit599]

Weirdly for me it was Jeff Hanneman - I'd seen Slayer live lots in my youth and he was tangible part of that,  rather than a 'rock God' that I knew but didn't really relate to.

Edited May 1, 2019 by redbandit599

[Doctor J]

Cobain. To see a guy so young kill himself is numbing, especially with a young child. In hindsight, clearly it was coming but was still a terrible shock at the time. He was only a few years older than I was at that point.

[EliasMooseblaster]

13 minutes ago, Chris2112 said:

Probably George Michael. You just expect these larger-than-life talents to live forever. 

 

11 minutes ago, JellyKnees said:

Undoubtedly Prince. He always seemed pretty on top of his game to me.

It's the ones like these that take you by surprise - they seemed to be healthy, or we got no insight into their private lives to suggest they were unwell.  See also Scott Walker. I knew he was getting on a bit, but he seemed to be active and busy and working on new projects, so it rather came out of the blue.

[Graham]

Caleb Scofield for me, just last year. 

Cave In are one of my favourite bands and he was a real influence on my playing. As it was a car crash, there were no health concerns before hand, so just came out of nowhere.

He's one of the only two public figures who's death has upset me, the other being Terry Pratchett

[bartelby]

Chris Cornell's death hit me harder than I expected. 

 

[DrBike]

34 minutes ago, JellyKnees said:

Undoubtedly Prince. He always seemed pretty on top of his game to me.

Yeah, this was quite a shock to me too

[Steve Browning]

Joe Strummer. My first (proper) band had played a combination of Dr Feelgood and Clash stuff and his death was a real shock.

George Michael was a shock too. All the more so as details of his incredible generosity and simple humanity came to light.

That's two, I know, but they were shocking for different reasons.

[cetera]

Eric Carr of KISS. I grew up loving KISS and Eric looked amazing and pounded those drums like an animal. Most of all though - he was the loveliest guy you could hope to meet. I was lucky enough to do so in 1990 when I went to the States and saw (what were to be) his last 3 shows ever.... such a friendly, genuine and down to earth chap :(

What made it worse was he died on the same day as Freddie Mercury so his passing was all but drowned out in the media....

[bassfan]

+1 on Prince... saw him live several times. Grew up listening to him and love playing his songs... R.I.P 💜

[Johnny Wishbone]

Chris Cornell, just because out of his contemporaries (Cobain, Vedder, Staley) he seemed the best equipped to handle the fame and adulation. He seemed to take it all in his stride and you'd think by the time he'd reached 40 he was 'out of the woods', so to speak. Whilst the deaths of Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley hit me hard, they weren't exactly unexpected. It's a surprise Eddie Vedder is still going strong given how close to the edge he was early in Pearl Jam's career.

[PaulWarning]

John Lennon, can't help thinking the Beatles would have got back together if he hadn't been murdered.

Joe Strummer, I'm sure the Clash would have reformed

Edited May 1, 2019 by PaulWarning

[lou24d53]

For me, it was David Bowie, but is very, very closely followed by Prince......

I was genuinely gutted at both, it was almost like I had lost someone in my family at the time, as dramatic as that sounds...I do distinctly remember letting out an involuntary shout when I saw the Sky News app that January morning in 2016 though... 

[mangotango]

John Lennon. I grew up in Liverpool in the '60's, the Beatles were the first band I ever saw (at age 7 - me, that is, not them!) and they'd always been part of the world in which I'd lived, as a band or as individual musicians.

The fact that somebody could, or even might want to, kill a Beatle just made no sense in my worldview of the time. 

Still doesn't, actually.

[stewblack]

As shocked as I was by Lemmy, Prince, Bowie and George Michael nothing really affects us like our first. Or at least that applies to me. 

Cycling to school one September morning not long after the start of term and Steve Collins told me Marc Bolan had died. 

I was utterly stunned as to why anyone would make up such a lie. Imagine then my absolute bewilderment when, that dinnertime I sat with my sandwiches in Mrs Baker's house and the Radio One news announcer confirmed that awful truth. 

I knew nothing of the lives of pop stars but I was certain of one thing - they couldn't just up and die. 

[KiOgon]

Looking back - Jimi Hendrix, saw him on Hastings pier twice IIRC and at the IOW in '70, just a few weeks before he went.

His influence carries on today - a real legend !

[dmccombe7]

1 minute ago, stewblack said:

As shocked as I was by Lemmy, Prince, Bowie and George Michael nothing really affects us like our first. Or at least that applies to me. 

Cycling to school one September morning not long after the start of term and Steve Collins told me Marc Bolan had died. 

I was utterly stunned as to why anyone would make up such a lie. Imagine then my absolute bewilderment when, that dinnertime I sat with my sandwiches in Mrs Baker's house and the Radio One news announcer confirmed that awful truth. 

I knew nothing of the lives of pop stars but I was certain of one thing - they couldn't just up and die. 

That's an interesting point as i think John Lennon was robably the first famous musician i liked to pass away and i can remember being out with a girlfriend when someone told me and the DJ was playing Imagine. So i can remember that one quite well. 

[Shaggy]

1 hour ago, Hobbayne said:

George Harrison.  I knew he was ill, but he was cremated even before the news of his death was released.

I woke up with "My sweet Lord" clearly running through my head on the morning I learned of his death - sounds too corny to be true, I know - but it is.....

For me - Ian Curtis, mainly as I'd only seen Joy Division play a month or so earlier, and it's still the gig that has moved me the most

[Rich]

Edited May 1, 2019 by Rich

[ezbass]

Kossoff, because of my age at the time and that he seemed to have got his life back on track. More recently, Bowie's death really rattled me when I found out and I'm not a massive fanboy or anything, I suppose it's because he had just always been there and it came seemingly out of the blue.