What famous musicians death most shocked you

[Mokl]

Jeff Buckley. Completely unexpected and the sense of loss I felt took me completely by surprise.  Feels particularly sad to me given that he certainly had so much more music to make.  

[TheGreek]

Elvis...I remember when I heard about it. We were camping with the Youth Club when one of the girls woke us all with "Elvis is dead"....as somebody else remarked, why would somebody make up such a wicked lie? He'd been there when R'n'R started and was still huge - he was going to live forever.

In some ways he has...

[T-Bay]

Kurt Cobain, I was doing my masters in the Netherlands and only had a radio with the world service being the only program in English I could find. To hear a stupid plum voice announcing his death in about two seconds before going onto the cricket scores has always stuck with me. It still saddens me 25 years on.

 

[SpondonBassed]

Another one for John Lennon here.  I was in shock as much for the way he was killed as for his loss.

[paul_5]

Freddie Mercury. Just didn’t see it coming, and was still enjoying the ‘Innuendo’ album immensely.

looking back at the music videos that Queen were  releasing in 1990/1991 it was obvious that Freddie was very, very ill, but back then I didn’t really bother with videos; I still don’t.

 

[Japhet]

Many of those already listed were shocking. I'd add Tom Petty to the list. I found his death particularly hard to get a handle on.

[Twigman]

Amy Winehouse if only because the firm I was working for were due to supply video on her tour and that job went tits up

[gareth]

51 minutes ago, mangotango said:

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.

#metoo

[SpondonBassed]

Hotblack Desiato.  He once spent a year dead for tax reasons.

[Guest oZZma]

22 minutes ago, T-Bay said:

Kurt Cobain, I was doing my masters in the Netherlands and only had a radio with the world service being the only program in English I could find. To hear a stupid plum voice announcing his death in about two seconds before going onto the cricket scores has always stuck with me. It still saddens me 25 years on.

 

I heard it on the news on TV before going to school... I remember well that moment

[Reggaebass]

I started bass lessons aged 14 and I was 18 when Bob Marley died in may 1981 , he was only 36.

[paul_c2]

There's a few I'm amazed are still alive, or who lasted that long before they died.

[BigRedX]

Ian Curtis of Joy Division.

Only musician producing music that I still liked at the time of his passing.

[chris_b]

3 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

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

 

The incredibly brilliant guitarist, the shining light in our sometime Allman Brothers band, just died. He was only 40! I'm still shocked!

[el borracho]

Freddie Mercury's death I remember well although I have never particularly been a Queen fan. The radio alarm woke me on the hour and the first words I heard on the news were "Freddie Mercury is dead"

Two that hit me more as I liked their music were Rory Gallagher & Rick Parfitt.

[pete.young]

Sandy Denny.

[White Cloud]

John Entwistle ... legend.

[ahpook]

Maybe it's just me, but I don't feel that strongly when a musician I like dies. It's a bit sad - sure, someone dying is always sad...but I never seem to be moved as much as others are.

[Guest oZZma]

4 minutes ago, ahpook said:

Maybe it's just me, but I don't feel that strongly when a musician I like dies. It's a bit sad - sure, someone dying is always sad...but I never seem to be moved as much as others are.

Now that I'm older it's the same for me.

[gt4ever]

Keith Flint hit me harder than I expected, not sure why.

[Bassassin]

Stuart Adamson. I was a massive fan and he was a huge influence on me as a musician & composer - to me he was an inspirational guitar player and an incredibly gifted songwriter.

Also he was the only musician I'd call myself a fan of who I had the pleasure of meeting - a genuinely humble, friendly and sweet man who seemed very grounded. I had no idea he was as troubled as he must have been and his death was a huge shock.

[FinnDave]

Rory Gallagher. I was working for BBC TV News and was asked to assembly material on him - they had to repeat the name as I didn't connect the request with one of my favourite musicians - that was part of the real world, not the strange world of television. 

I was also rather shocked when I read Kevin Ayers' obituary in the Times, while sitting in my local pub a few years ago. No one else in the place had heard of him, I was amazed to find.

[Stub Mandrel]

Lennon was a big surprise;  it just seemed so inexplicable and I wasn't used to losing musical icons - by the time you are in your 50s, you get a bit inured to it.

Ian Curtis, not because I was a huge fan, but I was listening to John Peel in the evening news came though and he just played 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' over and again.

Lemmy probably the biggest impact; he was just a constant presence in my musical awareness since I was about 18/19 and I love everything he did with Hawkwind. For me, he just personified rock and roll in a down to earth way -  a more real, flawed hero, willing to go out there even when he could barely walk.

The little grin at the end of this ad says it all 🙂

 

 

[Bolo]

Martin Kearns. Still no words.

[skb558]

John Martyn.

Saw him at Leeds in 1975 at the tender age of 17 and his music has stayed with me. 

He was a misogynist; was so often off his tits on stage having drank/smoked too much that every performance was a lottery; was a mess in his twilight years but he had one of the great voices.