Leslie Jordan’s Hometown Announces Benefit Celebration of Life

Indeed, it took the pandemic for the rest of the world to catch up to what Jordan and his friends already knew: that he was a one-man entertainment machine. At the time of his death, he had six million Instagram followers, and a revitalized career appearing as a judge of RuPaul’s Drag Race and even announcing the nominees for the Academy Awards. He was also cast as one of the central characters in the Fox sitcom Call Me Kat with Mayim Bialik and Swoosie Kurtz. Its third season has been paused indefinitely following Jordan’s passing. 

Love. Light. Leslie. producer Del Shores was friends with Jordan for nearly four decades, and worked together on the film Sordid Lives, alongside Olivia Newton-John and Delta Burke, which inspired a sequel and series. (It’s quite a picture.) Danny Myrick produced Jordan’s album of gospel songs, Company’s Comin’. The forthcoming show will include Chattanooga city officials, and other friends and family. Jordan was the grand marshal of this year’s Chattanooga Riverbend Festival—the first ever grand marshal in its 40-year history—where he received the key to the city. 

The Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Auditorium seats over 3,800 and dates back to the mid-1920s. The legends who have performed there, according to Setlist.fm, include Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Little Richard, The Beach Boys, The Who, Stevie Wonder, KISS, Rush, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bruce Springsteen, Chaka Khan, Prince, Britney Spears, and Willie Nelson. 

The star will be buried in a private ceremony.