Tom Verlaine, a guitarist and co-founder of the seminal proto-punk band Television, has died at the age of 73 following a brief illness, CBS News has learned.
Verlaine’s death was confirmed in a statement Saturday to CBS News from Jesse Paris Smith, daughter of musician Patti Smith, a frequent collaborator of Verlaine’s.
“He died peacefully in New York City, surrounded by close friends,” the statement read.
Cara Hutchison from the Lede Company, a public relations firm, also confirmed Verlaine’s death to the Associated Press. The exact cause of death was not provided.
Verlaine influenced many bands while playing at ultra-cool downtown New York music venue CBGB alongside the Ramones, Patti Smith and Talking Heads.
Tom Verlaine performs with his band Television performed at the Phoenix Concert Theatre on May 6, 2019, in Toronto, Canada.
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“Tom Verlaine has passed over to the beyond that his guitar playing always hinted at. He was the best rock and roll guitarist of all time, and like Hendrix could dance from the spheres of the cosmos to garage rock. That takes a special greatness,” Mike Scott of The Waterboys tweeted.
Though Television never found much commercial success, Verlaine’s jaggedly inventive playing as part of the band’s two-guitar assault influenced many musicians. Television issued its groundbreaking debut album “Marquee Moon” in 1977 — including the nearly 11-minute title track and “Elevation” — and the sophomore effort “Adventure” a year later.
“‘Marquee Moon’ has become something of a holy grail of independent rock in the years since. It has been a clear influence on such artists as Pavement, Sonic Youth, the Strokes and Jeff Buckley,” Billboard magazine wrote in 2003.
Increasing tension between Verlaine and fellow guitarist Richard Lloyd led Television to disband after its second album “Adventure.” The group would reunite for a self-titled 1992 album for Capitol Records and sporadic live appearances.
“We wanted to strip everything down further, away from the showbiz theatricality of the glitter bands, and away from blues-iness and boogie,” Television co-founder Richard Hell wrote in his autobiography, “I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp.” “We wanted to be stark and hard and torn up, the way the world was.”
Verlaine released eight solo albums, his most commercially successful being his 1981 sophomore solo album “Dreamtime,” which peaked at No. 177 on the Billboard album chart. He frequently served as accompanist to former girlfriend Patti Smith.
He was born Tom Miller — taking the last name of the 19th-century French poet Paul-Marie Verlaine after he met Hell, born Richard Meyers, at a Delaware prep school. They were tall, skinny, sardonic kids who dropped out and made their way to the East Village, where they worked in bookstores and wrote poetry together.
“He was noted for his angular lyricism and pointed lyrical asides, a sly wit, and an ability to shake each string to its truest emotion,” said a statement from his publicist. “His vision and his imagination will be missed.”
Tom Verlaine, the iconic frontman of Television, has died in New York City after a brief illness, the New York Times reports and Pitchfork can confirm. He was 73 years old.
Verlaine’s work with Television is punctuated by their landmark 1977 debut album Marquee Moon, regularly hailed as one of the best albums of the 1970s, Their intricate, airy compositions embodied the experimental wing of Manhattan’s fabled CBGB scene in the late ‘70s. He went on to release several solo vocal and instrumental as Tom Verlaine and as part of a duo interpreting silent films.
Born Thomas Miller in New Jersey in 1949 and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, he attended the Sanford School, a private boarding school in Hockessin, Delaware. It was there he befriended Richard Meyers, who would later take the stage name Richard Hell. The two bonded over art and music, fled the school together and eventually settled in New York City in the late 1960’s.
It was in New York that Miller adopted his stage name, an homage to the French symbolist poet Paul Verlaine. His earliest musical influences included free jazz, Five Live Yardbirds, and the Rolling Stones, specifically “19th Nervous Breakdown.” Verlaine and Hell formed their first band the Neon Boys with drummer Billy Ficca in 1972. It quickly dissolved, but they reformed as Television in 1973 after recruiting guitarist Richard Lloyd. They spent much of 1974–75 building a cult following at downtown clubs like Max’s Kansas City and CBGB; Hell left the band in 1975 and formed the Heartbreakers with Jerry Nolan and Johnny Thunders, who had just quit the New York Dolls.
After putting out a 7-inch single in 1975 on their manager Terry Ork’s label, Television would sign with Elektra and release Marquee Moon in 1977 to critical and commercial success, cracking the Billboard 200 album chart. They quickly followed it up with the more subdued Adventure in 1978, and broke up soon after. The band would briefly reform in the early ‘90s to record a self-titled studio album.
Shortly after Television broke up, Verlaine decided to continue pursuing music, releasing his solo debut in 1979. He enjoyed a fruitful writing period in the ‘80s with the full-lengths Dreamtime, Words From the Front, Cover, and Flash Light. Verlaine put out three more LPs in the next decade and then took a short break. His last two solo albums, Songs and Other Things and Around, came out in 2006.
Verlaine also went on to work with a number of musicians after Television. He started the supergroup the Million Dollar Bashers with Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley, Wilco guitarist Nels Cline, Bob Dylan bassist Tony Garnier, guitarist Smokey Hormel, and keyboardist John Medeski. They went on to help soundtrack the Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There. Verlaine also collaborated with David Bowie, Violent Femmes, and James Iha, among others. He dated Patti Smith in the mid-‘70s, and contributed to her albums Horses and Easter.
After hearing of Verlaine’s death, countless musicians have posted tributes in his honor, including Smith, Michael Stipe, the Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Real Estate, Heems, and Ryley Walker, among others. “Tom Verlaine was a true great, tweeted Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite. “His role in our culture and straight up awesomeness on the electric guitar was completely legendary. Name 10 minutes of music as good as Marquee Moon. You can’t. It’s perfect. Rest in peace Tom x.”
Randy Gonzalez, the father of the popular TikTok duo Enkyboys, has died of colon cancer at the age of 35, his brother, David Gonzalez, told CBS News on Thursday.
David Gonzalez told CBS News that his brother was put in hospice care last week and that he died Wednesday. TMZ first reported the death of Randy Gonzalez.
Randy Gonzalez first revealed he had stage 4 colon cancer last April and had been diagnosed six months earlier. He said he was given two to three years to live, but doctors hold him that chemotherapy would extend his life up to five more years. In the clip, the social media personality said he also created a GoFundMe to help pay for treatments after claiming he was denied care at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center because they did not accept his insurance.
“It’s going good,” he said, next to his wife and son. “Except I have to change my chemo because it’s not working right now, but I do feel good.
Brice was cast on the new NBC show, Lopez vs. Lopez, featuring actor George Lopez. The comedian posted a tribute to Randy Gonzalez on social media.
“My sincerest condolences to Brice and the entire Gonzalez family,” he wrote. “The love and the bond Randy had for his son and his family was undeniable, you can see it in every video.”
“He will be missed, but never forgotten. My heart goes out to the entire family.”
An autopsy has determined that actor and comedian Leslie Jordan’s death last October at the age of 67 was from sudden cardiac dysfunction, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office confirmed Thursday.
On Oct. 24, the “Will and Grace” and “American Horror Story” actor was found in his car in the Hollywood area of Los Angeles without a pulse after getting into a car accident. The L.A. Fire Department reported that his gray sedan collided with a curb and a tree.
Firefighters and paramedics tried to perform CPR and other life saving techniques on Jordan, but he was eventually pronounced dead at the scene.
The autopsy determined that Jordan’s death was from sudden cardiac dysfunction as a result of arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, the department said.
Leslie Jordan celebrates achievements in LGBTQ community at the 29th Annual GLAAD Media Awards Los Angeles at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on April 12, 2018.
John Sciulli/Getty Images for Ketel One Family-Made Vodka
Jordan’s death was ruled “natural,” and all toxicology tests for marijuana, alcohol and other drugs came back negative, the autopsy found.
According to the Mayo Clinic, arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease occurs when the blood vessels that carry oxygen and nutrients from the heart to the rest of the body becomes thick and stiff, potentially limiting blood flow to the body’s organs and tissues.
Jordan appeared in movies and television shows and was an accomplished stage actor and playwright. But he was best known for his recurring role as Beverly Leslie on the NBC sitcom “Will & Grace,” for which he won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 2006.
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David Crosby, the influential singer-songwriter who cofounded The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, has died, his publicist confirmed to CBS News. He was 81. News of Crosby’s death was first reported by Variety.
Crosby’s iconic career spanned seven decades. He wrote or cowrote several fan favorites with each of his bands, including “Eight Miles High” for The Byrds, “Wooden Ships” for Crosby, Stills & Nash, and “Almost Cut My Hair” for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the iteration of CSN that included Neil Young.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member David Crosby, founding member of The Byrds and Crosby, Stills and Nash, performs onstage during the California Saga 2 Benefit at Ace Hotel on July 03, 2019 in Los Angeles, California.
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He released eight solo albums, two of which — 1971’s “If I Could Only Remember My Name” and 2014’s “Croz” — entered the Billboard 100 charts.
Crosby first earned success with the Byrds in 1965 when the band scored a No. 1 hit with its cover of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man.” But in 1967, amid rising tension between Crosby and his fellow bandmates, including anger over his appearance onstage with Buffalo Springfield at the Monterey Pop Festival, he was dismissed from the Byrds.
He soon joined up with Buffalo Springfield’s Stephen Stills and the Hollies’ Graham Nash to form CSN. The group’s self-titled debut was well received, earning favorable reviews and reaching number six on the Billboard charts. Two of the album’s singles, “Marrakesh Express” and “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” also entered the Top 40 charts. The trio also earned the Grammy Award for best new artist in 1970.
Neil Young, who Crosby had filled in for at the Monterey Pop Festival, joined the band in 1969 — prompting them to change the group’s name to CSNY. Their second-ever live performance was famously at the Woodstock music festival in 1969. Crosby announced to the crowd, which has been estimated to have been as large as 500,000 people, “This is our second gig.” Stills followed that up by informing the audience, “We’re scared s—less.”
The group released the album “Deja Vu” in 1970, which reached number one on the Billboard pop chart and spawned three more Top 40 hits.
Crosby, Stills and Nash and Young (L-R David Crosby, Graham Nash and Stephen Stills) perform onstage at the Big Sur Folk Festival held at the Esalen Institue on September 15, 1969 in Big Sur, California.
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In May 2021, Crosby, Stills and Nash spoke to “CBS Sunday Morning” ahead of a 50th anniversary expanded release of “Déjà Vu.”
Crosby said the band began to record the album following the death of his girlfriend, Christine Hinton, in a car crash.
“I was in terrible shape,” Crosby said. “I was damn near destroyed. I’m just really lucky we were making that record, because it gave me a raison d’être.”
“It’s what kept me alive,” he added.
Several former bandmates wrote touching tributes to Crosby following his death.
“It is with a deep and profound sadness that I learned that my friend David Crosby has passed.” Nash wrote Thursday on Facebook, “I know people tend to focus on how volatile our relationship has been at times, but what has always mattered to David and me more than anything was the pure joy of the music we created together, the sound we discovered with one another, and the deep friendship we shared over all these many long years. David was fearless in life and in music. He leaves behind a tremendous void as far as sheer personality and talent in this world. He spoke his mind, his heart, and his passion through his beautiful music and leaves an incredible legacy. These are the things that matter most. My heart is truly with his wife, Jan, his son, Django, and all of the people he has touched in this world.”
In a statement Thursday, Stills wrote, “I read a quote in this morning’s paper attributed to composer Gustav Mahler that stopped me for a moment: ‘Death has, on placid cat’s paws, entered the room.’
“I shoulda known something was up. David and I butted heads a lot over time, but they were mostly glancing blows, yet still left us numb skulls… I was happy to be at peace with him. He was without question a giant of a musician, and his harmonic sensibilities were nothing short of genius.
“The glue that held us together as our vocals soared, like Icarus, towards the sun.I am deeply saddened at his passing and shall miss him beyond measure.”
Despite several attempts, neither CSN nor CSNY would record another studio album together until 1977’s “CSN,” which would reach number two on the Billboard Pop chart. Crosby would continue recording with Nash, however, and the duo released three albums in the 1970s, “Graham Nash David Crosby,” “Wind on the Water” and “Whistling Down the Wire,” all three of which were certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. The final Crosby & Nash album, the self-titled “Crosby & Nash,” was released in 2004.
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young would continue to reunite in various configurations for the next several decades, putting out studio albums and touring, including a full-fledged reunion of all four members for a short tour in 1974 that Crosby would end up referring to as the “Doom Tour.”
In recent years, Crosby toured often, and candidly answered questions on Twitter with a blend of affection and exasperation, whether commenting on rock star peers or assessing the quality of a fan’s marijuana joint. He loved sailing and his greatest regret, besides hard drugs, was selling his 74-foot boat because of money problems. Among the songs completed on the boat was the classic “Wooden Ships,” co-written with Stills and Jefferson Airplane’s Paul Kantner.
Crosby was born David Van Cortlandt Crosby on Aug. 14, 1941, in Los Angeles. His father was Oscar-winning cinematographer Floyd Crosby of “High Noon” fame. The family, including his mother, Aliph, and brother, Floyd Jr., later moved to Santa Barbara.
Crosby was exposed early to classical, folk and jazz music. In his autobiography, Crosby said that as a child he used to harmonize as his mother sang, his father played mandolin and his brother played guitar.
“When rock ‘n’ roll came in during that era and the Age of Elvis possessed America, I wasn’t into it,” he recalled.
His brother taught him to play guitar and, still in his teens, he began performing in Santa Barbara clubs. He moved to Los Angeles to study acting in 1960 but abandoned the idea and became a folk singer, working around the country before joining The Byrds. Like so many folk performers, Crosby was dazzled by the Beatles’ 1964 movie “A Hard Day’s Night” and decided to become a rock star.
Crosby married longtime girlfriend Jan Dance in 1987. The couple had a son, Django, in 1995. Crosby also had a daughter, Donovan, with Debbie Donovan. Shortly after he underwent the liver transplant, Crosby was reunited with Raymond, who had been placed for adoption in 1961. Raymond, Crosby and Jeff Pevar later performed together in a group called CPR.
“I regretted losing him many times,” Crosby told the AP of Raymond in 1998. “I was too immature to parent anybody, and too irresponsible.”
Crosby is also the biological father of singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge’s children whom she shares with her now ex-partner Julie Cypher, she revealed in 2000. Cypher carried the children Crosby fathered by artificial insemination, Etheridge told Rolling Stone. One son, Beckett, died in 2020.
Crosby didn’t help raise the children but said, “If, you know, in due time, at a distance, they’re proud of who their genetic dad is, that’s great.”
Etheridge on Thursday wrote on Facebook that she was “grieving the loss of my friend and Bailey’s biological father, David. He gave me the gift of family. I will forever be grateful to him, Django, and Jan. His music and legacy will inspire many generations to come. A true treasure.”
Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida is seen on the set of the 1959 film “La Legge” (“The Law”).
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Italian film legend Gina Lollobrigida, who achieved international stardom during the 1950s and was dubbed “the most beautiful woman in the world” after the title of one of her movies, died in Rome on Monday, her agent said. She was 95.
The agent, Paola Comin, didn’t provide details. Lollobrigida had surgery in September to repair a thigh bone broken in a fall. She returned home and said she had quickly resumed walking.
Culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano wrote on Twitter: “Farewell to a diva of the silver screen, protagonist of more than half a century of Italian cinema history. Her charm will remain eternal.”
Addio ad una diva del grande schermo, protagonista di oltre mezzo secolo di storia del cinema italiano. Il suo fascino resterà eterno. Ciao Lollo. pic.twitter.com/LbHf2MMXFy
A drawn portrait of the diva graced a 1954 cover of Time magazine, which likened her to a “goddess” in an article about Italian movie-making. More than a half-century later, Lollobrigida still turned heads with her brown, curly hair and statuesque figure, and preferred to be called an actress instead of the gender-neutral term actor.
“Lollo,” as she was lovingly nicknamed by Italians, began making movies in Italy just after the end of World War II, as the country began to promote on the big screen a stereotypical concept of Mediterranean beauty as buxom and brunette.
Besides “The World’s Most Beautiful Woman” in 1955, career highlights included Golden Globe-winner “Come September,” with Rock Hudson; “Trapeze;” “Beat the Devil,” a 1953 John Huston film starring Humphrey Bogart and Jennifer Jones; and “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell,” which won Lollobrigida Italy’s top movie award, a David di Donatello, as best actress in 1969.
In Italy, she worked with some of the country’s top directors following the war, including Mario Monicelli, Luigi Comencini, Pietro Germi and Vittorio De Sica.
Two of her more popular films at home were Comencini’s “Pane Amore e Fantasia” (“Bread, Love and Dreams”) in 1953, and the sequel a year later, “Pane Amore e Gelosia” (“Bread, Love and Jealousy”). Her male foil was Vittorio Gassman, one of Italy’s leading men on the screen.
Lollobrigida also was an accomplished sculptor, painter and photographer, and eventually essentially dropped film for the other arts. With her camera, she roamed the world from what was then the Soviet Union to Australia. In 1974, Fidel Castro hosted her as a guest in Cuba for 12 days as she worked on a photo reportage.
Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida, seen here in 1970, became an accomplished sculptor, painter and photographer.
STILLS/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Lollobrigida was born on July 4, 1927 in Subiaco, a picturesque hill town near Rome, where her father was a furniture maker. She began her career in beauty contests, posing for the covers of magazines and making brief appearances in minor films. Producer Mario Costa plucked her from the streets of Rome to appear on the big screen.
Eccentric mogul Howard Hughes eventually brought Lollobrigida to the United States, where she performed with some of Hollywood’s leading men of the 1950s and 60s, including Frank Sinatra, Sean Connery, Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Yul Brynner.
After a lifetime fending off Hughes and many leading men in Hollywood, Rock Hudson’s failure to make a pass came as a shock, the BBC reported.
“I knew right away that Rock Hudson was gay, when he did not fall in love with me,” she told one reporter.
Over the years, her co-stars also included Europe’s most dashing male stars of the era, among them Louis Jourdan, Fernando Rey, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Alec Guinness.
While Lollobrigida played some dramatic roles, her sex symbol image defined her career, and her most popular characters were in lighthearted comedies such as the “Bread, Love” trilogy.
With lush eyelashes and thick, brown curls framing her face, Lollobrigida started a hairstyle rage in the 1950s known as the “poodle cut.” Gossip columnists commented on alleged rivalries between her and Sophia Loren, another Italian film star celebrated for her beauty,
In middle age, Lollobrigida’s romance with a man 34 years her junior, Javier Rigau, from Barcelona, Spain, kept gossip pages buzzing for years.
“I have always had a weakness for younger men because they are generous and have no complexes,” the actress told Spain’s “Hola” magazine. After more than 20 years of dating, in 2006, the then-79-year-old Lollobrigida announced that she would marry Rigau, but the wedding never happened.
Her first marriage, to Milko Skofic, a Yugoslavia-born doctor, ended in divorce in 1971.
Later, Lollobrigida took a few parts in American TV series — including “Falcon’s Crest” and “Love Boat” — but then reinvented herself as an artist, the BBC reported.
In the last years of her life, Lollobrigida’s name more frequently appeared in articles by journalists covering Rome’s courts, not the glamour scene, as legal battles were waged over whether she had the mental competence to tend to her finances.
On her website, Lollobrigida recalled how her family lost its house during the bombings of World War II and went to live in Rome. She studied sculpture and painting at a high school dedicated to the arts, while her two sisters worked as movie theater ushers to allow her to continue her studies.
Yukihiro Takahashi, the influential musician, drummer, and vocalist who co-founded Yellow Magic Orchestra, has died, The Japan Times reports. Takahashi underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor in August 2020. The following year, he revealed he was suffering from additional health problems. Takahashi was trying to recover at his home in Karzuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, but he caught pneumonia in early January and it worsened, according to Japanese publication Sponichi. Takahashi was 70 years old.
Born on June 6, 1952, Yukihiro Takahashi was drawn to music thanks to the influence of his older brother, Nobuyuki. He learned how to drum by playing with college musicians at parties while he was still in junior high. By the time he turned 16, Takahashi started working professionally as a studio musician, recording drum parts for TV commercials, and began picking up gigs in other bands.
Takahashi first garnered mainstream attention in Japan in the 1970s while drumming in the Sadistic Mika Band. As a drummer, dance music from the U.S. was “a huge influence” at that time, and he found himself drawn towards pop, soul, and Motown. After the group dissolved, Takahashi hired Ryuichi Sakamoto to produce Saravah!, his 1977 debut solo album that drew inspiration from French pop. That same year, the two were hired by Haruomi Hosono to record on his own album, Paraiso, which was credited to Harry Hosono and the Yellow Magic Band. Come 1978, the three musicians officially formed the Yellow Magic Orchestra together.
Yellow Magic Orchestra released their debut self-titled album upon forming in 1978. Its use of computer technology, synths, and video game samples was immediately unique, prompting both nationwide and international interest in the band. Yellow Magic Orchestra is largely considered to be a pioneering album in the the synthpop genre as a result, having sold over 250,000 copies in Japan, entering both the Billboard 200 and Billboard R&B Albums charts, and its single “Computer Game / Firecracker” becoming a top 20 hit in the U.K.
Yellow Magic Orchestra followed their breakthrough debut with 1979’s Solid State Survivor. The band went on to release seven albums total during their initial run, including 1980’s ×∞ Multiplies, 1981’s BGM and Technodelic, and 1983’s Naughty Boys and Service. When Yellow Magic Orchestra reunited for the first time in 1992, they got to work in the studio, writing and recording what would be their 1993 comeback album Technodon, although label issues prevented them from releasing it under their original moniker. It was the first of many records to be released under names like YMO (crossed out by a large “x”), Human Audio Sponge, and HASYMO moving forward.
Robbie Knievel gives a thumbs-up after jumping a train at the Texas State Railroad Park in Palestine, Texas, on Feb. 23, 2000.
AP Photo/LM Otero
Robbie Knievel, son of legendary stuntman Evel Knievel, has died at the age of 60, his brother, Kelly Knievel told CBS News on Friday. Robbie Knievel died of pancreatic cancer after being in hospice for three days.
“It was expected,” his brother told CBS News. “He was in Reno with his three daughters by his side.”
Known as “Kaptain Robbie Knievel,” Robbie Knievel had his own daredevil career with 350 jumps and 20 world records, according to his biography on his official website. Knievel was married once and divorced, his brother said.
From a young age, Knievel wanted to be a daredevil, even though it was difficult personally and professionally to follow in his father’s footsteps, his brother said.
Their father, Evel, was proud of his son’s accomplishments and tried to attend all of his jumps, including Knievel’s 1989 successful one over the Caesars Palace fountains in Las Vegas. In 1967, his father had attempted the same jump and almost died from the injuries he sustained when he crashed his Harley-Davidson.
“Daredevils don’t live easy lives,” his brother said. “But, it’s what they do.”
Kelly Knievel said his brother should be remembered for what he did best.
“He was a great daredevil,” he said. “If you look at his jumps, that’s what he should be known for. It’s what he loved doing.”
Evel Knievel died in 2007 at the age of 69 after years of battling diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis.
Robbie Knievel is survived by his three daughters, five grandchildren, his older brother Kelly and two sisters, and his mother, Linda.
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Robbie Bachman, the drummer and co-founder of ’70s rock group Bachman-Turner Overdrive, has died. Bachman’s older brother Randy Bachman—who fronted and played guitar in the band—announced the news on his official Twitter account yesterday (January 12). “Another sad departure,” he wrote. “The pounding beat behind BTO, my little brother Robbie has joined Mum, Dad & brother Gary on the other side. Maybe Jeff Beck needs a drummer! He was an integral cog in our rock ‘n’ roll machine and we rocked the world together.”
Bachman-Turner Overdrive, often abbreviated as BTO, formed in the early ’70s in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The earliest lineup included founding members Robbie, Randy, and Tim Bachman, as well as and bassist/vocalist Fred Turner. They released their self-titled debut album in 1973, followed by Bachman-Turner Overdrive II later that year. Their sophomore LP featured one of BTO’s biggest hits, “Taking Care of Business.”
The group’s next album, 1974’s Not Fragile, which yielded “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”—their most successful single in the U.S. BTO songs have been used in countless movie and television soundtracks over the years, including Will Ferrell’s The Campaign (“Taking Care of Business”) and Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (“Let It Ride”). Though Randy was the main songwriter in BTO, Robbie co-wrote a number of their tracks, including “Roll On Down the Highway,” which climbed to No. 14 on the U.S. charts.mIn 2014, BTO were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.
Lisa Marie Presley has died, the Associated Press reports. She was rushed to a hospital nearby to her home in Calabasas, California, after collapsing from cardiac arrest earlier today (January 12). Presley’s mother, Priscilla, confirmed the news to the Associated Press, writing in a statement: “It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us. She was the most passionate, strong, and loving woman I have ever known.” The singer was 54 years old.
Lisa Marie Presley was born on February 1, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. Her father, Elvis Presley, married her mother, Priscilla Presley (née Wagner), on May 1, 1967—exactly nine months before Lisa Marie was born. The couple divorced in 1973, and their daughter lived in Los Angeles with Priscilla through Elvis’ death in 1977.
With his passing, Lisa Marie took control of the Presley estate alongside her grandfather, Vernon Presley, and great-grandmother, Minnie Mae Hood Presley, and became the estate’s sole proprietor after their deaths. She sold majority ownership of the estate to Robert Sillerman of SFX Entertainment in 2004.
Presley married her first husband, Danny Keough, in October 1988. After their divorce, in 1994, she married Michael Jackson, who she met as a teenager and reconnected with in the early 1990s. She made an appearance in the video for Jackson’s 1995 song “You Are Not Alone.” Her marriage to Jackson came as he faced allegations of child molestation and issues with substance use. Their marriage lasted until January 1996, when Presley filed for divorce. She went on to marry the actor Nicolas Cage and, later, the music producer Michael Lockwood, who she divorced in 2021.
The Michael Jackson Estate paid tribute to Presley on social media Friday (January 13), writing: “We are saddened by the sudden tragic loss of Michael’s former wife, Lisa Marie Presley. Michael cherished the special bond they enjoyed and was comforted by Lisa Marie’s generous love, concern, and care during their times together.”
Presley came to music later in life, releasing her debut single, “Lights Out,” in February 2003. The song appeared on her first album, To Whom It May Concern, that April. It peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and featured Billy Corgan as a co-writer on the B-side “Savior.”
Corgan also remembered Presley on social media, writing: “There is heartbreak and then there is sorrow. This would be sorrow and on more levels than I can count. Please send your prayers out for her family and children at this difficult time. I truly cannot fond the words to express how sad this truly is.”
Jeff Beck, a guitar virtuoso who pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, influencing generations of shredders along the way and becoming known as the guitar player’s guitar player, has died. He was 78.
Beck died Tuesday after “suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis,” his representatives said in a statement released Wednesday. The location was not immediately known.
“Jeff was such a nice person and an outstanding iconic, genius guitar player — there will never be another Jeff Beck,” Tony Iommi, guitarist for Black Sabbath wrote on Twitter.
On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck’s passing. After suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefully passed away yesterday. His family ask for privacy while they process this tremendous loss. pic.twitter.com/4dvt5aGzlv
Beck first came to prominence as a member of the Yardbirds and then went out on his own in a solo career that incorporated hard rock, jazz, funky blues and even opera. He was known for his improvising, love of harmonics and the whammy bar on his preferred guitar, the Fender Stratocaster.
“Jeff Beck is the best guitar player on the planet,” Joe Perry, the lead guitarist of Aerosmith, told The New York Times in 2010. “He is head, hands and feet above all the rest of us, with the kind of talent that appears only once every generation or two.”
Beck was among the rock-guitarist pantheon from the late 1960s that included Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix. Beck won eight Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice — once with the Yardbirds in 1992, and again as a solo artist in 2009. He was ranked fifth in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.”
Beck played guitar with vocalists as varied as Luciano Pavarotti, Macy Gray, Chrissie Hynde, Joss Stone, Imelda May, Cyndi Lauper, Wynonna Judd, Buddy Guy and Johnny Depp. He made two records with Rod Stewart — 1968′s “Truth” and 1969′s “Beck-Ola” — and one with a 64-piece orchestra, “Emotion & Commotion.”
Jeff Beck performs during “Stars Align Tour” at Chastain Park Amphitheater on August 22, 2018, in Atlanta, Georgia.
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“I like an element of chaos in music. That feeling is the best thing ever, as long as you don’t have too much of it. It’s got to be in balance. I just saw Cirque du Soleil, and it struck me as complete organized chaos,” he told Guitar World in 2014. “If I could turn that into music, it’s not far away from what my ultimate goal would be, which is to delight people with chaos and beauty at the same time.”
Beck career highlights include joining with bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice to create the power trio that released “Beck, Bogert and Appice” in 1973, tours with Brian Wilson and Buddy Guy and a tribute album to the late guitarist Les Paul, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Party (Honoring Les Paul).”
Geoffrey Arnold Beck was born in Surrey, England, and attended Wimbledon Art College. His father was an accountant, and his mother worked in a chocolate factory. As a boy, he built his first instrument, using a cigar box, a picture frame for the neck and string from a radio-controlled toy airplane.
He was in a few bands — including Nightshift and The Tridents — before joining the Yardbirds in 1965, replacing Clapton but only a year later giving way to Page. During his tenure, the band created the memorable singles “Heart Full of Soul,” “I’m a Man” and “Shapes of Things.”
Beck’s first hit single was 1967’s instrumental “Beck’s Bolero,” which featured future Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, and future Who drummer Keith Moon. The Jeff Beck Group — with Stewart singing — was later booked to play the 1969 Woodstock music festival but their appearance was canceled. Beck later said there was unrest in the band.
“I could see the end of the tunnel,” he told Rolling Stone in 2010.
English group The Yardbirds perform on the BBC Television series ‘A Whole Scene Going’ in 1966. Members of the group are, from left, Keith Relf, Chris Dreja, Jeff Beck, Jim McCarty and Paul Samwell-Smith.
Ivan Keeman
Beck was friends with Hendrix and they performed together. Before Hendrix, most rock guitar players concentrated on a similar style and technical vocabulary. Hendrix blew that apart.
“He came along and reset all of the rules in one evening,” Beck told Guitar World.
Beck teamed up with legendary producer George Martin — a.k.a. “the fifth Beatle” — to help him fashion the genre-melding, jazz-fusion classic “Blow by Blow” (1975) and “Wired” (1976). He teamed up with Seal on the Hendrix tribute “Stone Free,” created a jazz-fusion group led by synthesizer player Jan Hammer and honored rockabilly guitarist Cliff Gallup with the album “Crazy Legs.” He put out “Loud Hailer” in 2016.
Beck’s guitar work can be heard on the soundtracks of such films as “Stomp the Yard,” “Shallow Hal,” “Casino,” “Honeymoon in Vegas,” “Twins,” “Observe and Report” and “Little Big League.
Beck’s career never hit the commercial highs of Clapton. A perfectionist, he preferred to make critically well-received instrumental records and left the limelight for long stretches, enjoying his time restoring vintage automobiles. He and Clapton had a tense relationship early on but became friends in later life and toured together.
Why did the two wait some four decades to tour together?
“Because we were all trying to be big bananas,” Beck told Rolling Stone in 2010. “Except I didn’t have the luxury of the hit songs Eric’s got.”
Tributes from fellow musicians poured in following news of Beck’s sudden death.
With the death of Jeff Beck we have lost a wonderful man and one of the greatest guitar players in the world. We will all miss him so much. pic.twitter.com/u8DYQrLNB7
Rod Stewart wrote that Beck “was on another planet. He took me and Ronnie Wood to the USA in the late 60s in his band the Jeff Beck Group and we haven’t looked back since.”
2/2 He was one of the few guitarists that when playing live would actually listen to me sing and respond . Jeff, you were the greatest, my man . Thank you for everything . RIP
Dave Davies of the Kinks said he was “heartbroken,” “shocked” and “bewildered.”
“Deepest sympathy to his wife friends close ones,” Davies tweeted. “I’m bewildered Jeff Beck it don’t make sense I don’t get it. He was a good friend and a great guitar player.”
Jimmy Page’s official Twitter account said, “The six stringed Warrior is no longer here for us to admire the spell he could weave around our mortal emotions. Jeff could channel music from the ethereal. His technique unique. His imaginations apparently limitless. Jeff I will miss you along with your millions of fans. Jeff Beck Rest in Peace.”
Steve Hackett, who rose to fame as the lead guitarist of Genesis in the 1970s, wrote, “He made the electric guitar sing… a powerful influence on myself and many others.”
Paul Stanley of Kiss said that Beck, “blazed a trail impossible to follow.”
The Grammy-winning rock guitarist Jeff Beck has died, his family announced. “After suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefully passed away yesterday,” the family shared in a statement. “His family ask for privacy while they process this tremendous loss.” Beck was 78 years old.
Geoffrey Beck was born in Wallington, South London in 1944. He sang in a church choir as a child, and picked up the electric guitar as a teenager; he even fashioned a homemade model imitating the famous Gibson Les Paul. Like many British teens at the time, he idolized American blues and rock’n’roll artists—particularly Buddy Guy and Gene Vincent.
Beck played in a handful of local bands in the early ’60s, such as the Rumbles, the Tridents, the Night Shift, and Screaming Lord Sutch, but he got an even bigger break when Eric Clapton decided to leave the Yardbirds in 1965. Beck joined after another local guitarist—Jimmy Page—recommended him to the remaining members. Beck notably played on the 1965 album For Your Love, the title track being one of the group’s biggest hits. He also recorded on “Shapes of Things,” which appears on the Yardbirds’ 1966 self-titled LP.
Beck’s stint with the Yardbirds was brief; he left in 1966 and released his debut solo album, Truth, two years later. Beck-Ola, his first studio album released under the Jeff Beck Group moniker, arrived in 1969. The initial lineup featured Rod Stewart on vocals, Ron Wood on bass, and Tony Newman on drums. That same year, Beck was in a car accident that left him with a fractured skull.
By 1971, Beck had reformed the Jeff Beck group. The new lineup included Bob Tench on lead vocals, Clive Chaman on bass, Cozy Powell on drums, and Max Middleton on piano. They released Rough and Ready that year, followed by a a final, self-titled LP in 1972.
This article was originally published on Wednesday, January 11 at 5:02 p.m. Eastern. It was last updated on January 11 at 5:47 p.m. Eastern.
Constantine, the former and last king of Greece, has died at a private hospital in Athens, his doctors announced late Tuesday. He was 82.
Staff at the private Hygeia Hospital in Athens confirmed to The Associated Press that Constantine has died after treatment in an intensive care unit, but had no further details pending an official announcement.
When he acceded to the throne as Constantine II at the age of 23 in 1964, the youthful monarch, who had already achieved glory as an Olympic gold medalist in sailing, was hugely popular. By the following year he had squandered much of that support with his active involvement in the machinations that brought down the popularly elected Center Union government of prime minister George Papandreou.
Former King Constantine of Greece and former Queen Anne Marie of Greece attend the wedding ceremony of Prince Guillaume Of Luxembourg and Princess Stephanie of Luxembourg at the Cathedral of our Lady of Luxembourg on Oct. 20, 2012.
Sean Gallup / Getty Images
The episode, still widely known in Greece as the “apostasy,” or defection from the ruling party of several lawmakers, destabilized the constitutional order and led in 1967 to a military coup. Constantine eventually clashed with the military rulers and was forced into exile. The dictatorship abolished the monarchy in 1973 while a referendum after democracy was restored in 1974 dashed any hopes that Constantine had of ever reigning again.
Reduced in the following decades to only fleeting visits to Greece that raised a political and media storm each time, he was able in his waning years to settle again in his home country, when opposing his presence no longer held currency as a badge of vigilant republicanism. With minimal nostalgia for the monarchy in Greece, Constantine became a relatively uncontroversial figure from the past.
Constantine was born June 2, 1940 in Athens, to Prince Paul, younger brother to King George II and heir presumptive to the throne, and princess Federica of Hanover. His older sister Sophia is the wife of former King Juan Carlos I of Spain. The Greek-born Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh and husband of the United Kingdom’s late Queen Elizabeth II, was an uncle.
The family, which had ruled in Greece from 1863 apart from a 12-year republican interlude between 1922-1935, was descended from Prince Christian, later Christian IX of Denmark, of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg branch of the Danish ruling family.
Before Constantine’s first birthday, the royal family was forced to flee Greece during the German invasion in World War II, moving to Alexandria in Egypt, South Africa and back to Alexandria. King George II returned to Greece in 1946, following a disputed referendum, but died a few months later, making Constantine the heir to King Paul I.
Constantine was educated at a boarding school and then attended all three military academies as well as Athens Law School classes as preparation for his future role. He also competed in various sports, including sailing and karate, in which he held a black belt.
In 1960, aged 20, he and two other Greek sailors won a gold medal in the Dragon Class — now no longer an Olympic class — at the Rome Olympics. While still a prince, Constantine was elected a member of the International Olympic Committee in 1963, and became an honorary member for life in 1974.
King Paul I died of cancer on March 6, 1964 and Constantine succeeded him, weeks after the Center Union party had triumphed over the conservatives with 53% of the vote.
The prime minister, George Papandreou, and Constantine initially had a very close relationship, but it soon soured over Constantine’s insistence that control of the armed forces was the monarch’s prerogative.
With many officers toying with the idea of a dictatorship and viewing any non-conservative government as soft on communism, Papandreou wanted to control the ministry of defense and eventually demanded to be appointed defense minister as well. After an acrimonious exchange of letters with Constantine, Papandreou resigned in July 1965.
Constantine’s insistence on appointing a government composed of centrist defectors that won a narrow parliamentary majority on the third try was hugely unpopular. Many viewed him as being manipulated by his scheming mother, dowager Queen Frederica. “The people don’t want you, take your mother and go!” became the rallying cry in the protests, often violent, that rocked Greece in the summer of 1965.
Eventually, Constantine made a truce of sorts with Papandreou and, with his agreement, appointed a government of technocrats and, then, a conservative-led government to hold an election in May 1967.
But, with the polls heavily favoring the Center Union and with Papandreou’s left-leaning son, Andreas, gaining in popularity, Constantine and his courtiers feared revenge and with the aid of high-ranking officers prepared a coup.
However, a group of lower-ranking officers, led by colonels, were preparing their own coup and, apprised of Constantine’s plans by a mole, a general whom they had won over to their side, proclaimed a dictatorship on April 21, 1967.
Constantine was taken by surprise and his feelings toward the new rulers were obvious in the official photo of the new government. He pretended to go along with them, while preparing a counter-coup with the help of troops in northern Greece and the navy, which was loyal to him.
On December 13, 1967, Constantine and his family flew to the northern city of Kavala with the intent to march on Thessaloniki and set up a government there. The counter-coup, badly managed and infiltrated, collapsed and Constantine was forced to flee to Rome the following day. He would never return as reigning king.
The junta appointed a regent and, after an abortive Navy counter-coup in May 1973, abolished the monarchy on June 1, 1973. A July plebiscite, widely considered rigged, confirmed the decision.
When the dictatorship collapsed in July 1974, Constantine was eager to return to Greece but was advised against it by veteran politician Constantine Karamanlis, who returned from exile to head a civilian government. Karamanlis, who had also headed the government between 1955-63, was a conservative but had clashed with the court over what he considered its excessive interference in politics.
After his triumphal win in November elections, Karamanlis called for a plebiscite on the monarchy for December 8, 1974. Constantine was not allowed in the country to campaign, but the result was unambiguous and widely accepted: 69.2% voted in favor of a republic.
Soon after, Karamanlis famously said that the nation had rid itself of a cancerous growth. Constantine said on the day following the referendum that “national unity must take precedence … I wholeheartedly wish that developments will justify the result of yesterday’s vote.”
To his final days, Constantine, while accepting that Greece was now a republic, continued to style himself King of Greece and his children as princes and princesses even though Greece no longer recognized titles of nobility.
For most of his years in exile he lived in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, and was said to be especially close to his second cousin Charles, the Prince of Wales and now King Charles III.
While it took Constantine 14 years to return to his country, briefly, to bury his mother, Queen Federica in 1981, he multiplied his visits thereafter and, from 2010, made his home there. There were continued disputes: in 1994, the then socialist government stripped him of his nationality and expropriated what remained of the royal family’s property. Constantine sued at the European Court of Human Rights and was awarded 12 million euros in 2002, a fraction of the 500 million he had sought.
Constantine travelled with a Danish passport, as a Danish prince.
He is survived by his wife, the former Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, youngest sister of Queen Margrethe II; five children, Alexia, Pavlos, Nikolaos, Theodora and Philippos; and nine grandchildren.
Bernard Kalb, veteran correspondent and former CBS News journalist, died Sunday, his daughter confirmed to CBS News. He was 100.
A statement from Kalb’s family called him the “ultimate reporter” who had “boundless curiosity and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.”
Bernard Kalb in CBS Newsroom. Image dated June 15, 1972.
CBS News Archive / Getty Images
“Above all, he was a person of impeccable integrity who embraced peoples and cultures all over the world and loved his family deeply,” the statement continued. “We have lost a journalistic giant. We will miss him enormously.”
Kalb’s younger brother, Marvin Kalb, another former CBS News reporter, told The Washington Post that Kalb died at his home in the Washington suburbs following complications from a fall.
Over the course of his journalistic career, which spanned over six decades, Kalb worked at CBS News from 1962 to 1980, and accompanied former President Richard Nixon to China during his historic trip in 1972. Kalb was also responsible for the opening CBS News’ Hong Kong bureau in 1972, was a Washington anchorman on “CBS Morning News” and was well-regarded for his reporting on Southeast Asian affairs.
Portrait of American journalists and brothers Bernard Kalb (left) and Marvin Kalb as they pose before a wall of electronic equipment, November 5, 1969.
CBS News Archive / Getty Images
Kalb also co-authored two books with his brother — one a biography on Henry Kissinger, and another a novel about the fall of Saigon.
In addition to his prolific news career, Kalb is also known for a short employment stint at the U.S. State Department. In the announcement of his new role at the State Department in 1984, the New York Times called him “a widely traveled foreign correspondent,” who covered the office for eight years — through five secretaries of state — before being named as their spokesman.
“This is the first time that a journalist who covered the State Department has been named as its spokesman,” the Times wrote.
Kalb resigned publicly in 1986, after a misinformation campaign following U.S. airstrikes that had hit Moammar Gadhafi’s compound earlier in the year. The Washington Post exposed the campaign, reporting that the U.S. had leaked false information to reporters, which Kalb knew nothing about, according to The Associated Press.
State dept. spokeman Bernard Kalb RE: Haiti elections in 1986.
Cynthia Johnson / Getty Images
“I am concerned about the impact of any such program on the credibility of the United States,” Kalb said, adding, “Anything that hurts America’s credibility, hurts America.”
He later returned to journalism, becoming the first host of CNN’s “Reliable Sources” in 1992.
He is survived by his wife, Phyllis, and his four daughters, Tanah, Marina, Claudia, and Sarinah, according to The Associated Press.
Gordy Harmon, a founding member of the long-running R&B group the Whispers, has died, ABC 7 Eyewitness News reports. Harmon’s family confirmed the news in a statement to ABC, saying that Harmon died in his sleep on Thursday (January 5) at his Los Angeles home. He was 79 years old.
The Whispers formed in LA in 1964, and went on to score massive hits with singles such as “And the Beat Goes On,” “Rock Steady,” and “It Just Gets Better With Time.” Harmon created the group alongside twins Wallace and Walter Scott, Marcus Hutson, and Nicholas Caldwell (Caldwell died of congestive heart failure in 2016).
After suffering an injury to his larynx, Harmon left the group in 1973, years before the release of “And the Beat Goes On,” which became their first No. 1 single. The Whispers issued three full lengths during Harmon’s tenure: 1969’s Planets of Life, as well as Life and Breath and The Whispers’ Love Story, both from 1972.
The Whispers were inducted into the R&B Music Hall of Fame in 2014 and, two years prior, received the Soul Music Hall of Fame Award. Back in 2005, the San Francisco chapter of the Grammy Awards presented them with the Governors Award, the highest honor that can be bestowed by an Academy chapter.
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Formed in Copenhagen in the mid-2000s, Choir of Young Believers achieved swift acclaim in Denmark for Makrigiannis’ intimately orchestrated, ready-to-burst compositions, with influences ranging from Hank Williams to Prince. They found chart success in Denmark after a popular song sync for “Hollow Talk,” and remained popular even as Makrigiannis led the project further left field. “Music is the only thing I’ve thought about since I was 12 years old,” Makrigiannis told Soundvenue in 2016. “It’s the wildest space to be in. A place where you can be free.”
They broke through in the United States after playing a showcase at SXSW in 2009. Ghostly subsequently reissued the project’s debut album, This Is for the White in Your Eyes, which Tigerspring had released in Denmark the previous year. Rhine Gold and Grasque followed on Ghostly and Tigerspring, in 2012 and 2016, respectively. Makrigiannis revived the project last year for his final release, Holy Smoke.
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Alan Rankine, the co-founder of the Scottish band the Associates, has died at the age of 64, BBC News reports. A cause of death has not been revealed.
Rankine met the singer Billy Mackenzie in the 1970s, and they formed a duo called the Ascorbic Ones. They changed their name to Mental Torture before settling on the Associates. As the Associates, Rankine and Mackenzie released their debut single in 1979, a cover of David Bowie’s “Boys Keep Swinging.” The song helped them land a deal with Fiction Records, which issued the band’s 1980 debut, The Affectionate Punch; the Cure’s Robert Smith sang backing vocals on the LP. The group followed its debut with a singles compilation, Fourth Drawer Down, in 1981 and a sophomore effort, Sulk, in 1982. Sulk was a critical and commercial success and proved to be Rankine’s final album with the Associates, as he left the band shortly after the record’s release.
After leaving the Associates, Alan Rankine produced music for Cocteau Twins, Paul Haig, Anna Domino, and others. He released the first of his three solo studio albums, The World Begins to Look Her Age, in 1986. Eventually, Rankine taught at Stow College in Glasgow. At Stow, Rankine helped launch Electric Honey, a label meant to teach students about releasing and promoting their music. The label’s first true success was Belle and Sebastian’s Tigermilk, and Electric Honey would go on to issue music by Biffy Clyro, Snow Patrol, and more.
Without Rankine, the Associates released two more albums, 1985’s Perhaps and 1990’s Wild and Lonely. The Associates effectively disbanded after their final album, but Rankine and Billy Mackenzie reconvened in 1993 to try to record new material. The reunion was short-lived, and Mackenzie died in 1997. Demos of the reunion tracks were included on the Associates’ 2000 compilation, Double Hipness.
Fred White, a former drummer for Earth, Wind & Fire, has died, his brother confirmed on social media. He was 67 years old.
“Our family is saddened today with the loss of an amazing and talented family member, our beloved brother Frederick Eugene ‘Freddie’ White,” Verdine White wrote. “He joins our brothers Maurice, Monte and Ronald in heaven and is now drumming with the angels!”
Fred White played in Earth, Wind & Fire from 1971 until 1984, when the band went on hiatus. Verdine White, the band’s founding bassist, called him “a member of the EWF ORIGINAL 9.”
A cause of death was not immediately given.
According to Pitchfork,cFred White toured as a drummer before he graduated high school and he joined Earth, Wind & Fire before he turned 20. His brother, Maurice White, who died in 2016 at 74, was also a founding member of the band and served as bandleader, principal songwriter and producer and was one of the group’s lead singers.
The band also confirmed Fred White’s death on its Instagram page, sharing a video clip of White playing a drum solo while the band was in Essen, Germany, during its 1979 world tour. The video shows White smiling and blowing kisses to the crowd as they cheer.
“We could always count on him to make a seemingly bad situation more lighthearted,” Verdine White wrote. “He will live in our hearts forever, rest in power beloved Freddie!!”
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White was a drum prodigy, touring with the likes of Donny Hathaway before finishing high school (including in the show immortalized on Donny Hathaway Live) and joining his siblings in Earth, Wind & Fire before his 20th birthday. His arrival in the band in 1974 installed him in the twin-drummer engine room of a hitmaking powerhouse; the band’s commercial heyday began a year later with “Shining Star,” a No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100. With a mix of rousing ballads and body-moving soul, Earth, Wind & Fire became pop figureheads of the disco era. Songs like 1976’s “Saturday Nite” established the band as a transatlantic success even before “September” and “Boogie Wonderland” caused international sensations later in the decade.
White left the group in the early 1980s but returned for their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2000. He continued to sing with artists including Diana Ross and Bonnie Raitt, most recently on Ross’ 2021 comeback album.
On Instagram, Verdine White wrote that his sibling “joins our brothers Maurice, Monte, and Ronald in heaven and is now drumming with the angels.” He continued:
Child protégé, member of the EWF ORIGINAL 9, with gold records at the young age of 16 years old!
He was brother number 4 in the family lineup. ❤️❤️❤️❤️
But more than that at home and beyond he was the wonderful bro that was always entertaining and delightfully mischievous!
And we could always count on him to make a seemingly bad situation more light hearted!🙏🏾😍🙏🏾
He will live in our hearts forever, rest in power beloved Freddie!!
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Gangsta Boo, a former member of Memphis hip-hop group Three 6 Mafia and a pioneer of female Southern rap music, has died today (January 1), DJ Paul, WREG Memphis, and Fox 13 have confirmed. She was 43 years old.
Born Lola Mitchell in Memphis, Tennessee on August 7, 1979, she started writing poetry at an early age. She often gave her poems to her father, who in turn decided to gift her a keyboard and a karaoke machine. By the time she was in junior high, Mitchell caught the attention of then-classmate DJ Paul while rapping in a talent show at age 14. “He wanted me to get on his mixtape, so I got on his mixtape and I became really popular,” she told Passion of the Weiss in 2012. “I was being requested to be on more of the Three 6 Mafia songs and I kind of just got in the group like that. People kept requesting me.”
Mitchell adopted the moniker Gangsta Boo and set to work rapping in Three 6 Mafia. She was just 15 years old when she recorded her verses for their debut studio album, Mystic Stylez, which came out in 1995. The LP quickly cemented itself as a game changer for both the Southern rap scene and hip-hop at large, largely due to defining Three 6 Mafia’s horrorcore sound. When describing Mystic Stylez for Pitchfork’s list “The 150 Best Albums of the 1990s,” Alphonse Pierre wrote, “Collectively, their writing feels as if they’re all competing to rap the most shocking bar, and the nightmarish tone is emphasized by colorful and hyper-specific references to satan, coffins, and soul snatching.”
As Three 6 Mafia expanded their sound and reach, they continued to churn out studio albums—1996’s Chapter 1 The End, 1997’s Chapter 2: World Domination, 1999’s Tear Da Club Up Thugs, and 2000’s When the Smoke Clears: Sixty 6, Sixty 1—with Gangsta Boo seizing each as an opportunity to up her game. Her flow was best defined by its aggressive, rapid-fire delivery and her ability to integrate both a charismatic and musical tone to her cadence.
Gangsta Boo further developed her voice as a solo artist as well. When she released Enquiring Minds, her 1998 debut solo album, she found an everlasting hit in her single “Where Dem Dollas At?” featuring Juicy J and DJ Paul, in which she nonchalantly waxed about piles of stacks at just 19 years old. After Three 6 Mafia released their soundtrack Choices: The Album in 2001, Gangsta Boo parted ways with the group to further pursue her solo career. That same year, she dropped her sophomore LP Both Worlds *69, which hit No. 29 on the Billboard 200 chart. She followed it up with the 2003 album Enquiring Minds II: The Soap Opera, which served as a sequel to her debut.
