Celebrity Deaths

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

Inspired by a FB post I saw recently...

Which celebrities death hit you hardest, maybe even caused you to shed a tears.

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For me it would probably be Ronnie, while I don't think I cried (that's not really me), it hit me hard at the time.

Lemmy's death was really sad too but maybe didn't hit me so hard because I was sorta expecting it.

[Tyr66]

I was affected by the passing of Malcolm Young , Eddie Van Halen and of course the 3 outlaws Lemmy, Eddie Clarke and Phil Taylor. specially Eddie.
The passing of Eric Martin Ain (Celtic Frost) was so tragic and unexpected at the age of 50 lying on the asphalt, struck down by a heart attack in downtown Zürich.

[Zzzptm]

Adding to the list for me would be Jerry Garcia, "Touch of Grey" saw me through some really hard times in '87.

John Bonham and Bon Scott were both totally unexpected shocks, did not see them coming.

Rory Gallagher's passing made me stop and cry a little when I got the news.

[Jack the Stripper]

Lemmy and Ronnie were obvious ones but Ronnie I kinda expected. A rumour had come out 24 hrs earlier that he’d passed away which Wendy was forced to deny at the time but I was thinking maybe he was very close given rumours were circulating. I remember going to bed that night thinking if I’d wake up the next morning to the news that he has died. Turned out I did in fact wake up to that awful news. Lemmy was more of a shock because it hadn’t come out what he was actually suffering from. All we knew was from the tour photos that he’d lost a considerable amount of weight and he looked and sounded weak. Was only a couple of weeks after the tour finished that he died so it was kinda unexpected but not surprising.

Jeff Hanneman floored me. I remember getting an early morning txt from a mate while I was driving to work which read “Fuck man, Jeff Hanneman died” I actually got cold shivers up my spine and had to pull the car over and just sat there in shock with a lump in my throat while my eyes welled up. I’d followed him and Slayer virtually from the start when Show No Mercy came out so I was feeling a chunk of my childhood had been taken away. I also had a JH600 signature model guitar as well so felt very connected to the guy.

Felt very similar hearing Dimebag had been shot dead. Was driving along in the middle of the day working when the hourly news update on the car radio said they’d been a mass shooting at a club in the U.S watching heavy metal Damageplan and that some of the dead included the bands 38yo guitarist Darrell Abbott. I was in absolute shock in hearing that and instantly knocked off work to head home and just buried my head in the internet to find out what had actually happened and to mourn online with the rest of the metal world.

Cliff Burton was just a total bummer! Without the internet and living in Australia news traveled very slow back then so I’d heard it from a guy at school who I actually introduced to metal and Metallica. Can’t remember where he said he’d heard it but I wasn’t totally convinced that it was true until I tuned into a 2hour weekly community radio metal show the next night that confirmed the news.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

I don't know how I forgot him on my first post, but the death last year of Neil Peart came as a complete shock. His cancer has been kept from all but close friends and family so the news was unexpected and, frankly, a shock... I listened to nothing but Rush for a week or so.

The death of Dave Greenfield (Keyboards for The Stranglers) last April from COVID-19 was so sad and also out of the blue. It will be interesting to hear what the new album sounds like. The single And if you should see Dave doesn't seem to have any keyboards on it indeed the vocals include the line "This is where your solo would go".

[Charger]

Ofcourse it was Ronnie who hit me the hardest. That was a huge blow...it felt just like a family member had passed away.

Lemmy to bit lesser extent the same thing...but I had just been getting more into Motörhead few years before he passed so it wasn't such a long relationship that I had with Ronnie's music.

[Zzzptm]

Sad to see Eric Carle's passing. I loved his books when I was a kid, and I loved reading them to my kids.

[KiloDeltaCharlie]

^^^
Yes I saw that earluer.

Indeed 3 of my favourite authors all died too young, and each death was sad and a loss to the literary community:

Terry Pratchett (66 Alzheimers)

Iain Banks (59 cancer)

David Gemmell (57 Complications from heart surgery). His wife completed his last book based on his notes for it.