Music History Events: Deaths
July 27, 2001 Leon Wilkeson (bass guitarist for Lynyrd Skynyrd) dies in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, from chronic liver and lung disease at age 49.
July 19, 2001 Soul singer Judy Clay dies at age 62 from injuries sustained in a car accident.
July 7, 2001 Fred Neil, a folk singer-songwriter known for writing Harry Nilsson's hit "Everybody's Talkin'," dies during a battle with skin cancer at age 65.
July 5, 2001 R&B singer Ernie K-Doe dies of kidney and liver failure at age 65 due to years of alcohol abuse.
June 30, 2001 Chet Atkins, a country guitarist and forerunner of the burgeoning Nashville sound of the '50s, dies of cancer at age 77.
June 21, 2001 Bluesman John Lee Hooker dies of natural causes at age 83.
June 4, 2001 Folk singer John Hartford dies of non-Hodgkin lymphoma at age 63.
May 16, 2001 Brian Pendleton (rhythm guitarist for Pretty Things) dies of lung cancer at age 57.
May 12, 2001 Perry Como dies in his sleep less than week before his 89th birthday.
May 5, 2001 Zydeco musician Boozoo Chavis dies in Austin, Texas, at age 70.
May 3, 2001 Jazz drummer Billy Higgins dies at age 64 of kidney and liver failure.
April 24, 2001 R&B singer Al Hibbler ("Unchained Melody") dies at age 85 in Chicago, Illinois.
April 20, 2001 Italian composer Giuseppe Sinopoli dies of a heart attack at age 54 while conducting the Verdi opera Aida at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Germany.
April 11, 2001 Folk musician Sandy Bull dies at age 60 of lung cancer.
April 8, 2001 Cuban violinist Pedro Depestre Gonzales (of Buena Vista Social Club) dies at age 55 after collapsing on stage during a concert performance in Basel, Switzerland.
April 8, 2001 Country singer-songwriter Van Stephenson (of BlackHawk) dies at age 47, two years after being diagnosed with melanoma.
March 29, 2001 John Lewis of The Modern Jazz Quartet dies of prostate cancer at age 80.
March 22, 2001 Earl Beal of The Silhouettes dies at age 71.
March 18, 2001 John Phillips (of The Mamas & the Papas) dies of heart failure at age 65.
March 18, 2001 Four teenage girls are crushed to death in a shopping mall in Indonesia, when hundreds of fans panic while trying to catch a glimpse of British boy band a1. The four band members cancel the rest of their tour in Asia.
March 6, 2001 Michael "Smitty" Smith, drummer for Paul Revere & the Raiders, dies in Hawaii at age 58.
March 4, 2001 Glenn Hughes, the biker in The Village People, dies of lung cancer at age 50.
February 22, 2001 American folk guitarist John Fahey dies at age 61 following a coronary bypass operation.
February 19, 2001 French singer Charles Trenet dies at age 87.
February 13, 2001 George Simon, a jazz writer who won a Grammy award in 1978 for his liner notes on the album Bing Crosby: A Legendary Performer, dies of pneumonia at age 88.
December 24, 2000 Folk singer Allan Smethurst (The Singing Postman) dies of a heart attack at a Salvation Army hostel in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England, at age 73.
December 24, 2000 Nick Massi (of The Four Seasons) dies of cancer in West Orange, New Jersey, at age 73.
December 19, 2000 Roebuck "Pops" Staples (of The Staple Singers) dies at age 85 after a bad fall leaves him with a concussion.
November 16, 2000 English pianist Russ Conway, known for the 1959 UK #1 hits "Side Saddle" and "Roulette," dies of cancer at age 75.
November 16, 2000 Joseph "Joe C." Calleja (Kid Rock's hype man), plagued by a host of medical issues, dies at age 26.
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