The only two I even remember are Bob Marley and Kurt Cobain. Bob Marley I was a kid and I really don’t know why it stuck with me. I was in the kitchen and it was on the radio and I always remember it and I don’t know why.
Kurt Cobain I was in the car alone and I remember it because I was trying to figure out why they were playing so much Nirvana and I guessed that he must have died and then I was right. You always remember being right about something.
I’d say Jonathan Brandis, though it didn’t happen that long ago. Was a big conspiracy among some circles because cnn.com/etc didn’t report it.
Wow, I didn’t know he died!
Wow I had no idea he was dead. I was so obsessed with him when I was a kid.
Funny thing is that he died in 2003 but apparently was in a movie this year!
OK I think I win for remembering the lamest celebrity death. I was in the car with my parents on a long trip, and we were in the middle of noware in BC picking up a Seattle radio station. I distinctly remember them announcing that Gene Siskel was dead. All I could think was if that was the skinny or fat one.
On my way back from Panama City, Florida - top off of the Wrangler and my brand-new Deadie Bear strapped into the passenger seat riding shotgun beside me. About 10 miles from home, it starts pouring down rain, so here I am, soaking wet, people laughing at me, singing along with the radio, when they break into the music to announce that** Jerry Garcia** had died. My poor bear and I cried the rest of the way home.
Lennon was a huge death for me and I remember the moment very clearly.
Bob Crane. I heard it on the radio in the car. My mom was in the PX buying something and I was waiting for her. I thought “Not Hogan!” His death was tragic, and as we found out later, very twisted, but when he was alive, I had a bit of a crush on him.
Keith Moon. I heard it on the radio and was shocked. I loved the Who.
Elvis. The day he died, my mom and I had discussed our heroes before going to a movie. Mine was Elton John, and she said hers was Elvis. She said that she hoped to see him in concert before she died. When we got home, his death was all over the news and Mom looked at me with tears in her eyes and said “I’ll never see him now.”
Freddie Mercury’s death hit me hard. Saw it on the news. I just kept remembering seeing Queen in concert and Freddie just owning the stage.
Princess Diana. I wasn’t much of a royal watcher, but saw the CNN coverage of the accident and was compelled to keep watching. After seeing the mangled wreck of a car pulled out of that tunnel, I knew she was a goner.
Was driving highway 64 in Rocky Mount, NC on my way to my job at a local record store when I heard about Roy Orbison’s death on the radio. I’m sure y’all can figure out what we played at work that entire day.
While driving my car on almost that same stretch of 64 when I heard about Ella Fitzgerald’s death. Got teary enough to almost warrant pulling over, but had to keep going.
Saw the news about Jason “Jam Master Jay” Mizell’s death on Yahoo’s main page and immediately put on “Rock Box”. Later that day I went to see some Swede Metal friends of mine play and when I told the bassist the sad news, he got tears in his eyes. My buddies and I are all unrepentant headbangers, but we’ve always loved and respected Run-D.M.C. big time.
Read about Randy Rhoads’ death in the paper the day after it happened. Like my John Lennon story, I had just gotten into heavier music a few months before and immediately glommed on to the Ozzy and his highly talented band Blizzard of Ozz. One of Randy’s last shows was in Birmingham, AL (where my family was living at the time) and many of my classmates got to go and were raving about how amazing he was live. I cried off and on for days. He would have been 50 next year had he lived! Dang.
Interestingly enough, I really don’t have a distinct memory about hearing of Cliff Burton’s death. Ironically, I think I was visiting San Francisco at the time and heard it while shopping in a record store. Odd that my memory is hazy here, as I was a heuu-uu-uuge Metallica fan back in the day.
A couple of years back I was staying up late one night watching TV, and somehow I got to thinking that it had been a while since somebody really famous had died. I figured one of them had to go soon, and amused myself for a while (in a morbid Death Watch kind of way) about who it would be. I ended up dozing off in a video rocker in front of the TV. Woke up with a start hours later, in the small hours of the morning, everything completely dark except for the flickering of the TV in front of me announcing that JFK Jr had been in a helicopter crash and was feared dead. It was extremely eerie; I felt a mixture of “Aha!” and a dazed sense that I had somehow caused the death by thinking so flippantly about it the night before.
For some reason I clearly remember walking out of my building and seeing the headline that Jack Lemmon had died and being rather upset about it. Not sure why; I’ve only seen a few Jack Lemmon movies, and I’m not a huge fan or anything.
I was driving in a car with my mother reading a Roald Dahl book when the radio announced that Dahl had died.
Me too; AFAIK, he wasn’t finished yet by a long stretch.
I remember I was watching Tommy Cooper on stage on live TV in 1984. He fell over backwards and everyone thought it was part of the act, until it dawned on stage management that he was an unusually long time getting up, and they dropped the curtain in some haste. Ten minutes later he died in the ambulance.
The big one for me is Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden. I was 8 when he was killed. Ask any Swede who was between 5 and 12 in 1986 and chances are they’ll all tell the same story: they were in front of the TV waiting for God morgon Sverige, the Saturday morning show every single Swedish kid watched religiously, when it was announced that he died. The show wasn’t aired that morning. We all remember it.
Then, there is Anna Lindh, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the victim of the other political murder in Sweden in modern times. I was on the train on my way to school and find out through an sms sent from my girlfriend.
Lady Di I managed to miss, and found out a couple of days later on a mailing list about the Illuminati trading card game. People there were making references to it and I was all “She died?”.
Bon Scott
John Lennon
Kurt Cobain
John Lennon
Sammie Davis Jr. & Jim Henson on the same day
Johnny Cash & John Ritter on the same day
Princess Diana
JFK Jr.
John Belushi
Elvis Presley
Yeah, and take a look at the name of the movie … yikes!
Me neither! I remember taking some neices and nephews to see The Neverending Story, when I was a teenager. I clearly remember thinking he was the most beautiful boy I had ever seen.
For me, the one I remember most clearly, is John Lennon. My oldest sister was 13 when I was born, and a huge Beatles fan. My parents were not good parents, and my oldest sister did a lot to help raise me. She had a book called John Lennon in His Own Write, with ink illustrations by Paul McCartney. It was a book of very strange poetry, and when I was little, she’d read poems to me out of it. She gave the book to me for my 10th birthday. When I was 19, I worked at a discount store, and one of my co-workers borrowed the book from me. A few days later, I woke up to the news of his death, and thought ‘well, I’ll never see that book again’. When I got into work that morning, Chuck was there with my book. He said “I thought you might be worried about this”. Then I felt crappy about John’s death and my lack of faith.
If the blow job is that bad, why bother?
As to Garcia’s death, I don’t know that it was unexpected. It was pretty obvious he was back on hard drugs, he had looked like absolute hell for the entire hell, his playing was shitty by-and-large. I wasn’t very surprised - more of “Well, that’s that.”
If the blow job is that bad, why bother?
As to Garcia’s death, I don’t know that it was unexpected. It was pretty obvious he was back on hard drugs, he had looked like absolute hell for the entire tour, his playing was shitty by-and-large. I wasn’t very surprised - more of “Well, that’s that.”
I first read about Douglas Adams’ death on the internet, and was saddened for days.
I heard about the death of Stephen Jay Gould on the radio in the car on my way to work one morning.
The was watching the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson 25 years ago tonight when the local news broke in with the news of John Lennon’s murder.
Those are probably the ones that affected me the most.
Obviously John Lennon. And Warren Zevon, even though his was not a surprise.
But strangely, Harry Chapin too. I was in college (Pi77), and working as a light tech on a play. The stage manager came out on stage (there were only a few of us working on the stage and other tech issues that afternoon) and started singing, accapello, one of his songs (can’t remember which.) I sat at the light board and moved the spots to follow her as she ran through the song.
I remember being on vacation with my family in a house in Lake Arrowhead (Ca.). I was playing hide and seek with my older brother and cousin and while I sat curled up in a closet on the bottom floor, they had been on the top floor and apparently heard the news on the radio that **Elvis Presley ** had died. They never did come looking for me. :rolleyes:
**Freddie Mercury’s ** death bummed me out, big time, but what I really remember is the asshat of a d.j. who made some snarky remark and played “Another One Bites the Dust”.
I hadn’t heard that **Michael Hutchence **had died when I was watching VH1 and they were playing a block of INXS songs. I thought “cool” and was happy that I happened to catch whatever this special program was. After the video ended, the screen went to black with his name and birth/death dates. WTF…?Like a punch to the gut, that was.