Musicians make artistic contributions to all of us, and they never fully die because their
work persists through time, delighting and inspiring others for years on end.
These musicians left us in 2018, but their compositions, performances, and works of brilliance
will probably outlive us all.
In 1988, 23-year-old singer-songwriter Lari White moved to Nashville to become a star,
and she found success almost instantly, winning the Nashville Network's proto-American Idol
talent contest You Can Be a Star.
Not quite a star performer yet, White found work as a songwriter for a major Nashville
publisher and penned hits for other up-and-coming performers.
It wasn't until 1993 that White got a chance to take the spotlight, and she did quite well,
racking up a half dozen country music hits including Top 10 smashes like "That's My Baby,"
"Now I Know," and "That's How You Know (When You're in Love)."
After her performing career started to fade a bit, White returned behind the scenes, producing
songs for Toby Keith and others while also getting into acting.
She passed away on January 23 from a rare form of cancer at the age of 52.
After the Temptations delighted millions of fans throughout the 1960s with the perfect
pop songs like "My Girl" and "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," lead singer David Ruffin left the
group in 1968, and Dennis Edwards had the seemingly thankless job of replacing him.
However, this was right when the band was heading into its weird, psychedelic funk phase,
and Edwards was the right guy to hold the audience's hand on innovative, future-thinking
songs like "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone."
Edwards was part of the Temptations off and on until 1989, the year the act entered the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and had a solo hit in 1984 with "Don't Look Any Further."
According to Edwards' wife, the unlikely pop icon passed away from complications of meningitis
on February 1, 2018, just two days shy of his 75th birthday.
Thanks to musicians like Billy Ray Cyrus and Garth Brooks, country music boomed in popularity
in the early 1990s.
But it wasn't just for the new guys, the wave helped all ships to rise.
Even the less slickly produced, more traditional country guys like George Strait and Randy
Travis got a visibility boost, and the doors were opened for new singers of that ilk, such
as Daryle Singletary.
Randy Travis produced Singletary's self-titled debut album, which included big country hits
like "Too Much Fun" and "I Let Her Lie."
He had a few more hit singles, then settled into a neo-traditionalist style.
In 2017, he teamed up with singer Rhonda Vincent to release American Grandstand, a collection
of covers of classic country duets.
On February 12, 2018, the 46-year-old Singletary died unexpectedly at his home in Lebanon,
Tennessee.
If you were a '90s kid, you probably at some point put Craig Mack's "Flava in Ya Ear" on
one of your famous mixtapes.
Mack had a few hits, but that 1994 jam was a Top 10 smash, and the song for which he'll
always be best known.
The story of how Mack ascended to fame is music industry legend.
He ran into Sean "Diddy" Combs, then known as Puff Daddy, at a Manhattan club called
Mecca in the early '90s.
Combs promised the young Long Island rapper a record deal if he could freestyle over a
Mary J. Blige track.
Mack did just that, so Combs held up his end of the bargain.
In recent years, Mack had quit music in favor of a pursuit of religion.
He was living in South Carolina and was the subject of a still-in-the-works documentary
about his new life when he died of heart failure at age 46 on March 12, 2018.
Along with punk bands like the Ramones, New York in the late '70s gave birth to a sound
and scene called No Wave.
Akin to free-form jazz, No Wave rejected punk music's rough and raw revival of early rock
'n' roll in favor of dissonance, noise, and experimentation.
Guitarist and composer Glenn Branca was extremely instrumental in the No Wave movement, both
with his band Theoretical Girls, as well as with compositions such as Lesson No. 1 and
solo albums like The Ascension.
Branca carved out a career as a composer of modern, progressive symphonies that were performed
all over the world, and his influence on noise rock and grunge was both direct and indirect.
He worked with members of bands like Swans and Helmet, and he personally introduced fellow
No Wave musician Lee Renaldo to Thurston Moore, who formed Sonic Youth together.
The 69-year-old musician died in his sleep in May 2018 after a battle with throat cancer.
Born Jahseh Onfroy, XXXTentacion's life and rap career had two things in common: They
were both very brief and fraught with peril.
The South Florida native was among the most notable "Soundcloud rappers," releasing his
first song, "Vice City," to the service in 2014, along with an EP and a handful of albums.
His first "official" single, "Look at Me," hit the top 30 of the Billboard pop chart
in 2017.
Later that year, X dropped his first non-Soundcloud album, 17, which peaked at #2 on the album
chart and his follow-up went all the way to #1.
All that success came amid a troubled personal life.
In 2016, he reportedly assaulted a lover and threatened to cut out her tongue because he
caught her singing another musician's song.
Later in the year, he allegedly strangled and held a knife to the throat of the same
woman for being unfaithful.
A few days after the woman learned she was pregnant in October 2016, X allegedly terrorized
her, with violence, death threats, and locking her in an apartment for two days until she
escaped.
Prosecutors charged the rapper with aggravated battery of a pregnant woman, domestic battery
by strangulation, and other charges, although the case was never resolved.
On June 18, 2018, XXXTentacion was fatally shot in what police believe to be a drive-by
shooting.
The rapper was only 20.
The guy that members of Papa Roach called "the nicest guy in metal" has died.
That man is Vinnie Paul, who played drums for Pantera alongside his brother "Dimebag"
Darrell Abbott up until the band's demise in 2003.
Pantera became one of the biggest metal bands of the '90s and the band's success was due
in part to Paul's singular, propulsive groove, which he credited to his Texas upbringing,
full of blues rock from the likes of ZZ Top and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
After Pantera split, Paul and his brother quickly formed a new band called Damageplan.
That group ended in tragedy when, at a 2004 concert, a man shot "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott
to death.
Shortly after, beginning in 2006, Vinnie Paul sat behind the kit for Hellyeah, a metal supergroup
which also included members of Mudvayne and Nothingface.
Paul's death was announced via the Pantera Facebook page in late June from what was later
revealed to be an enlarged heart and coronary artery disease.
He was just 54 years old.
Only a handful of musicians have earned an honorific title, Elvis Presley was The King,
Bruce Springsteen is The Boss … and Aretha Franklin was The Queen of Soul.
It was a nickname she very much deserved, bringing her soaring and unbelievable voice
to the world of contemporary music in the 1960s.
She recorded multiple songs of love and empowerment, including "Think," "Chain of Fools," and "Respect,"
which spoke to the civil rights and feminist movements of the era.
After the disco era began, making her real soul stylings briefly outdated, Franklin enjoyed
a rare second act, returning as a pop singer in the 1980s with huge hits like "Freeway
of Love," and her duet with George Michael, "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)."
All told, Franklin scored 17 Top 10 hits on the Billboard pop chart, and 20 Number 1 crossover
hits on the R&B charts.
In 1987, she became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and she
sang at inauguration festivities for Presidents Carter, Clinton, and Obama.
The Queen of Soul died at her home in Detroit on August 16.
According to her publicist, the singer had suffered from advanced pancreatic cancer.
She was 76.
Lynyrd Skynyrd is the definitive Southern rock band thanks to hits like "Free Bird,"
"Tuesday's Gone," and "Sweet Home Alabama."
Oddly enough, though, it took a guy from California to help the group nail down its sound.
West coaster Ed King joined Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1972 as the third guitarist in the band's
unique triple-guitar sound.
King left the band in 1975, but in 2006, more than 30 years after his departure, he was
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
According to a post on King's Facebook page, he died at his home in Nashville on August
22, 2018.
The guitarist was 68.
In 2008, singer and keyboardist Kyle Pavone joined the Michigan band We Came as Romans.
The group had formed a few years prior, but the 18-year-old vocalist's powerful pipes
gave the band the final piece it needed for breakout success.
But it wasn't meant to be.
On August 25, 2018, Pavone was pronounced dead at a Michigan hospital, following nearly
a week of hospitalization.
A cause of death was not immediately provided, but was later revealed to be drug-related.
His heartbroken bandmates shared their sadness of his passing on their Instagram page, writing:
"We will miss his smiles, his sincerity, his concern for others, and his impressive musical
talent."
Pavone was just 28.
Rapper Mac Miller first gained a lot of attention in 2010 for his mixtape K.I.D.S. at just 18,
when he still a kid himself.
It spawned the hit single "Knock Knock," and the next year his first studio album, Blue
Slide Park topped the charts.
Miller stayed at the forefront of music from that point on, releasing more hit singles
like "Small Worlds" and "Self Care," producing music for other rappers, and starring on his
own MTV2 show, Mac Miller and the Most Dope Family.
In addition to his music, Miller made headlines for his personal life, including his high-profile
relationship with pop star Ariana Grande.
The pair broke up in May 2018, shortly before Miller hit a utility pole with his car and
was charged with DUI and fleeing the scene.
It wasn't Miller's first trouble.
He was often frank and open about his struggles with substance abuse and depression, both
in his songs and in interviews.
Those struggles ultimately claimed his life.
According to police officers, Miller was found by a friend in his home in California's San
Fernando Valley, where he was pronounced dead on September 7.
A coroner's report released in early November revealed Miller died from an accidental overdose.
He was 26.
That entire psychedelic sound that defined the late '60s, and by extension the entire
hippie culture, might not have happened were it not for guitarist Marty Balin.
In 1965, the former folk musician formed a band with Paul Kantner, and after recruiting
some more San Francisco-area musicians, Jefferson Airplane was born.
Balin played guitar and sang backup for the Airplane on some of its biggest hits, including
"Somebody to Love," "Volunteers," and "White Rabbit."
Balin briefly quit Jefferson Airplane to manage other bands, but returned when the group re-emerged
in the mid-'70s as Jefferson Starship.
Jefferson Starship's biggest hit, the #3 smash "Miracles," was a Balin composition.
But the arrangement didn't last, and Balin left the group for a solo career in 1978,
marked by the soft rock radio standard "Hearts."
Balin was 76 when he passed away on September 27.