Musicians are emotional mouthpieces and personal heroes for many, so when they pass away, it’s
incredibly hard for fans to process.
From rising stars to all-time legends, here are the musicians we lost in 2020.
Easily one of the greatest rock drummers ever, Neil Peart's precise pounding for Rush propelled
the band to a career that made them heroes to legions of devoted fans.
Not just a simple beat-keeper, Peart's complex rhythms and lyrics were as much a part of
the band's identity as bandmate Geddy Lee's howl or Alex Lifeson's guitar solos.
Peart provided words and beats on eternal rock radio staples like "Tom Sawyer," "Limelight,"
and "The Spirit of Radio."
Peart joined his fellow Canadians in Rush in the mid-'70s, after its unsuccessful first
album.
He helped take the band to the next level, going on to sell more than 25 million records
in the U.S. alone, with albums like 2112, Hemispheres, Permanent Waves, and Moving Pictures.
In 2018, Lee confirmed that Peart had retired from drumming, and in January 2020, the 67-year-old
rock legend passed away after privately battling brain cancer for more than three years.
"Every audience I feel like we have to earn that.
That we have to earn their dedication and their expenditure of time and energy."
Rapper Pop Smoke was a major player in Brooklyn's growing "drill" movement, which melds trap
beats with especially dark and challenging lyrics.
In 2019, he released his first long-form project, Meet the Woo, with the follow-up Meet the
Woo 2 debuting in February 2020 and hitting #7 on the Billboard album chart.
He became known for breakout hits like "Welcome to the Party", "Dior", and "Gatti."
Pop Smoke lived in a Los Angeles home rented from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star
Teddi Mellencamp when, in the early morning hours of February 19, 2020, a group of suspects
broke in and shot the young rapper.
He passed on a few hours later at a Los Angeles hospital.
Initially thought to be tied to a string of home robberies in the area, police later theorized
that Pop Smoke was specifically targeted in the attack.
The musician was only 20 years old.
Being a musical innovator was the family business for Minnesota rapper and singer Lexii Alijai.
Her grandfather was the leader of the '80s synth-funk band Zapp.
To celebrate her sixteenth birthday in 2014, she dropped her first of four mixtapes, Super
Sweet 16's.
Within a two-year span, she'd go on to appear on Kehlani's Grammy-nominated mixtape You
Should Be Here and play at the major Soundset Music Festival alongside Post Malone and Kendrick
Lamar.
On the morning of New Year's Day 2020, Alijai passed away at a Minneapolis hotel.
According to a report issued by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office, the musician
passed away from an accidental, toxic combination of alcohol and the powerful painkiller fentanyl.
She was 21-years-old.
Kenny Rogers was at the forefront of 70's and 80's pop-country and soft rock.
The gentle crooner often sat near the top of the charts with twangy tunes like "Coward
of the County" and "Islands in the Stream" and ballads like "Through the Years."
However, Rogers' success wasn't confined to this time period.
In the late '60s, his psychedelic rock band, The First Edition, scored a huge hit with
"Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)."
Rogers also made millions as a Dole spokesman, and lent his image and support to the chicken
chain Kenny Rogers Roasters.
"What is that, 'Rogers' Chicken'?
Oh, get that out of here!"
"I don't know.
The man makes a pretty strong bird."
In 2018, Rogers, sensing that he was starting to decline, and wishing to spend more time
with his family, retired from music.
He passed away on March 20, 2020, in his sleep.
"The Gambler" was 81.
Bill Rieflin wasn't a household name, but that doesn't really matter.
Over the last four decades, the drummer made a major impact on rock music through his work
with an eclectic set of iconic bands.
Rieflin joined Ministry in 1987.
At first an electro-pop outfit, the band evolved into a pioneer in industrial music.
Rieflin played on classic albums like The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste and Psalm
69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs.
Rieflin also occasionally played for KMFDM, Swans, Nine Inch Nails, and others.
Rieflin could do more than loud, fast, and heavy.
When founding member Bill Berry left R.E.M., Rieflin became his semi-permanent replacement
from 2003 to 2011, performing live and drumming on the band's final three albums.
And after that, Rieflin moved on to the classic progressive rock band King Crimson.
"We have more fun playing it badly than we do playing it well."
According to Rieflin's family, the drummer passed away after an eight-year struggle with
cancer.
He was 59.
In the late '60s and early '70s, a new subgenre of rock 'n roll called "baroque pop" took
hold.
It combined aspects of classical music, harpsichords, orchestral instruments, complicated melodies,
with rock 'n roll, and nobody did it better than the American band known as The Left Banke.
In 1966, the band scored its first and only two hit singles, the #5 smash "Walk Away Renee"
and the #15 "Pretty Ballerina."
A big part of that band's influential sound came from the lush, passionate vocals of lead
singer Steve Martin Caro.
The Left Banke split up in 1969 after just two albums, although they regrouped for the
occasional reunion.
The band's former manager, Marg Finn, confirmed to Pitchfork that Caro passed away from heart
disease on January 14, 2020.
He was 71.
In the country music boom period of the early '90s, Joe Diffie was a consistent presence,
a staple of both radio and CMT alongside Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, and Billy Ray Cyrus.
While his records packed the sheen and rollicking vibes typical of 90's country, Diffie had
a twangy voice that earned comparisons to old-time crooners.
Born and raised in Oklahoma, Diffie honed his singing and songwriting skills in gospel
and bluegrass groups, also performing solo in countless honky-tonks before moving to
Nashville in 1986.
By 1988, stars like Hank Thompson were recording Diffie compositions, and by 1990, Diffie had
released his first major label album, A Thousand Winding Roads.
An instant sensation, Diffie racked up hit after hit in the early '90s, including smashes
like "Third Rock From the Sun," "Home," "Pickup Man," and "Bigger Than the Beatles."
In March 2020, Diffie tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
Diffie succumbed to complications from Covid-19 on March 29, 2020 at age 61.
Fountains of Wayne emerged in the post-grunge, late '90s alternative rock scene with catchy
hits like "Radiation Vibe" and "Sink to the Bottom," but then had an inescapable smash
hit in 2003 with "Stacy's Mom".
This power-pop throwback, and its iconic video, featured a teenage boy crushing on his girlfriend's
mother.
The song contained all the hallmarks of what made band member and chief songwriter Adam
Schlesinger's work so special, wry humor and hooks galore.
Outside of Fountains of Wayne, Schlesinger had another band called Ivy, but he was primarily
known for his work in film and television.
The 1996 Tom Hanks movie That Thing You Do! is about a 1960s pop-rock band that becomes
a one-hit wonder thanks to a monstrously ear-wormy single, Schlesinger wrote the tune, and received
an Oscar nomination for his efforts.
Schlesinger was also responsible for tunes in the comedies Music and Lyrics and Josie
and the Pussycats, and produced music for the likes of The Monkees and They Might Be
Giants.
Schlesinger's prodigious talent, relentless output, and sense of humor prepared him well
for his most ambitious project: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
The CW's musical comedy series featured a couple of original songs every episode, and
Schlesinger helped write a remarkable 157 of them.
On April 1, 2020, Schlesinger passed away from complications related to COVID-19.
He was 52.
Few singers could convey deep, aching emotion the way Bill Withers did.
The soul legend sweetly and honestly sang multiple soul, pop, and soft rock classics
that touched on many different sides of love, from the friendship anthem "Lean on Me" to
the sultry "Lovely Day" as well as the sweet "Just the Two of Us" and the heartbreaking
"Ain't No Sunshine."
After a stint in the U.S. Navy and a job in an airplane parts factory, Withers was inspired
by Lou Rawls to get into music; he bought a used guitar, taught himself to play, and
started writing songs.
His demo found its way to Sussex Records and in the early '70s, Withers hit the charts,
particularly with "Lean on Me", a #1 hit for three weeks in 1972.
Tiring of life on the road, the burdens of fame, and the shady side of the business,
Withers left the music industry.
Battles with his label kept him out of the studio from 1978 to 1985, when he recorded
his eighth and final album, Watching You Watching Me.
After this, he permanently retired from music save for occasional appearances, like his
2015 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
According to a statement from Withers' family, the singer-songwriter suffered from heart
problems, and passed away on March 30, 2020, at the age of 81.