Let's face it: classic rock legends aren't getting any younger.
And sometimes, after they've already left the spotlight, news of their deaths can be missed.
Here are some legendary rockers you may not know passed away.
Lou Reed - who fronted the Velvet Underground and whom Rolling Stone
credits for heavily influencing other legends like David Bowie - died on October 27, 2013.
He was 71 years old at the time of his death, and according to his obituary, he had traded
his own life on the wild side, complete with the near-constant consumption of drugs and alcohol,
for a quieter life filled with T'ai Chi. In early 2013,
he was the recipient of a liver transplant, but died several months later at his Long Island home.
He was survived by his wife, Laurie Anderson, who released a statement reading:
"Lou was a prince and a fighter, and I know his songs of the pain
and beauty in the world will fill many people with the incredible joy he felt for life.
Long live the beauty that comes down and through and onto all of us."
Bruce Springsteen wouldn't be Bruce Springsteen without his E Street Band,
and the relationship between Springsteen and saxophonist Clarence Clemons
was beyond friendship. Stories of how they met are something akin to
legend. Clemons once described their first meeting in an early interview:
"Bruce and I looked at each other and didn't say anything, we just knew.
We knew we were the missing links in each other's lives. He was what I'd been searching for."
"I got on stage, I played with him, and it was like magic, it started,
and it's been the same way ever since."
Clemons died in 2011, after suffering a stroke on
June 12. According to Rolling Stone, he went through two brain surgeries
and, in spite of a good prognosis, passed away within the week of his initial stroke.
Just what happened was hotly debated, and according to The Guardian, Clemons' family
claimed the stroke had been the result of earlier surgeries they believed doctors had botched.
Clemons - who had suffered from chronic pain for years - had surgery for "retinal detachment,
spinal fusion, and several joint replacements." Afterward, his wife says he had lost feeling
in part of his hands, and after an alleged mix-up in medication, his family believed the
eventual outcome was his stroke and untimely death. Springsteen later said of the loss,
"[Clarence Clemmons] was elemental in my life, and losing him was like losing the rain."
Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek had to say about the band's early days:
"We knew once people heard us, we'd be unstoppable.
We knew what the people wanted: the same thing the Doors wanted. Freedom."
Frontman Jim Morrison famously died in 1971, and it was drummer John Densmore who explained to The
Guardian, quote, "I hated his self-destruction." Life wasn't as easy for the surviving Doors
members, either, and Densmore spent years fighting Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger in court.
Rights to tour under their old band name were at stake, and Manzarek and Krieger
had started to tour in 2002. Unfortunately for everyone involved, it turned out that
some of the last years of Manzarek's life were going to be spent knee-deep in those lawsuits.
Eventually, Manzarek traded the wild life of a rock musician for a quiet one.
At the time of his death, his obituary says that he had continued to collaborate with
others while spending much of his time living the peaceful life in Napa Valley,
surrounded by his chickens and his fruit trees. The 74-year-old Doors founder was in Rosenheim,
Germany, when he died on May 20, 2013, after a diagnosis of bile duct cancer.
"Werewolves of London" singer-songwriter Warren Zevon knew he was dying when he wrote his album
"The Wind," and the timing was the sort of thing that makes anyone believe in a higher power.
Zevon, says The New York Times, had started suffering from chest pains at about the same
time he had decided to start working on another album. When he finally went to the doctor,
the diagnosis was dire. Zevon had advanced mesothelioma and only a few months to live.
"I've always enjoyed myself but it's more valuable now.
You're reminded to enjoy every sandwich and every minute of it."
Rolling Stone interviewed him while he was working on the album and trying to finish
the songs that he saw as a "goodbye" before it was too late. Zevon explained in the interview,
"At a time like this, you really get the feeling of time marching on."
Zevon - who declined the option of going through
chemotherapy - explained that music was his drug, saying,
"When you get into songwriting, everything else falls away. That's the miracle."
The 56-year-old Zevon survived to see the release of his final album on August 26,
2003. He was gone a little over a week later, dying at his Los Angeles home on September 7.
The Beastie Boys were a rarity: a long-lived hip-hop group with a popularity that spanned
decades. It was Adam Yauch and Mike Diamond who started the band as a punk rock group,
but it became much more than that. When the Beastie Boys confirmed Yauch's death in 2012,
they called him not just a musician but a musician, rapper, activist, and founding member
of both the Beastie Boys and of the Milarepa Foundation, which promotes Tibetan independence.
In 2009, Yauch had been diagnosed with cancer after the discovery of a tumor on his salivary
gland. What followed was three long years of treatment - during which Rolling Stone
says he remained upbeat and optimistic - leading up to his death on May 4, 2012.
It was U2's Bono who said that The Clash, quote, "wrote the rule book" for U2. Others
have credited The Clash for giving some of the best live performances in music history
while also showing the world that punk could be political and take a stand, too.
Bono was saying that at the announcement of the sudden and unexpected death of The Clash's
Joe Strummer. Members of The Clash were making plans to collaborate on a charity show in South
Africa when Strummer suffered a heart attack at his Somerset home. He died on December 22, 2002..
A post-mortem revealed that Strummer had suffered from an undiagnosed heart defect,
which ultimately led to his death at the age of 50.
Not long before, Strummer explained The Clash's music and his legacy like this:
"[W]e were trying to grow up in a [...] future where the world might be less of a miserable
place than it is. [...] My face is very deep in the mud. I can't see the trees or the woods
or the valley or the hills. You can only follow what's on your mind."
News of Maurice White's death came in February 2016, 14 years after he had been diagnosed with
Parkinson's in 1992. And that diagnosis came several decades after Earth, Wind, & Fire
changed the face of music with their mix of jazz, funk, and rock, and after they did something else,
too. Verdine White, Maurice's brother and bandmate, said in 2013 that from the beginning,
"Maurice was interested in establishing a credibility of a different morality about
musicians and their lifestyles. So we were into healthy food, meditation, taking vitamins,
reading philosophical books, being students of life."
And it worked. Earth, Wind & Fire sold more than 90 million records, and at their height
of popularity, Rolling Stone called them, quote, "the biggest black rock band in the world." And
it's really no wonder. Maurice once said that they were all about "being joyful and positive,"
and if there's anything the world needs more of, it's their "positive energy."
Motörhead's notorious frontman Lemmy died in 2015, just two days after being diagnosed with cancer.
Less publicized were the deaths of Lemmy's Motörhead bandmates,
starting with Michael "Wurzel" Burston.
The man Lemmy had once called a, quote, "soft-spoken guy" until someone put a
guitar in his hand, auditioned for an open spot in Motörhead in 1984.
After joining the band, Wurzel remained lifelong friends with Motorhead's frontman.
Burston died on July 9, 2011, from complications of cardiomyopathy.
Motörhead's first drummer was Phil Taylor, who described the band as, quote, "hard, fast, nasty,
disgusting rock." When he died on November 11, 2015 - just before Lemmy - Louder Sound reported
that although the official cause was liver failure, he had been sick for several years,
a bout of ill health that kicked off with surgery to repair a brain aneurysm.
Then, in January 2018, Rolling Stone reported on the death of Eddie Clarke, the Motörhead
guitarist who drummer Mikkey Dee called, quote, "the last of the three amigos." Clarke,
they reported, had died after being hospitalized for pneumonia.
Pete Quaife was - along with brothers Ray and Dave Davies - one of the founding members
of the legendary Kinks. It was Dave who described why Quaife was handed the bass:
"We drew lots to see who would play bass guitar, and Pete lost."
It ended up being fortuitous. After learning to play by mimicking songs from guys like Buddy
Holly and Chuck Berry, Quaife and the Kinks paid it forward, laying the groundwork for bands like
The Who. The Who's bassist, John Entwhistle called Quaife one of his favorite bassists.
And it's entirely possible that without Quaife,
the Kinks wouldn't have even stayed together long enough to make any music. He was nicknamed "the
ambassador" and would often step in between the brothers to settle frequent arguments.
"There you are, you're in the top group,
you're making hit records and everybody's paying you to go around the world. All right, c'mon."
Quaife left the Kinks in 1969, and after a brief attempt at joining another band and
very occasionally making public appearances, he retired from music, moved to Ontario,
and got into graphic design. When he was diagnosed with renal failure in 1998, he released a series
of cartoons called "The Lighter Side of Dialysis." Quaife succumbed to kidney failure in June 2010.
Even those who never bought a Bee Gees album in their entire
lives can still sing along to at least a few of their songs.
However, when Maurice Gibb died in 2003, The Guardian called the Bee Gees, quote,
"critically underrated" as a band. Maurice knew exactly how good they were, though, once saying,
"One of us is OK, two of us is pretty good, but three of us together is magic."
Tragically, Maurice was also the first to die. After collapsing in his home,
he went into surgery to remove a blockage in his intestine and then suffered a heart
attack. He died with his family at his side, including older brother Barry and twin Robin.
Nine years later, Robin died on May 20, 2012. The official statement said that
Robin passed away following a long battle with cancer. He was just 62 years old.
Among the tributes that poured in were heartfelt words from Queen's Brian May, who said,
"For me, the music of the Bee Gees really has peaks as high as any mountain ever
climbed by a Pop/Rock group. The Bee Gees will never be forgotten."
The twins were survived by their older brother Barry, and as a family, they were no strangers
to tragic deaths. Another brother - who wasn't in the group, but was a star in his
own right - died in the 1980s. Just 30 years old, Andy Gibb succumbed to a heart infection.
In 1984 interview with Modern Drummer,
singer and drummer Levon Helm described the ingredients that went into his music:
"[L]ife and breath, heart and soul."
That's easy to see in the timelessness of his work. Take a look at a picture of The Band,
and it's almost impossible to tell what era they're in.
Levon Helm was born Mark Lavon Helm in 1941, and as the son of an Arkansas cotton farmer,
he was heavily influenced by the blues of the Deep South. The start of the band that
would simply become known as The Band came in 1965. Originally Bob Dylan's backup band,
they were listed on an album cover as just "the Band," and they ran with it.
Although their later work never topped their first two releases,
they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 - a full 18 years after they
officially retired. Helm got into acting after The Band, but in the late 1990s,
he was diagnosed with throat cancer. Unable to sing and with medical bills piling up,
he opened up his barn to impromptu concerts called Midnight Rambles.
"The midnight ramble.
And the songs would get a little bit juicier and the jokes a little funnier."
Although the regulars got together to form a group, Helm was no longer able to sing by
that point. He died on April 19, 2012, and the official cause was complications from cancer.
Saying you're a fan of the Monkees is a great way to get "serious" music fans to scoff,
but here's the thing: They had a massive influence on music as a whole. The Hollywood
Reporter points out that not only did they pave the way for future boy bands and teen idols
from David Cassidy to Hanson to the Jonas Brothers, but they proved how popular an
up-and-coming new music format could be. That was, of course, the music video,
and it's easy to forget their show was Emmy-winning, and their music topped the charts.
The Monkees' singer from Manchester, Davy Jones, had started out in show business before leaving
after the death of his mother. He ultimately auditioned for a group described as, quote,
"just some guys having fun," and in 2012 - just a year after the Monkees
reunited - the 66-year-old Jones died after suffering a major heart attack.
Then, in 2019, Rolling Stone announced the death of another one of the Monkees,
Peter Tork. His official cause of death wasn't released, but according to The Independent,
he had been diagnosed with a rare type of cancer called
adenoid cystic carcinoma. Fellow Monkee Michael Nesmith wrote,
"[M]y tears are awash, and my heart is broken. Even though I am clinging
to the idea that we all continue, the pain that attends these passings has no cure."
When Tommy Ramone died in 2014, it truly was the end of an era. As Rolling Stone noted, he had been
the last surviving member of the original Ramones. According to a statement issued on his family's
behalf, Tommy was in hospice care following treatment for, quote, "cancer of the bile duct."
The Ramones are credited with helping to found an entire genre of music: punk rock. The four
founding members weren't blood brothers but were brothers, nonetheless. Joey Ramone was diagnosed
with leukemia when he was just 42 years old, and passed away in 2001. The following year,
Dee Dee Ramone was found unconscious in his Hollywood home. According to The New York Times,
paramedics pronounced him dead on the scene, from an apparent drug overdose.
Then, in 2004, Rolling Stone announced the death of Johnny Ramone. He gave his last interview
surrounded by taxidermy oddities and some very elderly cats - six years after his diagnosis of
prostate cancer - and he died not long afterward. In his last interview, Johnny reflected:
"[A]ll of a sudden on the last tour, it was like,
everyone is going to miss us? I thought everyone would forget us. That was fun? I can't tell."
He'd been born Don Van Vliet, but The Guardian says that he was better known as the cult figure
Captain Beefheart. They called him, quote, "a hero to most of the musical avant garde" and cited
bands from the Grateful Dead to Jethro Tull as being heavily influenced by his work. The Guardian
described Beefheart's music as, quote, "pretty discordant" and "mesmeric" at the same time,
thanks in large part to his impressive vocal range, which spanned four and a half octaves.
A longtime friend of Frank Zappa,
Captain Beefheart - who took his name from a film he'd once had hopes of making - spent
much of his career as a fringe figure, mostly because of his own choosing.
"I'm still a kid, you see. I didn't go to school,
I'm still a kid. If you want to be a different fish, you gotta jump out of the school!"
More interested in art and music for the sake of art and music alone,
Beefheart influenced countless other artists while spending much of the 1960s surviving
on the only thing he could afford to eat: bread. Beefheart retired from music in 1982,
on the advice of a New York City art dealer who told him that if he wanted anyone to take
him seriously, it was one or the other. He enjoyed a modest career in the art world
and died in 2010. The official cause was complications from multiple sclerosis.
Everyone knows the Quiet Riot song, "Come on Feel the Noize" - and there's a good reason it's still
such a powerful rock anthem. It was lead singer Kevin Dubrow who asked us all to join the band
on a journey to "feel the noize," and when he was found dead in his apartment on November 25,
2007, the headlines were a bit confusing.
Dubrow, who was 52 years old at the time of his passing,
had died around six days before his body was found. When he didn't keep the Thanksgiving plans
he'd made, ex-girlfriend Lark Williams asked a friend of hers to check on him. The friend,
who happened to be a paramedic, was the one who broke into his home and found him.
At first, no one knew what had happened. Friends described him as "strong as an ox,"
adding that while he hadn't been handling his recent breakup with Williams well,
he was said to have at least been, quote, "stable." The official cause
of death wasn't announced until December 10, when the Clark County coroner's office
confirmed their findings that he had died of an accidental cocaine overdose.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, please call the Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Administration's 24/7 National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.