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Jack Russell, the former frontman of 1980s and ’90s glam rockers Great White, has died at age 63.
The news comes from the Instagram page for Jack Russell’s Great White, which is the band name the frontman toured under after the group disbanded in 2001.
“With tremendous sadness, we announce the loss of our beloved Jack Patrick Russell — father, husband, cousin, uncle, and friend,” the statement begins, adding that the singer “passed peacefully” surrounded by his wife Heather Ann, son Matthew Hucko and other family and friends. “Jack is loved and remembered for his sense of humor, exceptional zest for life, and unshakeable contribution to rock and roll where his legacy will forever live and thrive.”
The family is asking for privacy and shared that details of a public memorial would be announced at a later date.
On the Instagram page for Great White, Russell’s original bandmates shared their “deepest condolences to the family of Jack Russell. We hope they take comfort in knowing Jack’s incredible voice will live on forever.” The ended the statement: “Rest In Peace, to one of rock’s biggest champions.”
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Great White landed six songs on the Billboard Hot 100 in the late ’80s and early ’90s, including the top five smash “Once Bitten Twice Shy,” which peaked at No. 5 in 1989 and whose music video was in heavy rotation on MTV. The song’s album, 1989’s …Twice Shy, was a top 10 hit on the Billboard 200 chart, peaking at No. 9.
Following the group’s end in 2001, the lead singer hit the road as Jack Russell’s Great White — most infamously headlining Rhode Island’s The Station nightclub in 2003, when pyrotechnics started a fire that killed 100 people, including bandmate Ty Longley, and injuring 230. Russell’s tour manager, Daniel Biechele, pleaded guilty to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter in 2006 and served two years in prison of a 15-year sentence. The owners of The Station, Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, pleaded no contest, with Michael serving almost three years in prison and Jeffrey being sentenced to community service. The band also reached settlements with victims in several lawsuits.
Last month, Russell’s Instagram page had announced his retirement from touring after diagnoses of Lewy Body Dementia and Multiple System Atrophy. “Words cannot express my gratitude for the many years of memories, love, and support,” the retirement announcement read. “Thank you for letting me live my dreams.”
Find the family and band statements below.
Greg Kihn, the beloved pop and rock musician known for his hit “Jeopardy,” died on Tuesday (Aug. 13) after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 75 years old.
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The star, born on July 10, 1949, in Baltimore, Md., moved to San Francisco in the mid 1970s, where he became one of the first artists signed to Matthew King Kaufman’s Beserkley Records. He formed the Greg Kihn Band, featuring guitarist Robbie Dunbar, bassist Steve Wright, and drummer Larry Lynch, and the group released a self-titled album in 1976. Through the 1970s, Kihn released an album each year.
However, it wasn’t until 1981 when Kihn got his first major Billboard hit with “The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ‘Em),” from the Rockihnroll album. The track hit No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart.
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Just two years later, he unveiled the dance-ready hit, “Jeopardy,” which climbed to No. 2 on the Hot 100. In 1984, Kihn gave “Weird Al” Yankovic permission to parody his song into “I Lost on Jeopardy,” and even made a cameo at the end of the music video as the driver of a convertible. In 1985, Kihn signed with EMI.
Beyond his success as a musician, Kihn was also an accomplished author. He wrote four horror fiction novels, including 1996’s Horror Show and 1998’s Shade of Pale. 1998’s Big Rock Beat and 1999’s Mojo Hand were written as sequels to Horror Show. He also wrote Carved in Rock: Short Stories by Musicians, which compiled stories from him and other rock musicians including Pete Townshend, Joan Jett and more. His 2013 novel, Rubber Soul, was a Beatles-themed murder mystery story.
Kihn is survived by Jay Arafiles-Kihn, his wife; his son, Ryan Kihn, and daughter, Alexis Harrington-Kihn; as well as his grandchildren.
Susan Wojcicki, a pioneering tech executive who helped shape Google and YouTube, has died, her husband said. She was 56.
Wojcicki played a key role in Google’s creation and served nine years as YouTube’s CEO, stepping down last year to focus on her “family, health, and personal projects I’m passionate about,” she said at the time.
She was one of the most respected female executives in the male-dominated tech industry.
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Her collaboration with Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin began shortly after they incorporated their search engine into a business in 1998. Wojcicki rented the garage of her Menlo Park, California, home to them for $1,700 a month, cementing a formative partnership. Page and Brin — both 25 at the time — continued to refine their search engine in Wojcicki’s garage for five months before moving Google into a more formal office and later persuaded their former landlord to come work for their company.
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Wojcicki joined Google, now known as Alphabet, as its marketing manager in 1999 and served in various positions as Google grew its online advertising presence by acquiring YouTube in 2006 and DoubleClick in 2008. She served as Google’s senior vice president of advertising and commerce from 2011 to early 2014 and CEO of YouTube from 2014 to 2023.
“Her loss is devastating for all of us who know and love her, for the thousands of Googlers she led over the years, and for millions of people all over the world who looked up to her, benefited from her advocacy and leadership, and felt the impact of the incredible things she created at Google, YouTube, and beyond,” Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in a note to employees.
Former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who was vice president of Google’s sales and operations from 2001 to 2008 before decamping to Facebook, said in a Facebook post that Wojcicki was formative in her tech career.
“She taught me the business and helped me navigate a growing, fairly chaotic organization at the beginning of my career in tech,” Sandberg wrote. “She was the person I turned to for advice over and over again. And she was this person for so many others too.”
Her husband, Dennis Troper, announced her death in a social media post late Friday.
“My beloved wife of 26 years and mother to our five children left us today after 2 years of living with non small cell lung cancer,” he wrote.
“Susan was not just my best friend and partner in life, but a brilliant mind, a loving mother, and a dear friend to many,” Troper said.
No other details of her death were immediately provided.
Wojcicki and Troper’s 19-year-old son, Marco Troper, died in February at the UC Berkeley campus where he resided as a freshman student.
Eric Gardner, chairman and CEO of Panacea Entertainment, died from complications of pneumonia on July 19 at his home in Camarillo, Calif. Gardner, whose career as a talent manager and producer of television shows and Las Vegas residencies spanned more than 50 years, was 74 years-old.
Gardner, who managed dozens of acts over the years, was inducted into the Personal Managers Hall of Fame at their 2017 ceremony in Las Vegas. He was still managing Todd Rundgren and Paul Shaffer at the time of his death.
Gardner’s career began in 1970 when, as a graduate student earning his Master of Fine Arts in playwriting at Columbia University, he started coordinating tours for such rock bands as Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead and, later, KISS. His company, Panacea Entertainment Corp., was the industry’s first rock and roll tour coordination company. By 1973, it was coordinating tours in 23 countries.
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In 1974, Panacea’s emphasis shifted to talent management. Over the years, Gardner represented such diverse musical artists as Bill Wyman of The Rolling Stones, Kenney Jones of The Who/ Faces/Small Faces, Rundgren, Donny Osmond, Rick Wright of Pink Floyd, The Stray Cats, Jefferson Starship, Sex Pistols, John Lydon, Steven Van Zandt and Max Weinberg (both of the E Street Band), Hot Tuna, Blue Öyster Cult, Grace Jones and Bettye LaVette.
He also represented Late Night with David Letterman bandleader Paul Shaffer; writer/producer Jim Steinman; actors David Hasselhoff, Richard Belzer and Richard Chamberlain; and psychologist, author and activist Timothy Leary, among others.
In 1981, Gardner relocated Panacea from New York to Los Angeles to expand into film and television. His first foray in 1982 was signing Cassandra “Elvira” Peterson, whom he helped develop from a local Los Angeles television personality into an international film and television phenomenon. Over the next 26 years, he produced her many film and television projects.
Gardner’s IMDB page includes 40 credits as a producer or executive producer, including multiple projects with Elvira, Hasselhoff, Belzer, Rundgren (both solo and with his band Utopia), Shaffer and Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones.
Gardner both produced and directed a 1976 TV special, Blue Öyster Cult: Live 1976. That was the year the band landed its biggest hit, “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper,” which reached No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.
He executive produced Digital Dreams, a 1983 TV movie which documented Wyman’s life. Two years later, he executive produced Willie and the Poor Boys, a film about the “supergroup” of the same name. The band consisted of Wyman and Charlie Watts, also of the Rolling Stones, plus Andy Fairweather Low, Mickey Gee and Geraint Watkins. Their eponymous album reached No. 96 on the Billboard 200 in 1985.
Gardner executive produced Heavy Metal Heaven, a 1990 miniseries in which Elvira introduced six programs celebrating the genre.
He executive produced The Filth and the Fury, a 2000 documentary about the career of the notorious punk rock band, Sex Pistols. The film was directed by Julien Temple, who had also directed The Great Rock and Roll Swindle, the classic 1980 documentary about the band. The Filth and the Fury provided an opportunity for the surviving members of the group to tell their side of the story. Also in 2000, Gardner executive produced Rotten TV, a short-lived VH-1 series hosted by Lydon of Sex Pistols fame.
He executive produced Bitter Jester, a 2003 show which was billed as the first documentary to offer a glimpse into the process behind the comedy we watch in clubs, on television and at the movies. The film included interviews with Richard Pryor and Belzer, among others.
In 2006, he executive produced Running With Arnold, a documentary on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s successful gubernatorial campaign in California that year. The doc was narrated by Alec Baldwin.
In 2019, he executive produced Paul Shaffer Plus One, an eight-episode TV series in which Shaffer and his guests discussed inspirations and influences and notable songs.
Despite having a hand in numerous music projects, Gardner’s longest-running TV project was Shahs of Sunset, a Bravo reality series which followed a group of affluent young Persian-American friends who juggle their flamboyant L.A. lifestyles with family demands. More than 125 episodes were produced from 2012-2021.
Gardner was also behind several successful Las Vegas residencies. In 2009, he launched and produced Donny & Marie featuring Donny and Marie Osmond at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas in association with Caesar’s Entertainment. He co-produced with Planet Hollywood, also in Las Vegas, the “Ringo Starr and His All-Star Band” residency shows. Once again with Caesar’s Entertainment, he produced “Paul Shaffer and the Shaff-Shifters” residency shows.
Gardner was active right up until his death. Projects in the works at the time of his death included a Blues Brothers primetime animated TV series in partnership with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi’s widow Judy Belushi (who died two weeks before Gardner, on July 5 at age 73); adapting the hit 1980 Blues Brothers movie as a Broadway musical; “Sharknado the Musical” in Las Vegas in partnership with Caesar’s Entertainment/Greg Young/The Asylum; a Hellraiser primetime TV series with former New World Entertainment chairman Larry Kuppin; and a feature film about Timothy Leary life’s story with HBO.
Gardner is survived by his wife, Janis, who is the co-owner of Panacea Entertainment, and three grown daughters, Cameron, Madeleine and Nathalie.
Tributes from across the live music industry have been paid to Chris York, one of the United Kingdom’s leading promoters and a director of SJM Concerts, following his death at age 55 following a long illness.
In a statement on Thursday (July 25), SJM Concerts said the company was “deeply saddened” to announce the passing of a man who “helped define the U.K.’s live music scene” over the past three decades.
York’s career in the live music industry began in the late 1980s when he started booking gigs at Warwick University, where he was a student.
After finishing his studies, York worked as a booker at London’s The Venue — putting on early shows by Pulp, Suede and PJ Harvey — before deepening his knowledge of the live business with roles at U.K. live promoters Straight Music and MCP Concerts.
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In 1993, York joined SJM Concerts, where he “formed a solid and unshakeable partnership and friendship” with the company’s founder, Simon Moran, that “would last the rest of his career,” the Manchester-based firm said in a statement.
Artists that York promoted during his three decades at SJM included Oasis, Foo Fighters, Green Day, The Chemical Brothers, Lily Allen, Massive Attack, Smashing Pumpkins, Underworld, Robert Plant, Underworld, Lorde, Morrissey, Lorde, Placebo, Kraftwerk, Swedish House Mafia, Suede and Stereophonics, among many others.
Oasis singer Liam Gallagher, The Doves, The Pogues, Stereophonics and Suede are among the many acts who posted tributes on social media.
“Chris York was a true unsung hero of the music world,” wrote The Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess on X, adding that the British group “are proud” to have called York a friend.
“You might not recognise the name but if you’re a London gig-goer then you’ll have been at one of the thousands of gigs [York] put on through SJM,” stated Suede’s bassist Mat Osman, who called York “a huge friend and supporter” of the group. “He put on Suede shows from the lowliest to the biggest and was a constant presence in our career,” he added.
Posting on X, U.K. indie rock group Shed Seven said it was “heartbroken” to hear of York’s death. The promoter “played a pivotal role in shaping our career from the very beginning, standing by us every step of the way,” said the band, who topped the U.K. albums charts earlier this year. Shed Seven went on to call York “a kind and inspirational man, a true gent, one of the good guys.”
Those sentiments were echoed by U.K. venue operator Academy Music Group, which called York “a force of nature, exceptional promoter, industry pioneer and above all, a genuine music fan and all-round lovely man.”
During his career, York also worked closely with The Who’s Roger Daltrey, live producer Des Murphy and fellow SJM director Rob Ballantine on establishing the annual Teenage Cancer Trust spring concert series at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Since its launch in 2006, the event has raised more than £30 million ($38 million) for charity with everyone from Ed Sheeran to New Order to Paul McCartney taking part.
In 2021, York was awarded the Jo Walker Meador International Award by the Country Music Association for his work on the Country to Country (C2C) Music festival, which SJM launched in 2013 in partnership with AEG Europe. The event has since become Europe’s biggest country music festival, taking place annually at London’s The O2 arena, Glasgow’s OVO Hydro and Belfast’s The SSE Arena.
“When he got involved at the start of C2C Chris really knew f— all about country. But to his credit he knew what he had to do and immersed himself in every aspect of it and soon became a go-to oracle on country, which he always maintained,” Steve Homer, CEO of AEG Presents U.K., tells Billboard. “He has left a big hole in the live music industry and I’m not sure it will ever be filled.”
“Chris was so loved by the business as you can see from the tributes that are flooding in for him from far and wide,” Emma Banks, co-head of global touring at Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and a close friend of York, tells Billboard.
“I am going to miss working with him. I am going to miss his wisdom. I am going to miss chatting with him about pretty much everything and having a laugh with him,” Banks adds. “My thoughts are with Alice, his family, friends and the team at SJM.”
Also paying tribute was Live Nation U.K. and Ireland chairman Denis Desmond, who said York was “a fighter to the end. His legacy will live on.”
John Mayall, the British blues musician whose influential band the Bluesbreakers was a training ground for Eric Clapton, Mick Fleetwood and many other superstars, has died. He was 90.
A statement on Mayall’s Instagram page announced his death Tuesday (July 23), saying the musician died Monday at his home in California. “Health issues that forced John to end his epic touring career have finally led to peace for one of this world’s greatest road warriors,” the post said.
He is credited with helping develop the English take on urban, Chicago-style rhythm and blues that played an important role in the blues revival of the late 1960s. At various times, the Bluesbreakers included Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce, later of Cream; Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac; Mick Taylor, who played five years with the Rolling Stones; Harvey Mandel and Larry Taylor of Canned Heat; and Jon Mark and John Almond, who went on to form the Mark-Almond Band.
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Mayall protested in interviews that he was not a talent scout, but played for the love of the music he had first heard on his father’s 78-rpm records.
“I’m a band leader and I know what I want to play in my band — who can be good friends of mine,” Mayall said in an interview with the Southern Vermont Review. “It’s definitely a family. It’s a small kind of thing really.”
A small but enduring thing. Though Mayall never approached the fame of some of his illustrious alumni, he was still performing in his late 80s, pounding out his version of Chicago blues. The lack of recognition rankled a bit, and he wasn’t shy about saying so.
“I’ve never had a hit record, I never won a Grammy Award, and Rolling Stone has never done a piece about me,” he said in an interview with the Santa Barbara Independent in 2013. “I’m still an underground performer.”
Known for his blues harmonica and keyboard playing, Mayall had a Grammy nomination, for “Wake Up Call” which featured guest artists Buddy Guy, Mavis Staples, Mick Taylor and Albert Collins. He received a second nomination in 2022 for his album The Sun Is Shining Down. He also won official recognition in Britain with the award of an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 2005.
He was selected for the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame class and his 1966 album Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton is considered one of the best British blues albums.
Mayall once was asked if he kept playing to meet a demand, or simply to show he could still do it.
“Well, the demand is there, fortunately. But it’s really for neither of those two things, it’s just for the love of the music,” he said in an interview with Hawaii Public Radio. “I just get together with these guys and we have a workout.”
Mayall was born on Nov. 29, 1933 in Macclesfield, near Manchester in central England.
Sounding a note of the hard-luck bluesman, Mayall once said, “The only reason I was born in Macclesfield was because my father was a drinker, and that’s where his favorite pub was.”
His father also played guitar and banjo, and his records of boogie-woogie piano captivated his teenage son.
Mayall said he learned to play the piano one hand at a time — a year on the left hand, a year on the right, “so I wouldn’t get all tangled up.”
The piano was his main instrument, though he also performed on guitar and harmonica, as well as singing in a distinctive, strained-sounding voice. Aided only by drummer Keef Hartley, Mayall played all the other instruments for his 1967 album Blues Alone.
Mayall was often called the “father of British blues,” but when he moved to London in 1962 his aim was to soak up the nascent blues scene led by Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Eric Burdon were among others drawn to the sound.
The Bluesbreakers drew on a fluid community of musicians who drifted in and out of various bands. Mayall’s biggest catch was Clapton, who had quit the Yardbirds and joined he Bluesbreakers in 1965 because he was unhappy with the Yardbirds’ commercial direction.
Mayall and Clapton shared a passion for Chicago blues, and the guitarist later remembered that Mayall had “the most incredible collection of records I had ever seen.”
Mayall tolerated Clapton’s waywardness: He disappeared a few months after joining the band, then reappeared later the same year, sidelining the newly arrived Peter Green, then left for good in 1966 with Bruce to form Cream, which rocketed to commercial success, leaving Mayall far behind.
Clapton, interviewed for a BBC documentary on Mayall in 2003, confessed that “to a certain extent I have used his hospitality, used his band and his reputation to launch my own career,”
“I think he is a great musician. I just admire and respect his steadfastness,” Clapton added.
Mayall encouraged Clapton to sing and urged Green to develop his song-writing abilities.
Mick Taylor, who succeeded Green as a Bluesbreaker in the late 1960s, valued the wide latitude which Mayall allowed his soloists.
“You’d have complete freedom to do whatever you wanted,” Taylor said in a 1979 interview with writer Jas Obrecht. “You could make as many mistakes as you wanted, too.”
Mayall’s 1968 album Blues From Laurel Canyon signaled a permanent move to the United States and a change in direction. He disbanded the Bluesbreakers and worked with two guitars and drums.
The following year he released The Turning Point, arguably his most successful release, with an atypical four-man acoustic lineup including Mark and Almond. “Room to Move,” a song from that album, was a frequent audience favorite in Mayall’s later career.
The 1970s found Mayall at low ebb personally, but still touring and doing more than 100 shows a year.
“Throughout the ’70s, I performed most of my shows drunk,” Mayall said in an interview with Dan Ouellette for Down Beat magazine in 1990. One consequence was an attempt to jump from a balcony into a swimming pool that missed — shattering one of Mayall’s heels and leaving him with a limp.
“That was one incident that got me to stop drinking,” Mayall said.
In 1982, he reformed the Bluesbreakers, recruiting Taylor and McVie, but after two years the personnel changed again. In 2008, Mayall announced that he was permanently retiring the Bluesbreaker name, and in 2013 he was leading the John Mayall Band.
Mayall and his second wife, Maggie, divorced in 2011 after 30 years of marriage. They had two sons.
Jerry Fuller, who wrote and/or produced hits that spanned decades and genres, died of lung cancer on Thursday (July 18) at his home in Sherman Oaks, Calif. He was 85.
Fuller wrote two songs that reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100: Ricky Nelson’s “Travelin’ Man” in 1961 and Al Wilson’s “Show and Tell” in 1974. He also produced the latter song, which in addition to topping the Hot 100 reached No. 10 on what was then known as Billboard‘s Best Selling Soul Singles.
He also wrote Nelson’s “A Wonder Like You,” his follow-up to “Travelin’ Man,” which reached No. 11 on the Hot 100, as well as two subsequent Nelson singles that went top 10: “Young World” (No. 5) and “It’s Up to You” (No. 6).
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Fuller had another solid run of hits in 1968 with Gary Puckett & the Union Gap. He wrote the group’s punchy pop hits “Young Girl” and “Lady Willpower,” which spent a combined five weeks at No. 2 on the Hot 100, and the mellower, adult contemporary-oriented “Over You,” which reached No. 7. All three of those singles went gold.
“What can I say about a guy whose vision defined my musical identity and destiny,” Puckett said in a statement in the wake of Fuller’s death. “What can ANYONE say about a man who gave SO much to SO many through his talents and efforts in the world of music. Thank you, Jerry! The world was a better place with you in it.”
Fuller was born in Fort Worth, Texas on Nov. 19, 1938, and moved to Los Angeles in early 1959. In 1960, while touring with The Champs (best known for their 1958 smash “Tequila”), Fuller got to know Glen Campbell, who remained a lifelong friend.
Early in his career, Fuller worked as a demo singer, which led to a recording and songwriting contract with Gene Autry’s Four Star Music and Challenge Records.
Fuller had four Hot 100 hits as an artist from 1959-61, the highest-charting of which (a rockabilly cover version of the standard “Tennessee Waltz”) reached No. 61. But he had far more success working with other artists. He originally wrote “Travelin’ Man” for Sam Cooke — it has the pop flavor of such Cooke hits of the period as “Only Sixteen,” “Wonderful World” and Cupid” — but it made its way to Nelson instead.
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Fuller was unique among writer/producers in that he also produced songs he didn’t write, including O.C. Smith’s recording of Bobby Russell’s “Little Green Apples,” which reached No. 2 on both the Hot 100 and Billboard‘s Best Selling Rhythm & Blues Singles (as the chart was then known) in 1968.
He also produced but did not write Gary Puckett & the Union Gap’s breakthrough hit “Woman, Woman” (which was written by Jim Glaser and Jimmy Payne); Mark Lindsay’s solo hits “Arizona” and “Silver Bird” (which were written by Kenny Young, the latter in tandem with Artie Butler); and The Knickerbockers’ 1965 hit “Lies” (which was written by Beau Charles and Buddy Randell).
The power-pop hit “Lies,” which has the energy of Beatles hits of the era, also underscores Fuller’s range. From power-pop to ballads; from pop/soul to country, his hits defied easy categorization.
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In the early ’90s, Fuller co-produced (with John Hobbs) Collin Raye’s “Love, Me,” which topped Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs for three weeks in early 1992. The song brought Raye, Fuller and Hobbs a nomination for single of the year at the 1991 CMA Awards.
Elsewhere, Fuller also wrote numerous country hits for Ray Price, including “That’s All She Wrote,” “To Make a Long Story Short” and “Feet.”
In the 1970s, Fuller formed his own companies, Moonchild Productions In. and Fullness Music Company.
Fuller was never personally nominated for a Grammy, though some of the records he worked on were. And, somewhat surprisingly, he was not inducted into either the Songwriters Hall of Fame or the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. But he wrote and/or produced many songs that are fondly remembered.
Fuller is survived by his wife, the former Annette Smerigan, and their two children, Adam Lee and Anna Nicole.
Abdul Kareem “Duke” Fakir, the last of the original Four Tops and a stalwart of Motown’s golden age, has died at age 88.
Fakir’s family announced the singer’s death on Monday afternoon (July 22), noting that “our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of a trailblazer, icon and music legend who, through his 70-year music career, touched the lives of so many.”
Fakir, who co-founded The Four Tops in 1953, had been in poor health, most recently fighting bladder cancer, and had retired from touring late last year. He was, according to the family, “surrounded by his loved ones” at his home in the Detroit area. An associate told Billboard that on Sunday he was “happy, talking and interacting, and when they turned to do something and turned back around, he had slipped away.”
With his glasses and angular frame, Fakir was arguably the most recognizable of The Tops and maintained his leadership in the group following the deaths of Levi Stubbs in 2008, Renaldo “Obie” Benson in 2005 and Lawrence Payton in 1997 (his son Lawrence Payton Jr. is part of the current lineup).
“I am probably as surprised as you are at the longevity,” Fakir said during 2022 while promoting his memoir I’ll Be There: My Life With The Four Tops. “It’s unbelievable. I never would’ve thought that while I was in my 80s I’d even be thinking about doing this, let alone still doing it. I feel nothing but blessed, man. Just blessed.”
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Fakir was born in Detroit on Dec. 26, 1935; his father was a factory worker who’d come over from what is now Bangladesh. He played football, basketball and ran track in high school, meeting Stubbs through neighborhood football games; the two began singing after separately attending a variety show, eventually recruiting Payton and Benson to form the group, first called The Aims but later changed to avoid confusion with the Ames Brothers.
The Four Tops recorded without success for several labels — including Chess, Red Top, Riverside and Columbia — and supported Billy Eckstine before signing with Motown in 1963. The group started out recording standards for the label’s Workshop Jazz Records imprint, but when the songwriting/production team of Holland-Dozier Holland gave The Tops “Baby I Need Your Loving” in mid-1964, it hit No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, which opened the floodgates for a string of hits that included “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch),” “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” “Standing in the Shadows of Love” and “It’s the Same Old Song.”
“We were so fortunate in a lot of things we did,” explained Fakir, who was engaged to The Supremes’ Mary Wilson during the mid-’60s but called it off due to their individual career demands. “The love we shared between the four of us was kind of rare for four really kind of street guys from the north of Detroit, to come together with that kind of love. But music does a lot of things to you. It created a lot of love that we had, especially between ourselves.
“I didn’t know how much I would love the audience and the people. Just being on stage changed my whole life and my perspective. I look at the world a whole different way than I did when I was a young guy. It’s a beautiful world, and it just needs a little push towards love and togetherness.”
The Tops had several stints with Motown, and away from that company it also had hits with “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got),” “Are You Man Enough” and “When She Was My Girl.” The Tops were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999. Fakir accepted a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of the band in 2009. “Reach Out I’ll Be There” was added to the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry in 2022.
“They’re just a tremendous group, one of the best,” Otis Williams of friendly “rivals” The Temptations said when the groups performed together a few years ago. “You look how long the original four stayed together like they did, and it’s so rare and special. I always marveled at it.” Like Fakir, Williams is the only remaining founding member of The Temptations, a role he said the two would speak about.
“These groups are our lives, you know?” Williams said. “I know Duke will be a Four Top until he can’t do it anymore. We both feel a responsibility to keep our [groups] going and keep the music out there for people to hear.”
In addition to the memoir, Fakir was also working on a stage musical based on The Four Tops’ story.
Fakir is survived by his wife, Piper; daughter Farrah Fakir Cook; sons Nazim Bashir Fakir, Abdul Kareem Fakir Jr., Myke Fakir, Anthony Fakir and Malik Robinson; 13 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren. Funeral arrangements for Fakir are currently pending.
Jerry Miller, one of the music world’s most beloved and admired guitarists and co-founder of Moby Grape, died on Sunday (July 21) in his Tacoma, Wash., home. He was 81 years old.
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The news was shared via a Moby Grape Facebook fan page, according to Variety. “Sadly, Jerry Miller passed away last night,” said the fan page post. “Jo and the family are asking for everyone to please give them some privacy and respect, and Jo asked that people cease phone calls for the time being. Thank you.”
In a follow-up post, a text from Miller’s wife, Jo, was shared to the group: “Everybody flood the ether with Jerry Miller’s music. Play it all day long for me and him. And thank you all so much.” His cause of death has yet to be revealed.
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Miller was born in Tacoma, Wash., in 1943 and grew up playing in various local bands including the Elegants, the Incredible Kingsmen and the Frantics. When he was just 23 years old, he co-founded Moby Grape as the lead guitarist alongside Skip Spence (guitar), Bob Mosley (bass), Don Stevenson (Drums) and Peter Lewis (guitar). The band name, chosen by Mosley and Spence, was inspired by the punch line of the joke: “What’s big and purple and lives in the ocean?”
The group signed with Columbia Records and recorded four albums for the label between 1967 and 1969 — their self-titled debut in 1967, 1968’s Wow/Grape Jam, 1969’s Moby Grape ’69 and 1969’s Truly Fine Citizen. Moby Grape disbanded in 1970, but regrouped in 1971 and have played and recorded music with various members throughout the years since.
Miller’s guitar skills were beloved in the instrumentalist community, with Robert Plant citing the star as an influence for Led Zeppelin and Eric Clapton naming him the “best guitar player in the world.”
Evelyn Thomas, the powerhouse vocalist who helped define the hi-NRG dance music scene of the 1980s with her international hit “High Energy,” has died at the age of 70. The news was confirmed by her longtime producer and mentor Ian Levine on social media. No cause of death was disclosed.
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“It is hard for me to accept that my lifelong protege really has left us,” Levine wrote on X. “Her music will outlive us all.”
Born on Aug. 22, 1953, in Chicago, Thomas first caught the attention of the music industry when Levine discovered her in 1975.
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Her debut single “Weak Spot” became her first chart success, peaking at No. 26 on the U.K. Singles Chart in 1976. The early triumph led to an appearance on the influential British music show Top of the Pops, marking the beginning of her ascent in the music world.
Thomas’s career exploded with the release of “High Energy” in 1984. The track topped the Billboard Hot Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart for one week and reached No. 85 on the Billboard Hot 100. Co-written and co-produced by Levine and Fiachra Trench, it became a defining moment in the emerging hi-NRG genre, a high-tempo offshoot of disco that dominated clubs in the mid-1980s.
“Nobody else in the world could have ever sung it,” Levine noted about vocal prowess. The pulsating dance anthem achieved remarkable commercial success, selling an impressive seven million records worldwide. As of 2024, “High Energy” continues to resonate with listeners, boasting over 15 million streams on Spotify.
Thomas’s powerful four-octave range and emotive delivery set her apart in the dance music scene. DJ and music historian Bill Brewster commented, “Evelyn’s voice had this incredible ability to convey both vulnerability and strength. She was a cornerstone of the hi-NRG movement.”
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Following the success of “High Energy,” Thomas continued to make her presence felt on the charts.
Her soulful rendition of The Supremes’ “Reflections” climbed to No. 18 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in 1985, while “How Many Hearts” ascended to No. 11 in 1986. Both tracks were featured on her final studio album, Standing at the Crossroads (1986).
Thomas’s discography includes notable albums such as I Wanna Make It on My Own (1978) and High Energy (1984).
Levine revealed that Thomas had reached out to him “in love” in recent months, aware of her declining health. The reconciliation led Levine and Trench to compose a final song for her titled “Inspirational,” though Thomas was ultimately too ill to record it.
Her daughter, recording artist YaYa Diamond (born Kimberly), intends to record the track as a heartfelt tribute to her mother’s legacy.
Watch “High Energy” by Evelyn Thomas below.
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