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Mike Peters, the lead singer of Welsh rock band The Alarm died on Tuesday (April 29) at age 66 following a decades-long battle with cancer. The death of the author of such strident 1980s alt rock anthems as “Blaze of Glory,” “Spirit of ’76,” “Sixty Eight Guns” and “The Stand” was confirmed in a statement from the group’s publicist titled “Totally Free.”
As the lone remaining original member of the punk-turned-rootsy rock group formed in Rhyl, Wales in 1977 (originally known as The Toilets) Peters continued to tour and release music during a three-decade battle with several forms of cancer, putting himself up as an indefatigable advocate for blood cancer patients.
Last April, before launching a 50-date U.S. tour, he was diagnosed with Richter’s Syndrome, an aggressive form of lymphoma. According to the release, even after extensive treatment at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester, U.K., including experimental therapies, doctors could not halt the cancer’s progress.
Michael Leslie Peters was born in Wales on Feb. 25, 1959 and logged time in early Hairy Hippie and The Toilets, forming the latter after being inspired by a Sex Pistols show he attended in 1976. Teaming up with childhood friend and bassist Eddie McDonald, as well as drummer Nigel Twist and guitarist Dave Sharp — initially as Seventeen — the group gelled as The Alarm in 1981, when they were signed to Miles Copeland’s IRS Records, the early indie rock home of groups including R.E.M., The Go-Go’s, Fine Young Cannibals, Wall of Voodoo and many more.
They got a crucial break when U2’s agent saw them live and invited the band to open for the then-ascending Irish group in December 1981. Their sound — a mix of acoustic roots rock, new wave balladry and howling, uplifting anthems — began to gain traction as they supported U2 on that band’s 1983 War tour.
The hard road work paid off on the Alarm’s 1984 debut album, Declaration, which spotlighted Peters’ sensitive, heartfelt lyrics on tracks including the opening salvo, “Marching On.” The anthem for youth found him wailing, “These are the kids they’re powerless/ So you tell them so/ These are the kids they’re powerful/ Don’t say you haven’t been told.”
Setting the tone for the next two decades, the album also featured such fist-in-the-air shout-along hymns to fortitude and fight as “Where Were You Hiding When the Storm Broke?,” “We Are the Light,” “Blaze of Glory” (not to be confused with the Bon Jovi song of the same name) and one of the Alarm’s most beloved calls to arms: “Sixty Eight Guns.”
The song mixed a jaunty rockabilly-meets-mariachi horns sound with another one of Peters’ rallying cries for misunderstood youth, in this case inspired by a late1960sGlasgow street gang who went by the song’s title. “They’re after you with their promises/ Promises of love/ They’re after you to sign your life away,” Peters sings in his signature urgent, raspy yowl. “Sixty-eight guns will never die/ Sixty-eight guns our battle cry/ Sixty-eight guns,” he adds on the chorus.
The group expanded their sound on 1985’s sophomore effort, Strength, which added some churchy organs to the title track and added a handful of other classics to their live repertoire, including the synth-speckled “Knife Edge” and yet another heart-pumping call to arms, the harmonica and piano painted homage to the band’s early origins, “Spirit of ’76.”
They would release three more albums during their initial run, including 1987’s Eye of the Hurricane — featuring their signature ballad, “Rain in the Summertime” — as well as 1989’s Tony Visconti-produced Change, which got them their first and only Billboard Hot 100 top 50 hit with “Sold Me Down the River” (No. 50). That album also represented one of the group’s chart peaks in America, topping out at No. 75 on the Billboard 200 album chart; Strength hit No. 39 in February 1986 and Declaration ran up to No. 50 in April of 1984.
Among their other Hot 100 charting singles were “Strength” (No. 61), “Rain in the Summertime” (No. 71) and “Presence of Love” (No. 77).
After the release of their fifth, and final, LP by the original lineup, 1991’s Raw, the band split up and got back together just one more time, for an episode of VH1’s Bands Reunited, in October 2003. Peters continued his musical march with the Poets of Justice band featuring his wife, Jules Peters, on keyboards, as well as releasing his first solo album, Breathe, in 1994, one year before his first cancer diagnosis.
Peters was diagnosed with non Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1995, battling that form of cancer, as well as later being twice diagnosed with lymphocytic leukemia in 2005 and 2015. Taking on the disease with the same vigor that fed his songs, Peters co-founded the music-driven charity Love Hope Strength with his wife Jules — who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016 — as a means to raise awareness around stem cell donation. The organization’s “Get on the List” campaign at his shows helped add more than 250,000 people to the global stem cell registry.
The singer also kept a sparkle in his eye amidst his health battles, releasing an album by his hoax teen group The Poppy Fields, in 2004, scoring a hit on British radio with the blitzing “45 R.P.M.” Though the song clearly featured Peters’ signature vocals, at the time he said the masked effort was an attempt to shake-up the media’s perception of the by-then 20-plus year old band by concealing their identities and enlisting a group of younger musicians in the band the Wayriders to pose as the veteran act.
In addition to solo singles and albums, Peters, who shared the stage with icons including Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan over the years, performed with the indie/new wave supergroup Dead Men Walking with members of The Mighty Wah!, The Damned and the Sex Pistols and briefly joined on as the lead singer of Scottish band Big Country in 2011 following the death of singer Stuart Adamson.
In addition to touring, Peters performed the “highest show ever” on Mt. Everest in 2007, where he was joined by some other 1980s new wave legends, including Cy Curnin and Jamie West of The Fixx, Glen Tillbrook of Squeeze and Slim Jim Phantom of the Stray Cats for a show to raise cancer awareness. A tireless advocate for cancer awareness, Peters shared his stories with his fans and encouraged them to join him on mountain-climbing treks to Mount Kilimanjaro and the Himalayas and released a documentary in 2018 on the BBC about Jules’ cancer battle, While We Still Have Time.
Peters posted from his hospital room in January, his signature shock of long blonde hair shaved down to a slim mohawk, as he shared a new song, “Chimera,” which he said celebrated his receipt of his CAR-T cell therapy on what he called his “new birthday.” Peters booked a series of shows in June of this year in Wales, dubbed “The Alarm Transformation Weekends,” in advance of the upcoming release of his final album, Transformation. He also completed the second volume of his memoirs, Volume 2 HOPE – 1991-2005.
Check out some of The Alarm’s most beloved hits below.
Jiggly Caliente, who rose to fame on season four of RuPaul’s Drag Race, has died at 44.
Caliente, whose real name was Bianca Castro, passed away on Sunday (April 27), just days after undergoing a leg amputation following a severe infection. Her family announced the sad news in a post on Instagram.
“It is with profound sorrow that we announce the passing of Bianca Castro-Arabejo, known to the world and cherished by many as Jiggly Caliente,” the statement read. “Bianca passed away peacefully on April 27, 2025, at 4:42 am, surrounded by her loving family and close friends.”
“A luminous presence in the worlds of entertainment and advocacy, Jiggly Caliente was celebrated for her infectious energy, fierce wit, and unwavering authenticity. She touched countless lives through her artistry, activism, and the genuine connection she fostered with fans around the world.”
The family continued, “Her legacy is one of love, courage, and light. Though her physical presence is gone, the joy she shared and the space she helped create for so many will remain forever. She will be deeply missed, always loved, and eternally remembered.”
News of her passing follows an earlier family update shared on April 24, in which they revealed that Caliente had suffered “a serious health setback” and had undergone the amputation of most of her right leg due to a “severe infection.”
At the time, they noted that she would be unable to participate in the upcoming season of Drag Race Philippines or any public engagements as her recovery was expected to be extensive.
“At this time, we kindly ask for privacy for Bianca and her family as they navigate this difficult journey together,” the earlier statement read. “While Jiggly concentrates on healing, we invite her friends, fans, and community to uplift her with messages of hope and love on her social media channels. Bianca’s family and drag house are deeply grateful for the continued outpouring of support, strength and prayers.”
Caliente first gained attention with her run on RuPaul’s Drag Race season four, where she finished in eighth place. She later returned to the franchise for All Stars season six and joined Drag Race Philippines as a recurring judge in 2022.
Caliente also portrayed Veronica Ferocity in FX’s hit series Pose, appearing in 12 episodes over the show’s three-season run.
Read her family’s full statement on Instagram below.
David Thomas, the howling lead singer of long-running Cleveland-bred post-punk rockers Pere Ubu has died at 71. The band announced the news on its Facebook page on Wednesday (April 23), revealing that the leader of the group — as well as their equally noisesome precursor, Rocket From the Tombs — had died after an unspecified “long illness.”
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The tribute added, “On Wednesday, April 23 2025, he died in his home town of Brighton & Hove [in the U.K.], with his wife and youngest step-daughter by his side. MC5 were playing on the radio. He will ultimately be returned to his home, the farm in Pennsylvania, where he insisted he was to be ‘thrown in the barn.’”
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The group noted that Thomas had been working on a new album with his band, aware that it would be his last. “We will endeavour to continue with mixing and finalising the new album so that his last music is available to all. Aside from that, he left instruction that the work should continue to catalog all the tapes from live shows via the official bandcamp page,” they said, adding that the singer’s autobiography was “nearly completed” and that they will finish it for him. They ended with a quote from Thomas, which they said, “sums up who he was better than we can”: “My name is David F–king Thomas… and I’m the lead singer of the best f–king rock n roll band in the world.”
David Lynn Thomas was born in Miami on June 14, 1953 and began his career in rock as the lead singer of the short-lived proto-punk Cleveland band Rocket From the Tombs after a stint writing for the Cleveland Scene alternative weekly newspaper under a variety of aliases, including Crocus Behemoth. Though they reveled in obscurity during their original one-year run from 1974-1975, and never released an album, the band’s distorted, frenzied sound — inspired by Detroit punk godfathers the MC5 and The Stooges — was a precursor to the worldwide punk revolution that exploded in the U.S. and U.K. in the mid-1970s.
After the band’s split, two members, guitarist Gene “Cheetah Chrome” O’Connor and drummer Johnny “Johnny Biltz” Madansky, went on to form legendarily shambolic Cleveland punk band the Dead Boys. Thomas and guitarist Peter Laughner teamed up to launch the artier, spikier Pere Ubu, whose name wast a riff on the outré 19th century French play Ubu Roi.
The avant garde group inspired by the sound collage techniques of musique concrète released its debut single, “30 Seconds Over Tokyo” in late 1975 on Thomas’ indie label, Hearthan Records. After a handful of follow-up singles, their debut album, The Modern Dance, dropped in 1978, signaling a purposeful deep-dive into the noise pool from jump on album-opener “Non-Alignment Pact,” which begins with 20 seconds of ear-piercing tones. During a period when such soft rock air bubbles as Terry Jacks’ “Seasons in the Sun” and America’s “Tin Man” were topping the charts, Thomas’ unhinged howl and saxophone/keyboard player Allen Ravenstine’s free jazz strangulated stabs and otherworldly synth tones were an astringent antidote to mainstream AM radio fluff.
With a three-guitar attack combined with Thomas’ yelping vocals and his very un-punk like insistence on wearing suit jackets and a tie on stage, the band cranked out a series of influential, though little-heard-at-the-time albums over the next four years. The LPs included 1978’s classic, Dub Housing and 1979’s New Picnic Time, experimental, chalkboard-scratching noise bombs that helped inspire future acolytes from Sonic Youth to the Pixies and Gang of Four. With a constantly rotating group of players surrounding Thomas — co-founder Laugher left after the band’s first few singles and died in 1977 of pancreatic cancer — the band released three more albums, 1979’s New Picnic Time, 1980’s The Art of Walking and 1982’s Song of a Bailing Man before breaking up.
Thomas continued his experimental journey on a series of solo albums with his bands the Pedestrians and and Wooden Birds in the 1980s, before reforming Pere Ubu in 1987 for the recording of The Tenement Year, which leaned in a distinctly more pop direction (at least compared to the band’s earlier work), followed by 1989s’s Cloudland. Pere Ubu continued into the 1990s and early 2000s, releasing a string of albums including 1995’s Ray Gun Suitcase, 2002 St. Arkansas and their 19th, and final, studio effort, 2023’s Trouble on Big Beat Street.
In between Pere Ubu projects, Smith stayed busy with solo albums, Rocket From the Tombs reunions and experimental theater projects.
Check out some of Smith’s joyful noise below.
Roy Thomas Baker — the producer behind some of rock’s biggest hits, including Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” — has died at age 78, his family announced Tuesday (April 22).
Baker died at his home in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, on April 12. No cause of death has been revealed.
The producer’s credits feature a who’s who of rock stars over the past half-century, including Journey, Yes, Foreigner, The Cars, Alice Cooper, Cheap Trick, Devo, Mötley Crüe, Guns N’ Roses and Smashing Pumpkins. Baker worked with Queen on five of the band’s 1970s albums, including on their bombastic A Night at the Opera lead single “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which is reportedly the most-streamed song recorded in the 20th century. The 1975 single debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1976 but didn’t hit its No. 2 peak on the chart until its inclusion in the film Wayne’s World in 1992.
Born in Hampstead, London, in 1946, Baker’s career began as second engineer to Gus Dudgeon and Tony Visconti at London’s Decca Records. He graduated to chief engineer in the ’70s and moved to Trident Studios to begin working with the then-unknown Queen. Columbia Records later asked him to relocate to the U.S. to work with Journey and others.
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“We did [1978 album] Infinity with the infamous Roy Thomas Baker,” recalled Journey’s Neal Schon, “and we did so many different things on that record that I’d never tried, or even thought about doing. I learned a lot from Roy.”
Elektra Records, Queen’s U.S. label, connected Baker with Lindsey Buckingham, Dokken and The Cars — for whom he produced their first four albums, from 1978 to 1981.
Baker is survived by his wife, Tere Livrano Baker, and his brother, Alan Baker.
Dominic “Mick” Mazzone OAM, a revered Australian music industry veteran, has passed away, his family has confirmed.
“The family of Mick Mazzone would like to announce the sudden and sad passing of our beloved dad, brother and uncle,” a statement issued on the afternoon of Thursday, April 17 read. “A stalwart of his family, he was surrounded by his loved ones in his last days.
“He will be remembered by many in the Australian music industry, which he worked in and loved for over four decades and deeply missed by his countless friends,” it continued. “We appreciate all the love and support shown to us. His legacy will live on.”
Mazzone grew up in Torrensville, a suburb of the South Australian capital of Adelaide, where he learnt to play the guitar as a young teenager. Performing in a number of local bands, he relocated to Sydney to embark on a career in the music business. Initially working with the Brenton Roberts Band (who were under the managerial guidance of veteran promoter Michael Chugg), Mazzone soon became regarded as an “industry all-rounder” for his versatility in the fields of sound engineering, production, and tour management.
Mighty Management was established by Mazzone where he oversaw names such as Cold Chisel guitarist Ian Moss and Sydney rockers The Radiators. Mazzone also extended his focus into the world of labels, with M Records featuring The Radiators alongside hard rock outfit De Mont, who were also part of the Mighty roster.
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Working on tours for the likes of Madonna, Billy Joel, Bon Jovi, and R.E.M during their time in Australia, Mazzone later served as founding member of the Music Managers Forum, and would become a founder and trustee of the industry charity the Golden Stave Foundation. In 2018, Mazzone received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in recognition of his contributions to the industry and his charitable endeavors.
In February 2024, Mazzone adopted the role of manager for ARIA Hall of Famers the Hoodoo Gurus, who topped the Alternative Airplay chart in 1989 with “Come Anytime,” and hit No. 3 in 1991 with “Miss Freelove ’69.” Mazzone’s promotion to the top job came after longtime manager Michael McMartin stepped down from the role, ultimately passing the following month.
In the wake of his passing, the Hoodoo Gurus shared a statement remembering Mazzone, noting they were “utterly devastated at the sudden loss of our dear friend.”
“It is impossible to convey the shock and grief we are feeling right now,” they wrote. “We have already shed many tears, and there will be many more to come, but our loss is nothing compared to the one that has been dealt to Mick’s close family and friends and, in particular, to his beloved kids, Frank, Antonia and Alex. Our hearts go out to them at this dreadful time.”
The Radiators also offered their condolences to Mazzone and his family, naming him one of their “great friends” and noting his “fantastic ear” and sharp managerial mindset.
“Mick holds a special place in our hearts, and we will forever be grateful for his time spent guiding and mentoring the Rads when we were at a low point in our career,” the band wrote. “His management helped lift us up, and without his strong, sure and steady hand, we as a band may not have been able to navigate the ‘90s.
“He will be sadly missed by so many people in the industry,” they concluded. “He was an incredible human. A quiet genius. Gone way way too soon. The world is a poorer place today, for the loss of one Mick Mazzone.”
For the past 25 years, Mazzone also served as the Technical Director and Production Manager for the annual APRA, Art and Screen Music Awards, held by copyright management organizations APRA AMCOS (Australasian Performing Right Association and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society).
“Mick’s warmth and sense of humour were legendary among those who had the pleasure of knowing him, like we did,” said APRA Chair Jenny Morris in a statement. “His genuine kindness made everyone feel welcome and valued, creating lasting memories for all who crossed his path. His contributions to the music industry and community will be deeply missed.”
Wink Martindale, who had success as a DJ, radio personality, game show host and TV producer, died in Rancho Mirage, California, on Tuesday (April 15). He was 91.
Martindale was best-known for hosting Gambit from 1972 to 1976 (and again from 1980 to 1981), Tic-Tac-Dough from 1978 to 1985, High Rollers from 1987 to 1988 and Debt from 1996 to 1998.
He also had a short-lived career as a recording artist. His spoken-word hit “Deck of Cards” reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959. The song had been a No. 2 hit for “T” Texas Tyler in 1948 on Billboard’s Best-Selling Retail Folk Records chart, a forerunner to Hot Country Songs.
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Martindale landed just one other Hot 100 hit, “Black Land Farmer,” which reached No. 85 in 1961.
The future broadcaster was born Winston Conrad Martindale in Jackson, Tennessee. He began his career as a DJ at age 17 at WPLI in Jackson, earning $25 a week. After moving to WTJS, he was hired away for double the salary by Jackson’s only other station, WDXI. He next hosted mornings at WHBQ in Memphis while attending college at Memphis State University.
In 1959, he became morning man at KHJ in Los Angeles, moving a year later to the morning show at KRLA and finally to KFWB in 1962. He was a regular presence on Los Angeles radio into the 1990s. He had lengthy stays at KGIL (AM) from 1968 to 1971, KKGO-FM/KJQI and Gene Autry‘s KMPC (now KSPN-AM) from 1971 to 1979 and again from 1983 to 1987, a brief stint on KABC during 1989, and KJQI from 1993 to 1994.
Martindale’s first break into television was at WHBQ-TV in Memphis, as the host of Mars Patrol, a children’s series. While at that station, Martindale became the host of the TV show Teenage Dance Party, where Elvis Presley (who would become a friend) made an appearance in June 1956.
Martindale’s first game-show hosting job was What’s This Song?, which he hosted for NBC (credited as “Win Martindale”) in 1964-65. In 1970-71, he hosted a similar song-recognition game show, Words and Music, again on NBC.
While Martindale’s greatest claim to fame is as a game-show host, he periodically returned to music programming. Martin filled in as guest host for Casey Kasem on American Top 40 in October 1975.
In the 2000s, Martindale had a daily three-hour show on the syndicated Music of Your Life format. In 2012, Martindale hosted the nationally-syndicated The 100 Greatest Christmas Hits of All Time.
On June 6, 2021, Martindale began hosting the syndicated The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll, a two-hour weekend review of music from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The production was created by Martindale, producer/engineer Peter Jay Gould of The Intervale Group, and writer/producer Gary Theroux.
Martindale was one of the hosts featured in the 2002 NBC special Most Outrageous Game Show Moments, alongside four other game show mainstays – Bob Eubanks, Jim Lange, Ben Stein, and Peter Marshall.
Martindale’s last program was the GSN original series Instant Recall, which premiered on March 4, 2010.
On June 2, 2006, Martindale received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It is located at 7018 Hollywood Boulevard, adjacent to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel – site of the first Academy Awards ceremony. On Oct. 13, 2007, Martindale was one of the first inductees into the American TV Game Show Hall of Fame in Las Vegas.
Martindale married Madelyn Leech in 1954, with whom he had four children; the couple divorced in 1972. He married his second wife, Sandy (née Ferra), on Aug. 2, 1975.
Former Judas Priest drummer Les Binks, who held the spot in the metal band’s lineup for a few crucial years in the late 1970s, had died at 73.
The group members announced their bandmate’s death on Tuesday morning (April 15), writing on Instagram, “We are deeply saddened about the passing of Les and send our love to his family, friends and fans. The acclaimed drumming he provided was first class – demonstrating his unique techniques, flair, style and precision – Thank you Les – your acclaim will live on…..”
Born in Portadown, Northern Ireland, on Aug. 8, 1951, Binks (born James Leslie Binks), spent time drumming with Eric Burdon and the Animals and War, as well as the pop group Fancy before joining Judas Priest in 1977. The band formed in Birmingham, England, in 1969 and fronted by leather-loving singer Rob Halford released its debut album, Rocka Rolla, in 1974, followed by 1996’s Sad Wings of Destiny.
Binks made his first appearance with group in time for 1977’s Sin After Sin, the band’s major label debut. The sessions saw the exit of early drummer Alan Moore, who was replaced by Simon Phillips for the recording. But, with Moore unavailable to tour, Binks was tapped to hit the road with the band after bringing his signature double-bass barrage to the bonus track cover of The Gun’s “Race With the Devil.”
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The drummer made his biggest mark on 1978’s Stained Class, where his massive, double kick drum sound and blitzkrieg style is a standout from the very first seconds of opening track “Exciter,” one of the songs that set the stage for the speed and thrash metal of the 1980s. The album, considered by many fans to be one of the group’s finest efforts, featured a rare co-songwriting credit for Binks on the ominous prog-metal shouter “Beyond the Realms of Death.”
Binks also appeared on the follow-up, 1978’s Killing Machine (which was released as Hell Bent for Leather in the U.S.), the most commercially oriented collection to date from the Priest, and the LP that would also mark his swan song with the group. Anchored by meaty rock anthems such as “Rock Forever” and the raucous “Hell Bent For Leather,” the album set the stage for what would become the band’s commercial breakthrough on 1980s British Steel, which featured the hits “Living After Midnight” and Beavis and Butt-Head favorite “Breaking the Law”; Binks was replaced on that album by former Trapeze drummer Dave Holland.
Binks’ final record with Judas Priest would be the band’s 1979 Unleashed in the East live album recorded in Tokyo earlier that year, after which he split following a reported dispute with band manager Mike Dolan over compensation for the live LP.
The drummer played with a series of other bands throughout the 1980s and ’90s (Lionhearted, Tytan) and formed the all-star Priest cover band Les Binks’ Priesthood, in 2017. In a testament to the crucial role he played in the development of Judas Priest’s sound, Binks was on stage with the rest of Priest in 2022 when the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and performed as part of their three-song set in one of his final public appearances before his death.
Check out their performance at the RRHOF ceremony below.
Max Romeo, the beloved reggae singer best known for recording such widely sampled songs as “War Ina Babylon” and “Chase the Devil” died in Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica on Friday (April 11) at age 80. A statement on the singer’s Facebook page read, “It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Max. We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of love and tributes and kindly ask for privacy at this time. Legends never die.”
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While no official cause of death had been announced at press time, according to The Guardian, the singer born Maxwell Livingston Smith died from heart complications.
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Born in St. D’Acre in St. Anne, Jamaica on Nov. 22, 1944, Romeo left home as a teenager to seek out a music career in Kingston in the late 1960s, where he met such future reggae superstars as Bob Marley and Peter Tosh and got his first small taste of success as part of the group The Emotions. Though he would later make a name for writing conscious, political songs such as “Let the Power Fall on I,” Romeo first burst onto the scene in 1969 with the explicit, lascivious “Wet Dream.” The tune on which he sings “Every night me go to sleep, me have wet dream/ Lie down gal, let me push it up, push it up, lie down,” became a British top 10 hit despite getting banned from BBC Radio stations due to its cheeky lyrics.
The accompanying 1969 album, A Dream, didn’t spawn any other hits, but Romeo returned in 1971 with the more politically focused Let the Power Fall, which mixed skanking covers of songs by Neil Diamond (“Crackling Rosie”) and Bob Marley (“Chatter Box”) with that album’s breakout anthem, “Let the Power Fall On I”; the song became the theme for Jamaica’s People’s National Party during its winning 1972 election campaign.
“I’m gonna put on an iron shirt/ And chase Satan out of Earth. I’m gonna put on an iron shirt/ And chase the devil out of Earth,” Romeo sang on the the steady rocking “Chase the Devil,” one of several hits from the pair of albums Romeo recorded with pioneering reggae producer Lee “Scratch’ Perry. The song has been widely sampled over the years by everyone from The Prodigy (“Out of Space”), to Jay-Z (“Lucifer”) and Cage the Elephant (“Ain’t No Rest For the Wicked (Wicked Devil Reggae Remix),” among many others.
The fruitful relationship between Romeo and Perry launched in 1975 on the album Revelation Time, with the Perry-produced reggae-fied take on the traditional children’s song “Three Blind Mice.”
By the next year, Romeo was all-in with Perry, using his crack studio band, the Upsetters, as his house band on the career-peak War Ina Babylon LP. Infused with Perry’s signature reverb-drenched dub style, the album opened with the hypnotic “One Step Forward” — a broadside against Prime Minister Michael Manley’s declaration of a state of emergency in 1976 — and included the pleading title track, which mirrored the political and social turmoil that gripped the island nation in the mid-1970s.
The song was part of a rising tide of roots reggae anthems commenting on the nation’s turmoil, with Romeo singing, “War ina Babylon/ Tribal war ina Babylon/ It sipple out deh [it’s slippery out there].” The album was considered to be the first in a “holy trinity” of LPs from Perry’s mystical, chaotic Black Ark recording studio, along with Junior Murvin’s Police and Thieves and the Heptones’ Party Time.
After releasing 1977’s Reconstruction album, Romeo moved to New York where he co-wrote and starred in the musical Reggae, as well as providing backing vocals on the Rolling Stones’ Emotional Rescue track “Dance (Pt. 1).” Stones guitarist Keith Richards co-produced and played guitar on Romeo’s next album, 1981’s Holding Out My Love to You.
Though he never managed a Marley-like breakthrough in the U.S., Romeo released nearly two dozen albums from the 1980s through his final studio effort, 2019’s Words From the Brave. In 2023, the singer filed a $15 million lawsuit against Universal Music Group and Polygram Publishing over what he said were improper royalty payments.
Listen to some of Romeo’s most beloved songs below.
Country music songwriter Larry Bastian, known for penning songs including Garth Brooks’ “Unanswered Prayers” and “Rodeo,” died on Sunday (April 6) at age 90, Billboard has confirmed. Bastian’s passing was previously reported by the Porterville Recorder.
Bastian, a longtime writer for Major Bob Music, was born Sept. 1, 1934, in Porterville, Calif. He was born into a family who farmed in California’s San Joaquin Valley. After graduating from Porterville High School in 1952, he went on to work as a biologist for 15 years at the Department of Agriculture in Kern and Tulare counties. He also harbored a love for music and songwriting.
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He launched his songwriting career in the 1970s, when he connected with Bonnie Owens and other musicians forging the Bakersfield Sound. He soon became friends and cowriters with Jim Shaw, and together they wrote a song called “This Ain’t Tennessee and He Ain’t You,” that was recorded by Janie Fricke and released in 1980 (Eddy Arnold and Tom Jones would later also record the song).
He has written songs recorded by Merle Haggard and David Frizzell (“Lefty”), Tammy Wynette (“Back to the Wall”), Conway Twitty (“Saturday Night Special”), Tracy Byrd (“Why”) Sammy Kershaw (“If You’re Gonna Walk, I’m Gonna Crawl,” “Yard Sale”), Reba McEntire (“The Girl Who Has Everything”), Rhett Akins (“Somebody Knew”), Moe Bandy (“Nobody Gets Off in This Town”), George Jones (“Forever’s Here to Stay”) and Craig Morgan (“Look at Us”).
Some of his biggest country chart successes came in the 1990s as a writer on Brooks’ “Unanswered Prayers” and “Rodeo.” Bastian solo wrote the latter, which, according to Garth Brooks: The Anthology Part 1, was originally titled “Miss Rodeo” and written for a female artist.
“This was a song I had written probably six or seven years before I met Garth … it was about a gal lamenting the fact that her guy was in love with the rodeo rather than her,” Bastian wrote in the Brooks anthology. “Finally, Garth said to me, ‘I’m going to record it.’ I said, ‘You can’t record it. It’s a girl’s song.’ He said, ‘Just watch me.’” The song became a top five Billboard Country Airplay hit in 1991.
Garth Brooks: The Anthology Part 1 also notes Bastian provided a key lyrical hook for “Unanswered Prayers” (co-written by Brooks and Pat Alger), which became a two-week Country Airplay chart No. 1 in 1991. Beyond those hits, Bastian also wrote and/or cowrote other songs recorded by Brooks, including “I’ve Got a Good Thing Going,” “The Old Man’s Back in Town,” “Cowboy Bill,” “Nobody Gets Off in This Town” and “Man Against the Machine.”
“That type of drive, first off you have to know that you can do it,” Bastian said during an interview on The Paul Leslie Hour in 2020. “There was no doubt in my mind that I could write a song. I think you have to be that driven to succeed, and then there’s a lot of luck. They have a saying, ‘You can’t get out of the way of a hit song,’ and that’s so right.”
A celebration of life is pending.
If you watched music on TV at any point in the last 50+ years, you most likely experienced the work of Don Mischer, who directed and/or produced hundreds of hours of programming, including six Super Bowl halftime shows and variety specials headlined by such icons as Barbra Streisand and Willie Nelson. Mischer, who amassed 15 Primetime Emmys for his work, died on Friday (April 11) in Los Angeles. He was 85.
Mischer produced and directed Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, the star-studded 1983 special on which Michael Jackson introduced his Moonwalk. Mischer also produced and directed a 1985 sequel, Motown Returns to the Apollo. In 1993, he reunited with Jackson when the superstar headlined the Super Bowl halftime show. That performance is credited with elevating the halftime show to its current status as the world’s top platform for a music performer.
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Mischer worked on five more Super Bowl halftime shows, headlined by Paul McCartney (2005), The Rolling Stones (2006), Prince (2007), Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (2008) and Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band (2009). The most memorable of these was the show which Prince headlined amid a downpour. It regularly tops lists of the greatest halftime performances of all time.
Mischer directed The Kennedy Center Honors across four decades (1978-86 and 1992-2005). He also produced and/or directed three of the four EGOT-level awards shows — working on three Tonys telecasts, three Oscars telecasts and nine Primetime Emmys telecasts. He never worked on the Grammys, but he served as executive producer of the Billboard Music Awards three times (2011-13).
He produced and directed the 1996 Summer Olympics opening ceremony and served as executive producer of the 2002 Winter Olympics ceremony.
He worked on many superstar specials, including Goldie & Liza Together (1981), where Oscar winners Goldie Hawn and Liza Minnelli memorably teamed up. Others included Willie Nelson: Texas Style (1989), Sonny & Cher: Cher Remembers (1999), Barbra Streisand: Timeless (2000) and James Taylor: One Man Band (2007). He also worked on dance specials headlined by Twyla Tharp, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines, and comedy specials starring Eddie Murphy and Don Rickles.
Mischer worked on many “event” TV specials, keyed to anniversaries or re-openings. Among them: Irving Berlin’s 100th Birthday at Carnegie Hall (1988), Carnegie Hall: Live at 100 (1991), Bob Hope: The First 90 Years (1992), To Life: Israel’s 50th Anniversary Celebration (1998) and National September 11 Memorial & Museum Dedication (2014).
Mischer’s first major credit in TV was directing Great American Dream Machine on PBS (1970-71). That led to directing In Concert, a late-night music series on ABC (1973-75).
Mischer produced the 2004 Democratic National Convention, which led to a rare, if understandable, slip on his part. After John Kerry’s speech accepting the nomination for president, balloons were supposed to drop from the ceiling onto the delegates below. However, the balloons got stuck and did not fall. Mischer lost his temper and let out a string of expletives — which went out live on CNN.
In January 2009, Mischer had a happier experience when he produced and directed We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial, which featured performances by Beyoncé and Bruce Springsteen.
Mischer received 15 Primetime Emmy Awards, a record 10 Directors Guild of America Awards for outstanding directorial achievement, two NAACP Image Awards, and a Peabody Award (for Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever). In 2012, he received the Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television from the Producers Guild of America. In 2014, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2019, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Directors Guild of America (DGA).
In November 2023, Mischer published his memoir :10 Seconds to Air: My Life in the Director’s Chair. Kirkus Reviews called it “a frank, insightful recollection of an accomplished career.”
“Don was simply iconic,” Lesli Linka Glatter, president of the DGA, said in a statement. “His mastery of directing live events was a fast-paced symphony of meticulous planning combined with on-the-spot decision-making that elevated our nation’s greatest cultural events, always capturing the human spirit behind them. … Don’s skill as a director elevated the emotions, excitement and importance of these live worldwide moments, creating lifelong memories for audiences around the world.”
After directing and producing hundreds of hours of live television, Mischer knew what he was doing and felt at peace when a show went live.
“There’s nothing like that feeling that the clock is ticking down and you’re sitting in the truck, and then suddenly it’s time, and everybody gets quiet,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2010. “That’s when I get calm.”
Mischer is survived by his wife, Suzan; four children, Heather, Jennifer, Charlie and Lily; and two grandchildren, Everly and Tallulah.