obituary
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Gallagher, the long-haired, smash-’em-up comedian who left a trail of laughter, anger and shattered watermelons over a decadeslong career, has died at age 76.
Craig Marquardo, in a statement identifying himself as Gallagher’s “longtime former manager,” said that he died Friday (Nov. 11) at his home in Palm Springs, California, after a brief illness. Gallagher had numerous heart attacks over the years, including one right before a scheduled show in Texas in 2012.
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With a beret on his head and a few simple props, from a can of oil to a bull whip, the man born Leo Anthony Gallagher Jr. built a nationwide following in the 1970s and ’80s, appearing on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and starring in numerous Showtime specials. His act included observational humor (“What about Easter? Whose idea was it to give eggs to an animal that hops?”), political commentary (“They don’t call a tax a tax. They call it a revenue enhancer”), invented sports (synchronized Ping-Pong) and his trademark Sledge-O-Matic destruction.
“Ladies and gentlemen! I did not come here tonight just to make you laugh. I came here to sell you something, and I want you to pay particular attention!” he would call out in his best rapid-fire impersonation of a late-night television pitchman. “The amazing Master Tool Corporation, a subsidiary of Fly-By-Night Industries, has entrusted who? Me! To show you! The handiest and the dandiest kitchen tool you’ve ever seen.”
Sledgehammer in hand, he would then apply his full muscle to apples, grapes, lettuce and other produce, most famously the inevitable watermelon, with audience members in front showered in food bits.
Gallagher was a Fort Bragg, North Carolina, native who started out in 1960 as road manager for the comedian/musician Jim Stafford and soon began performing himself, honing his act at the Comedy Store and other clubs. He was not the only funnyman in the family: His younger brother Ron became a comedian, received Leo’s initial blessing and looked and acted enough like his better-known sibling that some audiences were unsure who they had come to see. Leo Gallagher eventually secured a court injunction barring his brother from using his routines.
The elder Gallagher became increasingly controversial in recent years, chastised for racist and homophobic remarks. Gallagher even cut short an interview in 2011 with Marc Maron after the WTF podcast host confronted him about his statements.
“I’m the problem?!” Gallagher said at one point. “Do you think when I’m dead, gays will finally have an opportunity in America? Have I really been holding them down?”
In 2003, Gallagher was among more than 100 candidates running in the recall election for California governor, won by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Over the past decade, Gallagher appeared in a Geico commercial and in the movie The Book of Daniel.
Singer Gal Costa, an icon in the Tropicalia and Brazilian popular music movements who enjoyed a nearly six-decade career, died on Wednesday. She was 77.
Her death was confirmed by a press representative, who provided no further information.
The soprano with wild curls of dark hair was best known for lending her unique voice to compositions such as Ary Barroso’s “Aquarela do Brasil” (Watercolor of Brazil), Tom Jobim’s “Dindi,” Jorge Ben Jor’s “Que Pena” (What a Shame) and Caetano Veloso’s “Baby.”
“Gal Costa was among the world’s best singers, among our principal artists to carry the name and sounds of Brazil to the whole planet,” President-elect Luiz Inácio da Silva wrote on Twitter alongside a photo of him hugging her. “Her talent, technique and courage enriched and renewed our culture, cradled and marked the lives of millions of Brazilians.”
Gal Costa foi das maiores cantoras do mundo, das nossas principais artistas a levar o nome e os sons do Brasil para todo o planeta. Seu talento, técnica e ousadia enriqueceu e renovou nossa cultura, embalou e marcou a vida de milhões de brasileiros.📸 @ricardostuckert pic.twitter.com/4jU2SBcHuq— Lula (@LulaOficial) November 9, 2022
Costa was born Maria da Graça Penna Burgos in the northeastern state of Bahia and came onto the scene alongside future legends Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and Maria Bethânia.
All were already successful solo artists when they formed the band Doces Bárbaros. Their joint side project became an important counterculture reference during Brazil’s two-decade military dictatorship, inspiring a record, tour and documentary.
In 2011, Costa was awarded a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
She remained an active performer until nearly the end, having recently suspended shows to undergo a surgery on one of her nostrils. Her next concert had been scheduled for Dec. 17, in Sao Paulo.
Dan McCafferty, original lead singer for Scottish hard rockers Nazareth, has died at age 76. The vocalist’s passing was announced by founding bassist/backing vocalist Pete Agnew, who revealed in an Instagram post that McCafferty died on Tuesday afternoon; at press time no cause of death had been announced.
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“This is the saddest announcement I ever had to make,” Agnew wrote. “Maryann and the family have lost a wonderful loving husband and father, I have lost my best friend and the world has lost one of the greatest singers who ever lived. Too upset to say anything more at this time.”
McCafferty, born on Oct. 14, 1946 in Dunfermline, Scotland was a co-founder of Nazareth, which came together in 1968 with guitarist Manny Charlton and drummer Darrell Sweet joining McCafferty and Agnew. The band released their self-titled debut in 1971, which was followed by 1972’s Exercises and 1973’s Razamanaz.
But it wasn’t until their sixth album, 1975s Hair of the Dog, that the group broke out beyond their European success, thanks to their rocked-up cover of the Everly Brothers’ 1960 song “Love Hurts.” The showcase for McCafferty’s muscular vocals rose to No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. Hair of the Dog also marked the band’s highest charting album on the Billboard 200 charts, where it rose to No. 17 in March 1976, according to data provided by Luminate.
Nazareth’s “Love Hurts” was the highest-charting version of the tune — also famously covered by Cher as the title track of her 1991 album of the same name — and it has become a go-to power ballad in dozens of movies, including Wayne’s World, This is Spinal Tap, Dazed and Confused, Rock Star, Empire Records, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and many more.
McCafferty fronted the band until his retirement from touring in 2013 due to unspecified health issues and appeared on 23 studio albums through 2014’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Telephone; he was replaced by Linton Osborne in 2014, who in turn was swapped out for current singer Carl Sentance. McCafferty also released a pair of solo albums during his time with the group, a self-titled 1975 collection and 1987’s Into the Ring, as well as his final solo effort, 2019’s Last Testament.
See Agnew’s tribute and watch a live version of “Love Hurts” below.
Tyrone Downie, a keyboardist and producer who is best known for his work as a member of Bob Marley & The Wailers, died Saturday (Nov. 5) in Kingston, Jamaica after a brief illness. He was 66.
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Born May 20, 1956 in the capital, Downie was drawn to music from a young age. He went on to study at the Kingston College and often sang with the chapel choir.
Downie carved his name in music history when he joined Marley’s band in 1973, making his recording debut on Rastaman Vibration, and contributing keys and backup vocals to some of legendary reggae act’s recordings into the 1980s.
“Reflecting on brother Tyrone Downie, Bob’s keyboardist, who made his transition yesterday,” reads a statement on the late Marley’s official social accounts. “Rest in peace brother.”
Across his career, Downie also played with The Abyssinians, Beenie Man, Black Uhuru, Buju Banton, Peter Tosh, Junior Reid, Tom Tom Club, Ian Dury, Burning Spear, Steel Pulse, Alpha Blondy, Tiken Jah Fakoly and Sly & Robbie, and, prior to the Wailers, was a member of the Impact All Stars.
A statement from Tuff Gong studio in Kingston, founded by Marley, reads: “We are saddened to learn of the passing of Wailers keyboardist, Tyrone Downie. Tyrone joined The Wailers just before the age of 20, making his recording debut with the band on Rastaman Vibration. We are blessed to count him as a member of the Tuff Gong Family.”
We are saddened to learn of the passing of Wailers keyboardist, Tyrone Downie. Tyrone joined The Wailers just before the age of 20, making his recording début with the band on Rastaman Vibration. We are blessed to count him as a member of the Tuff Gong Family. pic.twitter.com/RFhmSJXGHb— Tuff Gong (@TuffGongINTL) November 7, 2022
Several of Downie’s compositions appeared on the big screen, including 1989’s Slaves of New York and The Mighty Quinn.
Downie settled in France in the mid-to-late 1990s, during which time he focused on production and worked closely with Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour.
The multi-instrumentalist also had an impact on Grace Jones, the iconic Jamaica-born singer and actor. Jones penned the 1983 song “My Jamaican Guy,” which she later revealed was written about Downie.
Downie went on to released the solo album Organ-D — his nickname — in 2001.
He is survived by nine children, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, The Gleaner reports.
Guitarist Jeff Cook, who co-founded the mega-successful country group Alabama and steered them up the charts with such hits as “Song of the South” and “Dixieland Delight,” has died. He was 73.
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Cook had Parkinson’s disease and disclosed his diagnosis in 2017. He died Tuesday (Nov. 8) at his home in Destin, Florida, said Don Murry Grubbs, a representative for the band.
Tributes poured in from country stars, including Travis Tritt who called Cook “a great guy and one heckuva bass fisherman” and Charlie Daniels, who tweeted that “Heaven gained another guitar/fiddle player today.”
As a guitarist, fiddle player and vocalist, Cook — alongside cousins Randy Owen and Teddy Gentry — landed 33 No. 1 songs on Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs chart, including the pop crossover hits “Love in the First Degree” and “Feels So Right,” as well as “Tennessee River” and “Mountain Music.”
“Jeff Cook, and all of the guys in Alabama, were so generous with wisdom and fun when I got to tour with them as a young artist,” Kenny Chesney said in a statement. “They showed a kid in a T-shirt that country music could be rock, could be real, could be someone who looked like me. Growing up in East Tennessee, that gave me the heart to chase this dream.”
The band had a three-year run as CMA entertainer of the year from 1982-85 and received five ACM Awards trophies in that same category from 1981-85. The band was the first three-time winner and the first five-time winner of that top award at the respective shows. Cook stopped touring with Alabama in 2018.
Cook released a handful of solo projects and toured with his Allstar Goodtime Band. He also released collaborations with Charlie Daniels and Star Trek star William Shatner. He entered the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005 as a member of Alabama.
Survivors include his wife, Lisa.
Tame One, veteran New Jersey rapper and member of hip-hop groups Artifacts and The Weathermen, has died. He was 52.
His death was confirmed by Pitchfork and on Facebook by the late rapper’s mother, Darlene Brown Harris. “What’s on my mind….I cant express this any other way. My son, Rahem Brown, Tamer Dizzle Is Dead,” she wrote on Sunday. “The medical examiner says the six pharmaceutical drugs … prescribed to him last Friday, combined with the weed he smoked over this weekend … his heart simply gave out. He will know better after the autopsy. I will not be responding to all the posts for a bit, but the hardest words I will ever post or say is, my son, my heart, is dead.”
Tame One, born Rahem Brown, expressed himself as a teenager by way of music and graffiti. Tame One’s 1994 debut alongside Artifacts groupmate El Da Sensei, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, was an ode to the influential art form and broke the duo into the mainstream. The album appeared on both the Billboard 200 and R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts. Despite their collective success, Artifacts only went on to release one more album together, That’s Them, in 1997 before moving on to solo careers.
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After the group’s initial split, New York hip-hop group The Weathermen, founded by a handful of East Coast producers and rappers, was formed. Tame One rapped alongside a number of co-members, including Cage Kennylz, Masai Bey, Aesop Rock, Yak Ballz, El-P, Jakki Tha Motamouth, Vast Aire and Breeze Brewin. The group released one mixtape in 2003, titled Conspiracy.
After 25 years, El Da Sensei and Tame One came together with producer Buckwild for their third album as Artifacts, No Expiration Date, which released on Aug. 20. “[In 1979], we would walk miles with markers and cans, taggin’ up everywhere,” he said in his final interview before his death. “I was influenced by my surroundings, I’m a product of my environment, and I capitalized upon what I saw. It’s a blessing to transform that energy and give back.”
Brooklyn rapper Gloria “Hurricane G” Rodriguez has died at age 52. The passing of the Puerto Rican MC best known for her 1997 No. 10 hot rap singles hit “Somebody Else” as well as binlingual songs including “Underground Lockdown” and “El Barrio,” was confirmed by EPMD’s Erick Sermon, who had a daughter with Rodriguez.
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“My heart is hardened today. One of my good friends…. my oldest daughters mother passed away today #HURRICANEGLORIA was also a legend in her own right in the Hiphop community,” Sermon wrote in an Instagram tribute posted on Sunday (Nov. 6). “One of the first puertorican female rappers She rapped with me. @redmangilla she paved the way @keithmurray @diddy she was in all the Hiphop magazines with all the top females at the time.”
Rodriguez first gained fame in 1992 when she appeared on Redman’s “Tonight’s da Night,” then teamed up with him again two years later on “We Run N.Y.” from his Dare Iz a Darkside album. Her debut full-length Spanglish album, All Woman, dropped in 1997 on the New York-based H.O.L.A. Recordings after she’d logged spots on songs by everyone from Xzibit to Funkdoobiest, Keith Murray and Puff Daddy. She also became the first female member of the East Coast hip-hop crew the Def Squad, which included Sermon, Redman, Murray and Jamal.
Though her output was sparse, Sermon noted in his tribute that legendary underground hip-hop radio due Stretch and Bobbito “loved a song that she did called ‘MILKY,’” adding, “She will be missed all around the world. I can’t believe this. Pray for us. Beautiful blessings. She was a beautiful person a wonderful mother as real as they come.”
At press time no cause of death was revealed, but according a FB post on May 20 from Rodriguez’s daughter, Lexus, her mom was suffering from advanced lung cancer. “My mom has stage 4 lung cancer,” she wrote at the time. “I dont know how many of you understand what that means but even after 30 years of life Im still trying to process it myself. I have never cried so much in my life I have never felt so disconnected from reality in my life. Yet my mom still manages to be the one to hold it together and say “dont worry baby everythings gonna be alright”. S–t im crying right now but today is a blessing.”
Hurricane G’s last released album was a 2013 collaboration with Thirstin Howl III entitled Mami & Papi.
See Sermon’s tribute and listen to “Somebody Else” below.
Mimi Parker, the vocalist and drummer of rock band Low, died on Saturday (Nov. 5) following a battle with ovarian cancer. She was 55.
The Duluth, Minn.-based group, which also includes Parker’s husband and bandmate Alan Sparkhawk, confirmed the sad news through its official Twitter account on Sunday.
“Friends, it’s hard to put the universe into language and into a short message, but she passed away last night, surrounded by family and love, including yours,” Low tweeted in a statement. “Keep her name close and sacred. Share this moment with someone who needs you. Love is indeed the most important thing.”
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Friends, it’s hard to put the universe into language and into a short message, but She passed away last night, surrounded by family and love, including yours. Keep her name close and sacred. Share this moment with someone who needs you. Love is indeed the most important thing.— LOW (@lowtheband) November 6, 2022
In recent weeks, Low announced the cancellation of upcoming concert dates in the United Kingdom and Europe while Parker continued treatments for her cancer. She was diagnosed with the disease in December 2020.
“There have been difficult days, but your love has sustained us and will continue to lift us through this time,” Sparkhawk wrote in an Instagram post on Oct. 7. “With tears, we say thank you and hope to see you soon.”
Parker was born and raised in Minnesota, and her mother was an aspiring country singer, the vocalist and drummer previously told Chickfactor. Parker first played drums in her high school marching band, and began dating her future husband Sparkhawk during junior high school, according to NPR.
Sparkhawk and Parker, both practicing Mormons, formed Low in 1993 with original bassist John Nichols. The band, which featured other rotating members throughout the years, would later become a standout name in the “slowcore” rock sub-genre. Low’s 1994 debut album, I Could Live in Hope, received critical acclaim, and the act went went on to release 13 albums during its nearly 30-year career.
Parker is survived by her husband, Sparhawk, and their two children, Hollis and Cyrus.
Aaron Carter, singer, television personality and younger brother of Backstreet Boys star Nick Carter, died Saturday (Nov. 5). He was 34.
A source confirms his death to The Hollywood Reporter, and it was also reported by TMZ. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department told THR that a suspicious death took place at Carter’s address but could not confirm the identity.
Representatives for Carter and his brother did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Carter got his start opening for the Backstreet Boys on a 1997 tour, and his debut album, Aaron Carter, was released later than year, reaching gold status.
His follow-up album, Aaron’s Party (Come and Get It), was released in September 2000. Aaron’s Party peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and went triple platinum. It featured the singles “I Want Candy” and two Billboard Hot 100 hits, “Aaron’s Party (Come Get It)” (No. 35) and “That’s How I Beat Shaq” (No. 95). He supported the album as an opening act for Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears on the Oops!… I Did It Again Tour.
Carter dabbled in acting, appearing on shows including Lizzie McGuire and making his Broadway debut in 2001 as JoJo the Who in Seussical the Musical.
He starred alongside Nick and their siblings B.J., Aaron, Leslie and Angel Carter on the E! unscripted series House of Carters in 2006. Leslie died of a drug overdose in January 2012 at the age of 25.
Other television credits included competing on the 2009 season of ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, finishing in fifth place, and on the Food Network cooking battle series Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off in 2012.
Carter was a gossip-site fixture and known for headlines surrounding his personal life, dating back to his early years as a teen heartthrob.
He has had multiple rehab stays, most recently entering earlier this year in an effort to regain custody of his son Prince. He had previously entered rehab back in 2017 following an arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence and marijuana charges.
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.
Patrick Haggerty, the frontman for acclaimed country outfit Lavender Country, died Monday morning (Oct. 31). The news was announced on the group’s Facebook page, in a post that also explained that Haggerty had suffered a stroke weeks earlier. He was 78.
Self-described as a “screaming Marxist b—h singer,” the openly gay Haggerty joined up with the rest of Lavender Country in Seattle in the early ’70s. The group released just one album with their original lineup, an eponymous 1973 effort, making little commercial impact at the time — and the group eventually fell apart due to a lack of mainstream interest and disenchantment with their own community. (“The Stonewall Movement morphed into a Democratic Party machine,” Haggerty offered to Billboard earlier this year.)
However, the album endured as an underground favorite, thanks in large part to Haggerty’s biting wit and vivid, sometimes explicit lyrics. The set was reissued multiple times in the 21st century to a new audience, and the group reunited sporadically for live shows and re-recordings. In 2019, with a new lineup, they self-released an original album, Blackberry Rose and Other Songs and Sorrows, which was reissued with a new tracklist by the indie label Don Giovanni earlier this year, drawing strong reviews.
Haggerty continued through the decades to rail against the oppressive systems that marginalized his and other voices within the country music industry. “For every notable country star in Nashville there’s a thousand other artists who are just as good or better, frequently better, who go unsung and unacknowledged and have to jerk lattes just to pay the rent so they can continue to do music,” he lamented to Billboard in 2021. “That’s the star system — and darling, that’s really f–ked up … The corporate Nashville folks are purporting to be the music of the working class, but you can’t sing about union organizing, or the anti-racist struggle, or class struggle.”
However, he also appreciated that society had evolved enough to make him something of a cult hero later in his life — allowing him a platform, however modest, from which he could preach his brand of gospel without compromise to his image or message. “I get to use Lavender Country — unfettered and uncompromised — for the very reason I made it in the first place: To be a conduit for social change,” he raved to Billboard in the same interview. “I can put on bedazzled shirts and strut my beauty like anybody else on stage, but my real beauty is the way I chose to live my life.”
Haggerty’s loss was mourned on Twitter Monday by his Don Giovanni label, referring to him as “one of the funniest, kindest, bravest, and smartest people I ever met. He never gave up fighting for what he believed in, and those around him who he loved and took care of will continue that fight.”
See the tweet and Lavender Country’s Facebook announcement below.
Patrick Haggerty (Lavender Country) was one of the funniest, kindest, bravest, and smartest people I ever met. He never gave up fighting for what he believed in, and those around him who he loved and took care of will continue that fight. RIP Patrick (1944-2022). pic.twitter.com/phjutisgcq— Don Giovanni Records (@DonGiovanniRecs) October 31, 2022