Pick a Day

Music History Events: Died Young

June 5, 1990 Jim Hodder (original drummer for Steely Dan), age 42, drowns in the swimming pool of his home in Point Arena, California.

June 4, 1990 Stiv Bators (frontman for The Dead Boys, The Lords of the New Church), age 40, dies of a concussion in his sleep hours after being struck by a taxi.

June 3, 1990 Richard Sohl, pianist and songwriter known for his work with Patti Smith, dies of a heart attack at age 37.

March 17, 1990 Ric Grech, bass player in Traffic and Blind Faith, dies of a brain hemorrhage at age 43.

January 23, 1990 Original Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Allen Collins, a survivor of their 1977 plane crash, dies of pneumonia - a complication of paralysis caused by a 1986 car accident.

December 1, 1989 Scottish keyboardist Billy Lyall (of Bay City Rollers, Pilot, The Alan Parsons Project) dies of an AIDS-related illness at age 36.

June 14, 1989 Pete de Freitas (drummer for Echo And The Bunnymen) dies in a motorcycle accident en-route to Liverpool from London at age 27.

February 14, 1989 Vincent Crane (organist for Atomic Rooster) dies of an intentional overdose of painkillers at age 45.

December 21, 1988 Paul Avron Jeffreys (bassist for Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel) is killed en-route to his honeymoon when he and his wife, Rachel, become victims of the Lockerbie terrorist bombing (of Pan Am Flight 103). He was 36. The Four Tops were also slated to be onboard the plane but overslept after a late-night recording session.

April 28, 1988 Country/pop singer B.W. Stevenson, known for the original 1973 version of "My Maria," dies at age 38 while undergoing heart valve surgery.

September 21, 1987 Jaco Pastorius of Weather Report, age 35, dies of a massive brain hemorrhage ten days after a violent altercation with a club bouncer left him a coma.

May 4, 1987 Paul Butterfield (of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band) dies of a heroin overdose at age 44.

March 21, 1987 Dean Martin's son Dean Paul Martin (of Dino, Desi & Billy) dies in a plane crash in California's San Bernardino Mountains at the age of 35 while serving in the Air National Guard.

December 31, 1985 Rick Nelson dies in a plane crash at age 45. A child star on The Ozzie and Harriet Show, he became a teen idol as a singer, charting 36 hits on the Top 40.

December 22, 1985 Dennes Boon of the Minutemen is killed in a van accident in Tucson, Arizona, at age 27.

October 12, 1985 B-52s guitarist Ricky Wilson becomes one of the first high-profile casualties of AIDS, a disease that is widely misunderstood. His death at age 32 comes 10 days after the actor Rock Hudson became the first major celebrity to die from AIDS.

August 12, 1985 Singer/actor Kyu Sakamoto dies in the Japan Airlines Flight 123 crash at age 43.

February 28, 1985 Uriah Heep lead singer David Byron dies at his Berkshire home from liver disease and seizures caused by excessive consumption of alcohol. He is just 38 years old.

December 8, 1984 Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley (of Hanoi Rocks) dies in a drunk-driving accident in Redondo Beach, California. The 24-year-old drummer is the passenger in a car driven by Motley Crue's inebriated frontman, Vince Neil.

November 14, 1984 Keith Hudson, known as "The Dark Prince of Reggae," dies of lung cancer at age 38 in New York.

November 13, 1984 Pop singer Don Addrisi (of The Addrisi Brothers) dies of pancreatic cancer at age 45.

October 28, 1984 Wells Kelly (drummer, keyboardist for Orleans), age 34, dies of asphyxiation after a night of hard partying while on tour with Meat Loaf in London, England.

September 20, 1984 Folk singer/songwriter Steve Goodman dies of leukemia in Seattle, Washington, at age 36.

April 27, 1984 Blues singer Arziel "Z.Z." Hill, known for the 1982 Down Home album that was a fixture on the soul album chart for nearly two years, dies at age 48 when a blood clot caused by a car accident months before spurs a heart attack.

December 27, 1983 Rock 'n' roll singer Walter Scott (of Bob Kuban & the In-Men) is shot in the back and left floating in a cistern, where he is found four years later. James H. Williams Sr., who married Scott's second wife, JoAnn, after the singer's disappearance, is found guilty of the murder. JoAnn also receives a five-year prison sentence for hindering the prosecution.

April 14, 1983 Rock bassist Pete Farndon (of The Pretenders) overdoses on heroin and drowns in his bathtub at age 30.

April 3, 1983 Danny Rapp (of Danny & the Juniors) dies at age 41 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He's discovered in a hotel room in Quartzsite, Arizona.

January 28, 1983 English pop singer Billy Fury, known for hit singles like 1961's "Halfway to Paradise," dies of a heart attack at age 42. Fury's heart was damaged when contracted rheumatic fever as a child.

January 21, 1983 Lamar Williams (the bassist who replaced Berry Oakley in The Allman Brothers Band) dies of lung cancer, possibly from exposure to Agent Orange during his service in the Vietnam War, at age 34.

June 16, 1982 James Honeyman-Scott (lead guitarist for The Pretenders) dies of heart failure due to cocaine intolerance at age 25.