Cornell unexpectedly hit me the hardest.
I clearly remember when Lennon was killed. That was a big one, but at 8 yrs old I didn't fully understand every level. I knew that I loved John's music in and out of the Beatles, I knew that he was a man that spoke to peace and love, I knew he had a son a few years younger than me that lost his dad.
SRV was a big one, was at Five Towns College and classes were just starting. Stop at shop for breakfast and saw the paper...devastating. I had just seen him in July and he almost ran over me w/ his scooter. Killer show, otherworldly musician.
Freddie hit really hard too. My dad only liked a few hits, but Queen grabbed me early and never let up. The next evolution of a band like the Beatles. And that voice, one of the best ever.
Remember feeling sad about Cobain. Wasn't a fan at the time, but you knew something had to be really wrong for how he went out.
George was hard, but we were recovering from a miscarriage that summer and then 9/11...he got lost in our and then the whole world turning upside down. I grieved more a bit later. But the Beatles are that one band, that group/collective/artist that I don't hesitate to call my favorite. That we've had Paul and Ringo for so long and that they're still out there playing and creating, it's a blessing.
LeRoi Moore from Dave Matthews Band, my second favorite sax player after Coltrane. Not saying there were on the same level as players, but the way their playing caught and kept my attention, their expressiveness...they touch me in a very similar manner. He is one of my favorite musicians, period. I wish I'd gotten to see him more, but being new parents to two boys in the 2000s made concerts tough, and stadium shows (which they were almost exclusively doing) haven't been my jam for decades (if they ever were). I still love the band, but his absence is tough to miss if you know the music, what it was, and its potential were Roi still around.
Juan Nelson from the Innocent Criminals was another particularly rough one. Ben is one of my favorite artists, but it was with the IC that he reached the highest levels. The core of that for me was Juan. He's the guy that made me realize I shoulda taken up bass. I've bought two and still have one, haven't developed any real chops on it, but the sound and feel (musically) of the bass really (finally?) grabbed by the collar and shook me with Burn to Shine and Live from Mars.
Jeff Beck was a shock because he wasn't ill as far as I knew, so many of his peers that passed have been sick, had decades of alcohol and drug abuse, etc. That he had bacterial meningitis and succumbed to it as quickly as folks can in a worst case scenario, almost unfathomable...
Zakir Hussain was also a shock given that he passed from a longterm degenerative illness, but I had just seen him with Shakti in 2023. He was amazing, an ageless wonder of a musician.
And the list is too long to even just list. The loss of artists that we love is clearly profound on many levels, especially when they are truly unique artists. A voice is extinguished and we'll never hear anything new from it.
The biggest folks that have passed in the last decade and those who we might expect to pass within the next decade...the vast majority are at or past the "average" life span. They have lived full lives, they have achieved greatness, created some of my favorite art.
And that's part of what hit so hard about Cornell, I came to realize. Despite his 8 yr older age difference, he was essentially a contemporary, an influence, someone I aspired to be like or the type of artist I'd hope to work with. Add that to the significance of his music and much from the 90s on me and in my life, it was a physical and mental a gut punch as I'd felt in the passing of an artist.
Don't get me wrong, I will have a profound sadness if I'm still around when either of the Pauls, Stevie Wonder, Young, Gabriel, the guys in the Police, May, and (again) far too many others to list. But, as with Garth Hudson's recent passing, my sadness was overtaken by the joy of thinking about and then listening to the music he'd created. He had 87 years doing what he loved and sharing with the rest of us. I hope I'm lucky enough to get another 34 years to enjoy what all of my favorite artists have given me.
