The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (230 page)

Shaver

The son of Texan country singer Billy Joe Shaver – who nearly named the boy ‘Electric’ – Eddy Shaver couldn’t have cut a more diametrically opposed figure, either in looks or style. True, he wielded a guitar like his father (and he had performed with artists like Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson and Dwight Yoakam), but Shaver Jr was a more ‘out there’ performer than Billy Joe, his long, lank hair, brooding stage presence and (appropriately) razor-like riffs becoming trademarks by the end of 2000. During the seven previous years, the family’s band Shaver had released five albums of gritty roadhouse honky-tonk. Shaver’s dynamism in performance belied a a quiet nature, although he latterly developed a taste for one or two rock ‘n’ roll pleasures. Following a strenuous gig in Austin, Shaver died from an accidental heroin overdose – the guitarist had been married for just two months. For his father it was to be the third bereavement within two years, both his wife and mother also having passed on.

‘If he wasn’t my kid, I couldn’t afford him.’

Eddy Shaver’s father

Close!

Bryan Ferry

As head honcho to the suave and sophisticated, Bryan Ferry generally steers clear of the headlines, leaving any public dramas either to ex-partners or his bloodsport-loving son. On 29 December 2000, however, the former Roxy Music frontman had little choice in matters, when a deranged passenger decided to attempt a hijack of the aircraft carrying him from London to Nairobi. The man - 27-year-old Paul Mukonyi - burst into the cockpit and began tussling with the flight crew, causing the jet to plummet 10,000 feet.

Ferry, his family and the other passengers (who included socialite Jemima Khan) were briefly in considerable danger, but the pilots managed to subdue Mukonyi, who remained bound until the aircraft could be safely landed.

Lest We Forget

Other notable deaths that occurred sometime during 2000 :

William Martin Bennett
(US rock drummer with Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs, who hit #2 with ‘Wooly Bully’ in 1965 and again with ‘Li’l Red Riding Hood’ a year later; born New York, 12/7/1944; heart attack, 25/10)

Russ Conway
(hugely popular UK pianist/composer who was 1959’s biggest-selling act in Britain with the chart-toppers ‘Side Saddle’ and ‘Roulette’; born Trevor Stanford, Bristol, 2/9/1925; cancer, 16/11)

Dennis Danell
(US punk guitarist with Social Distortion; born California, 1961; aneurysm, 29/2)

Johnny Duncan
(US rockabilly/skiffle legend who fronted The Blue Grass Boys and hit UK #2 with 1957’s ‘Last Train to San Fernando’; born Tennessee, 7/9/32; cancer, 15/7)

Tony Flaim
(Canadian blues singer with Downchild; born 1947; heart attack, 10/3 - just weeks after Richard ‘Hock’ Walsh, the man he’d once replaced)

Geoffrey Goddard
(UK composer/songwriter of the Joe Meek-produced ‘mawk’ classic ‘Johnny Remember Me’ who also ghosted keyboards on The Tornados’ ‘Telstar’; born 1938; heart attack, 15/5)

Marcus Hutson
(US R & B singer with The Whispers, whose transatlantic hits included 1980 R & B #1 ‘And the Beat Goes On’; born St Louis, Missouri, 8/1/1943; cancer)

Will ‘Dub’ Jones
(US vocalist with madcap R & B legends The Coasters, who also sang with The Cadets and Mighty Travelers; born Louisiana, 14/5/1928; diabetes, 16/1)

Julie London
(sultry US singer/actress loved for classic hits like 1955’s ‘Cry Me a River’; born Julie Peck, California, 26/9/1926; lengthy illness following a stroke suffered five years previously, 18/10)

Lord Kitchener
(Trinidadian calypso legend who performed and recorded for five decades; born Aldwyn Roberts, Arima, 18/4/1922; kidney failure/cancer, 1½)

Nick Massi
(US pop/harmony singer/bassist who enjoyed 17 hits including 4 chart-toppers with the legendary Four Seasons; born Nicholas Macioci, New Jersey, 19/9/1927; cancer, 24/12)

DJ Screw
(innovative US hip-hop artist who created the ‘chopped and screwed’ mix method; born Robert Earl Davis Jr, Houston, Texas, 20/7/71; overdose of codeine and prescription drugs, 16/11)

Bobby Warren
(US touring singer with The Drifters; shot while driving his car, 29/4)

2001

JANUARY

Tuesday 2

Jimmy Zámbó

(Imre Zámbó - Budapest, 1958)

Although unknown to most of the world, Jimmy Zambo was a rags-to-riches hero to millions in his home country. In Hungary they called him ‘The King’, this medallion-wearing, mullet-headed rock balladeer who’d been named Singer of the Year in 1993 before picking up a series of platinum records – plus two Golden Giraffes (it says here) – on his way to national stardom. By the end of 2000, he had his own weekly RTL television slot and was number one once again with the schmaltzy
Christmas With Jimmy
album. So what better way to thank his loyal fans than by giving them something they’d never forget?

After a riotous New Year’s Day spent drinking with his wife and friends, the singer decided he needed to take a nap. As it turned out, next door’s cockerels decided that the party was far from over, their crowing causing Zambo to see red. An avid hunter, he owned a collection of firearms including a 9 mm Beretta, which he aimed at the offending birds, much to the consternation of his wife, who had come to investigate the noise. Calming down, Zambo explained that no harm had been done and that he was now out of bullets. He then chose the Terry Kath method of proving this
(
January 1978).
Cocking the gun, Zambo pulled the trigger and unloaded the last remaining bullet – into his own skull. The singer was rushed to hospital, but pronounced dead at around 5 am. A vast throng of candle-bearing fans gathered outside his home the next day, the nation descending into collective disbelief.

Sunday 7

James Carr

(Clarksdale, Mississippi, 13 June 1942)

You may not recall his name, but those who loved him refuse to believe that James Carr possessed anything other than a voice up there among soul’s very best. A gospel-quartet singer brought up in Memphis, Carr was taken under the wing of Quinton Claunch, who felt his new Goldwax label needed an ‘Otis Redding’ of its own and detected pure gold in the voice of this unimposing young man. With the label, Carr finally scored a hit with ‘Love Attack’ (1966), but further songs – such as the searching ‘Dark End of the Street’ (1967) – were not to secure any kind of lasting position. While touring with Redding, audiences were quick to dub him a ‘copyist’ of the bigger star: he had simply arrived on the scene too late. Developing a taste for marijuana and alcohol, Carr found himself slipping into despondency as the big break continued to elude him – even after Redding’s untimely death
(
December
1967).

A split from his manager had an even worse effect on the falling star: suffering from manic depression, his songs grew ever darker. His singing career virtually over, Carr spent many of the remainder of his days in and out of institutions. He returned to perform in the early nineties, but, though there were fleeting moments, his voice was not what it had been in his prime. Carr, having been plagued by lung cancer for many years, died in a nursing home.