The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (370 page)

‘I was probably destined to be a drug-addict.’

Adam Goldstein

Music’s Prominent Air-Crash Survivors

Ben Cauley
(US R & B singer/trumpeter, The Bar-Kays), 1967

Artimus Pyle
(US rock drummer, Lynyrd Skynyrd), 1977

Gary Rossington
(US rock guitarist, Lynyrd Skynyrd), 1977

Leon Wilkeson
*
(US rock bassist, Lynyrd

Skynyrd)
, 1977

Billy Powell
*
(US rock keyboardist, Lynyrd Skynyrd), 1977

Allen Collins
*
(US rock guitarist, Lynyrd Skynyrd), 1977

Sally Field
(US actress/singer), 1988

Pete Wernick
(US bluegrass banjo/mandolin player), 1989

Jimmy Buffett
(US C&W singer/guitarist), 1994

Pete Goble
(US bluegrass/country musician/songwriter), 1996

Herbert Vianna
(Brazilian rock musician, Os Paralamos do Sucesso), 2001

Travis Barker
(US rock drummer, Blinks/various acts), 2008

Adam Goldstein
*
(aka DJ AM, US musician/producer), 2008

Ed Robertson
(Canadian rock singer, Barenaked Ladies), 2008

Waclaw Kieltyka
(Polish metal singer/guitarist, Decapitated), 2011

Kerim Lechner
(Polish metal drummer, Decapitated), 2011

Rafal Piotrowski
(Polish metal bassist, Decapitated), 2011

The Sharon Rogers Orchestra–an all-female US swing band whose aircraft ditched into the Sea of Japan in January 1946–became the first popular group on record to escape such a disaster. (One of the twelve survivors was saxophonist Irene Mayer, whose daughter tragically died in a light aircraft crash in Illinois, fifty years later.)

*
These musicians have since passed away.

DJ AM (using his first and middle initials) became an original member of rock/rap hybrids Crazy Town, who notched a multiplatinum debut with
The Gift of Game
and a number-one single with ‘Butterfly’ during 2001, however the turntablist had moved on to his own projects by the time the group were (briefly) front-page news. The rock-rap explosion allowed DJ AM to work with acts such as Papa Roach, who were to use his embellishments within their music – as were mainstream artists like Madonna and Will Smith. His clubbing and live work also continued to flourish, the DJ earning one of many lucrative contracts with Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.

In 2008, DJ AM was seriously injured in the air crash of which he and frequent collaborator, drummer Travis Barker, were the only survivors
(
Closer!
). Tragically, though, his third brush with death proved to be his last: having relapsed back into drug use, Goldstein was found dead at his home – no fewer than eight different substances traced in his system. While some of these were prescription painkillers used to quell the effects of injuries sustained in the previous year’s accident, the lethal drug appeared to be crack cocaine, as its related paraphernalia was found at his New York City apartment. Ironically, DJ AM was nearing the end of recording the MTV show
Gone Too Far,
a reality television series in which he assisted young people with addiction issues. The decision was made to air the show in his honour that fall.

See also
RustEpique (
March 2004)

SEPTEMBER

Tuesday 1

Jake Brockman

(James Ralph Drake-Brockman - Borneo, 18 November 1955)

Echo & The Bunnymen

(Various acts)

Known as ‘The Fifth Bunnyman’, Jake Brockman (his shortened name) had worked as a keyboardist with the Liverpool postpunk band since the mid-eighties. The musician – a graduate of Bristol’s Old Vic Theatre School – had begun his professional life with BOM, a dance act formed with drummer Damon Reece, who was also to join him in The Bunnymen.

Brockman had contributed to the big-selling albums
Ocean Rain
(1984 – on the UK Top Twenty single ‘Seven Seas’) and
Echo & The Bunny men
(1987), before becoming a full-time member for
Reverberation
(1990) which was recorded without erstwhile singer Ian McCulloch and recently deceased drummer Pete de Freitas
(
June 1989
). Echo & The Bunnymen disbanded after a poor-showing by the latter record, Brockman moving on to work as a sound-recordist by the band’s reformation in 1997. He maintained a foothold in British music however, playing with newwave ‘supergroup’, The Hook ‘Em Boys, which also featured Reece, plus members of Spiritualized, Portishead and Goldfrapp.

Motorcycling-enthusiast Jake Brockman lost his life in an accident eerily similar to the one that killed de Freitas. As the keyboardist visited the Isle of Man to attend the Manx Grand Prix, his own machine collided with a converted ambulance, Brockman dying shortly after arrival at Noble’s Hospital.

See also
Michael Lee (
November 2008)

Wednesday 2

Guy Babylon

(New Windsor, Maryland, 20 December 1956)

Elton John

(Iron Butterfly)

(Tavares)

(Various acts)

Guy Babylon was a classically trained musician who loved Led Zeppelin and Yes, using his skills to cement a career as a versatile keyboardist and arranger in the pop field. Babylon shunned his father’s business, leaving Maryland for Los Angeles where he established himself as a session musician during the early eighties. This period saw Babylon play for short bursts with psychedelic-prog giants Iron Butterfly, and – changing tack completely – lining up behind successful seventies R & B family, Tavares. (He also worked with Zak Starkey’s band Ashton, and Michael Jackson-collaborator Siedah Garrett, on her major dance hit ‘K.I.S.S.I.N.G’ (1987).)

Elton John went so far as to describe the keyboardist as one of the most talented musicians he’d ever met, signing Babylon up as a full-time member of his band in 1988. The keyboardist’s work was a major part of John’s
Sleeping with the Past
album (1989), a record that, in Britain, gave the bespectacled star his first charttopping album since 1974 and his long-awaited first-ever number-one single in ‘Sacrifice/Healing Hands’ (1990). Babylon stayed with John for the records
The One
(1992),
Made in England
(1995),
The Big Picture
(1997),
Peachtree Road
(2004 – for which he arranged all tracks) – all of which maintained US platinum status for the singer – and
The Captain & The Kid
(2006), which didn’t. The musician also won a Grammy for his arrangements for the musical
Aida
(2001).