The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (160 page)

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Frank Zappa

(The Mothers of Invention)

How Zappa made it into his fifties is remarkable when one takes on board the events that befell him in early December 1971. The Mothers were in Switzerland for a concert in Montreux when it all kicked off: an overexcited devotee chose to show his appreciation for Zappa by firing a flare into the ceiling, the resulting inferno destroying not only the venue, but also every last scrap of the musicians’ equipment - save one cowbell. Zappa was upset by this (even rumoured to be suicidal) but opted to abandon further Continental dates for a couple of shows at London’s Rainbow Theatre. At the end of the first of these, a jealous fan - 24-year-old Trevor Howell, whose girlfriend had a crush on Zappa - decided to attack the singer. In front of hundreds of onlookers, Zappa plunged ten feet into the orchestra pit, break-ing his leg, injuring his spine and damaging his larynx. The artist (briefly rumoured to be dead by those gathered outside) was confined to a wheelchair for nine months and never sang the same way again. Howell served just one year of stir for his trouble.

The Swiss incident had a silver lining for Deep Purple, watching from the audience that night. The British rock behemoths sensibly evacuated the premises, watched the blaze from their hotel and promptly wrote a song about it - ‘Smoke on the Water’.

Sunday 5

Doug Hopkins

(Tempe, Arizona, 11 April 1961)

The Gin Blossoms

(Various acts)

He might have had it all. Singer and guitarist Doug Hopkins was one of the more gifted of the new breed of US songwriters, but he took his own life just months before a major breakthrough saw The Gin Blossoms – the Arizona band he had helped form – become serious contenders. Hopkins had dabbled in music for many years, initially fronting Moral Majority with school-friend Bill Leen, whom he had taught to play bass. Various bands, such as The Psalms and Ten O’Clock Scholars, came and went before The Gin Blossoms (apparently named in honour of W C Fields’s complexion) began in earnest in 1986, Hopkins and Leen eventually joined by singer Jesse Valenzuela, rhythm guitarist Robin Wilson and Philip Rhodes, already the band’s third drummer. A tight, popular unit, The Gin Blossoms signed to A&M early in 1990, and a number of Hopkins-composed tunes made up the strong second album,
New Miserable Experience
(1992). The band thus became a staple of radio and MTV rotation. But by now Doug Hopkins was no longer in the band. From an early age he had suffered spells of severe depression, all too readily deflected with binge drinking – something with which his bandmates could no longer deal: by 1992 they had replaced the guitarist with Scott Johnson. A bitter wrangle over future royalties ensued, the rest of the band attempting to buy Hopkins out for $15K A year on, the musician – now with struggling band The Chimeras (whom he dramatically quit on stage) – could only stand and watch as two of his contributions, ‘Hey Jealousy’ and the fabulous ‘Found out about You’ became international hits, while the parent album shifted 3 million copies.

Increasingly embittered by both his former band’s success and a split from his live-in girlfriend, Doug Hopkins – who had attempted suicide on six previous occasions – left rehabilitation, purchased a .38 from a pawn shop and ended his life at home in Tempe. Although they were to enjoy Top Ten success with a third album
Congratulations
…
I’m Sorry
(1996), The Gin Blossoms clearly lacked something without Hopkins, and disbanded in 1997.

Sunday 19

Michael Clarke

(Michael James Dick - Spokane, Washington, 3 June 1944)

The Byrds

The Flying Burrito Brothers

Firefall

Drummer with the legendary West Coast country-rock band The Byrds at the very height of their success, Michael Clarke remained in the seat throughout the group’s best years. Having met singer/guitarist Roger (then Jim) McGuinn and early member David Crosby while playing the bars and coffee houses of San Francisco, Clarke was
in situ
for The Byrds’ breakthrough cover of Dylan’s ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ (1965) (but was not to hear his work on the charttopping version, session men having been brought in to rerecord pretty much the whole song, bar McGuinn’s trademark playing). For the next year or so, The Byrds – Clarke, Crosby, McGuinn, singer/writer Gene Clark and bassist Chris Hillman – were the top rock act across the USA, but the spectre of the session drummer was to return to haunt Clarke. After a flurry of excellent albums, the percussionist became disillusioned with a band that – unsurprisingly, given the wealth of talent therein – was pulling in different directions. He quit during the recording sessions for the 1967 album
The Notorious Byrd Brothers
(for which he co-wrote ‘Artificial Energy’), much of his work rerecorded before the album’s issue.

After a spell with Hillman in The Flying Burrito Brothers, Clarke founded soft-rockers Firefall with fellow Burrito, vocalist Rick Roberts. This mellow band – who scored a number of US hits starting with ‘You are the Woman’ (1976) – were ideally suited to the soft-rock excesses of the decade, and Clarke enjoyed a lifestyle of some wealth and hedonism. Although publicly anti-drugs, he was an infamous drinker. Reforming The Byrds during the eighties, Clarke won a court battle with Crosby, Hillman and McGuinn, and joined Gene Clark on tour until the latter’s death (
May 1991).
Working until his own death from liver failure two years later, Clarke cut a sorry figure, years of alcohol abuse leaving him an emaciated shadow of his former self. He died at home in Treasure Island, Florida.

See also
Clarence White (
July 1973); Gram Parsons (
September 1973). Another former Byrds drummer, Kevin Kelley, died in 2002.

‘The first record was really Doug. It’s a beautiful record and Doug was an intricate part of it.’

Jesse Valenzuela, singer, The Gin Blossoms

Lest We Forget

Other notable deaths that occurred sometime during 1993 :

Bingy Bunny
(Jamaican reggae guitarist with The Morwells and Roots Radics who also played with many big dancehall names; born Kingston, 23/9/1955; prostate cancer, 1/1993)

Charizma
(US MC who partnered producer Peanut Butter Wolf; born Charles Hicks, San Jose, California, 6/7/1973; shot attempting to resist an unprovoked assault, 12/1993)

Johnny Cymbal
(Scottish-born US pop crooner with a good line in romantic ballads - though his biggest hit was ‘Cinnamon’ under the pseudonym Derek; born John Blair, Ochiltree, Scotland, 3/2/1945; heart attack while asleep, 16/3)

Nigel Dixon
(UK rock/rockabilly singer with Whirlwind and Havana 3am; born Middlesex, 1956; cancer, 3/4 -just months ahead of Whirlwind drummer Phil ‘Foghorn’ Hardy’s similar passing)

Marv Johnson
(noted early Motown singer who scored a transatlantic Top Tenner with 1959’s ‘You Got What it Takes’; born Michigan, 15/10/1938; stroke at a backstage party, 16/5)

Criss Oliva
(US metal guitarist who formed Savatage with his vocalist brother Jon; born New Jersey, 3/4/1963; car crash, 17/10 - his widow survived but was found dead at home 12 years later)

Panhead
(Jamaican dancehall DJ; born Anthony Johnson, St Mary, 1966; shot to death outside a club in Spanish Town, 10/1993)

Root Boy Slim
(notorious singer with Washington politico-punks The Sex-Change Band; born Foster Mackenzie III, North Carolina, 9/7/1945; natural causes, 8/6)

Andy Stewart
(jovial if stereotypical Scots entertainer who hit the UK Top Five in 1989 with his reissued ‘Donald Where’s Your Troosers?’; born Glasgow, 30/12/1933; heart condition, 11/10)

Sun Ra
(groundbreak-ing pianist who influenced many jazz/funk acts; born Herman Sunny Blount, Alabama - or Saturn, as he liked to insist - 22/5/1914; stroke, 30/5)