Norman Lear was a man of modest physical stature, standing a trim 5’7″ on a good day. In terms of his impact on television — comedy primarily, but the medium as a whole — he was a giant, who belongs on any Mt. Rushmore of showrunners. He dominated an entire …
Read More »
Henry Kissinger died on Wednesday at his home inConnecticut, his consulting firm said in a statement. The notorious war criminal was 100. Measuring purely by confirmed kills, the worst mass murderer ever executed by the United States was the white-supremacist terrorist Timothy McVeigh. On April 19, 1995, McVeigh detonated a …
Read More »
Shane MacGowan, the sandpapery-voiced former Pogues frontman who served as the bridge between traditional Irish folk music and punk rock, died on Thursday at the age of 65. MacGowan’s wife, Victoria Clarke, confirmed the musician’s death in a statement. The BBC wrote that MacGowan “died peacefully at 3.30am this morning …
Read More »
Jean Knight, whose 1971 smash hit “Mr. Big Stuff” spent five weeks at Number One on the R&B charts and hit Number Two on the Pop charts, has died at the age of 80, her longtime friend Bernie Cyrus confirmed to Rolling Stone. Knight died on Nov. 22, her family …
Read More »
Killing Joke guitarist Kevin “Geordie” Walker’s influence is vast: Metallica attempted to emulate his guitar snarl on their cover of “The Wait”; Kurt Cobain admittedly ripped off his riff to “Eighties” for “Come As You Are”; LCD Soundsystem synthesized his riff on “Change” and turned it into “Losing My Edge.” …
Read More »
When Nashville songwriter Abe Stoklasa died last week at 36, he left behind a catalog that frequently probed the dark corners of daily life. In many of his songs, love sucked, gainful work was elusive, and the choice between redemption and destruction was often decided by a single step. Even …
Read More »
Rosalynn Carter, former first lady and wife of Jimmy Carter, as well as a devoted housing and mental health advocate, died on Sunday, Nov. 19, at her home in Plains, Georgia while surrounded by family, the Carter Center announced. She was 96. “Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I …
Read More »
George Brown, the co-founder, drummer, and songwriter for Kool & the Gang, died Thursday, Nov. 16, after a battle with cancer. He was 74. A rep for Kool & the Gang confirmed Brown’s death in a statement shared with Rolling Stone. Brown’s family asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations …
Read More »
Matthew Perry — who played the charmingly lovable and endlessly quotable Chandler Bing on the sitcom Friends, died Saturday at the age of 54, law enforcement sources confirmed to Rolling Stone. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department said that police “responded at 4:10 this afternoon to a death …
Read More »
Richard Roundtree, who starred as the memorable detective in 1971’s Shaft, died Tuesday. He was 81. “Richard’s work and career served as a turning point for African American leading men in film,” Patrick McMinn, who was his manager since 1987, said in a statement. He told the Hollywood Reporter that …
Read More »