Rock ‘n’ Roll Heaven or Hell? A Look Back at The Musicians Who Died in 2024 (Videos)
The music industry lost some major movers and shakers this year. We said goodbye to Country icons Toby Keith, Joe Bonsall (the Oakridge Boys) and Kris Kristofferson, famed record producers Quincey Jones, Steve Albini and Richard Perry, a couple of Allman Brothers (Dickey Betts, Johnny Neel), Detroit rockers and Mowtown greats like MC5 and the Four Tops lost the last remaining members of and so many more! Read on as we pay tribute to these famed musicians. We hope you enjoy listening to these hits as much as we did looking them up.
Mary Weiss (75)
Born: Dec. 28, 1948. Died: Jan. 19, 2024
Chewing gum and with her stockings ripped, Mary Weiss was the poster girl for badass on the ’60s music scene. As lead vocalist of the girl group the Shangri-Las, Mary — flanked by her identical twin pals Marge and Mary Ann Ganser, and her sister Betty — sang with both attitude and tenderness in her distinct Queens, New York, accent. Boomers will never forget her pleading “I’ll never know (Know, know, know…)” in “Leader of the Pack,” the group’s biggest hit about a girl who falls in love with a motorcycle gang leader and loses him in a tragic accident. It reached No. 1 on the charts and was one of a trio of hits in 1964, along with “Remember (Walking in the Sand)” and “Give Him a Great Big Kiss.” She died in Palm Springs, California, of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and is survived by her third husband, Ed Ryan, and sister Betty, the only member of the Shangri-Las still alive.
Melanie (76)
Born: Feb. 3, 1947 Died: Jan. 23, 2024
As the year 1971 fed into 1972, America was busy singing the song that topped the charts: “Brand New Key,” written and sung by breezy beatnik Melanie, who grew up in New York and New Jersey, honed her craft at coffee houses in Greenwich Village, and became one of the few female solo artists to perform at Woodstock. In response to that festival of peace and love, she penned another of her signature songs, the rousing “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain),” released on an album that also included another original that’s been covered a few times: “What Have They Done to My Song Ma.” Fun fact: The singer won a 1989 Emmy for her Beauty and the Beast series theme song lyrics. She died after an illness at age 76.
Toby Keith (62)
Born: July 8, 1961 Died: Feb. 5, 2024
After his breakout single “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” in 1993, American country singing sensation Toby Keith became one of the most successful musicians in the genre during his three-decade tenure as a music chart-topper. In all, he recorded and released 19 studio albums and was nominated for seven Grammy Awards. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Donald Trump in 2021 and inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame soon after his death in February from stomach cancer.
Mojo Nixon (66)
Born: Aug. 2, 1957
Died: Feb. 7, 2024
Musician and actor, “Elvis Is Everywhere”
Veronica Loretta “Roni” Stoneman (85)
Born: May 5, 1938
Died: Feb. 22, 2024
Bluegrass banjo player and comedian, Hee-Haw
Steve Lawrence (88)
Born: July 8, 1935
Died: March 7, 2024
Singer and actor; formed pop duo with wife Eydie Gormé
Eric Carmen (74)
Born: Aug. 10, 1949
Died: March 10, 2024
Singer and frontman of the ‘70s group the Raspberries, “All By Myself,” “Hungry Eyes”
Dickey Betts (80)
Born: Dec. 12, 1943 Died: April 18, 2024
The stoic, longtime country/blues/jazz-influenced guitarist for the Allman Brothers Band began by letting his ax do the talking for him, writing lengthy, lyric-less jams such as “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” and “Les Brers in A Minor.” When the band’s frontman Duane Allman died in a 1971 motorcycle crash, Betts flourished as the group’s leader, and began to truly move forward, with hits such as “Blue Sky” and “Ramblin’ Man” (and, yes, the gorgeous instrumental “Jessica,” named for his daughter). The Gibson-playing maven, who regularly appeared on best-ever guitar lists, also maintained a prolific solo career (after being ousted from the band for excessive drug and alcohol use) before succumbing to cancer and COPD at his Florida home.
Mike Pinder (82)
Born: Dec. 27, 1941 Died: April 24, 2024
Keyboardist Mike Pinder, the last surviving original member of the 1960s groundbreaking Brit band the Moody Blues, was renowned for his technological contributions to rock music. Born in Birmingham, England, Pinder was an early proponent of the Mellotron — a keyboard that created a distinctive orchestral sound. He used that to full effect in 1967 on Days of Future Passed, considered by Moodies’ fans as their signature work and by critics as the first progressive rock album ever recorded. He played on the group’s first nine albums from 1965’s The Magnificent Moodies to Octave in 1978, but relocated to Northern California where he worked in the tech industry, only occasionally returning to the music scene. Six years after being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Pinder died peacefully at his home surrounded by his American wife, Tara Lee, and sons. No cause of death was given.
Duane Eddy (86)
Born: April 25, 1938
Died: April 29, 2024
Musician, “Rebel Rouser”
Richard Tandy (76)
Born: March 26, 1948 Died: May 1, 2024
The Electric Light Orchestra’s laid-back keyboardist Richard Tandy let his musical skills do the talking. He played Minimoog synthesizer, Wurlitzer electric piano, Clavinet, Mellotron and piano, all of which helped define the group’s trademark sound — a mix of pop, funk and classic orchestral arrangements. But fans will also remember him for his altered voice uttering the words “Mr. Blue Sky” on the group’s 1977 hit. Tandy, from Birmingham, England, joined local band ELO in 1972 after their first album. When they broke up in 1986, they had amassed 15 Top 20 songs in the U.S., 20 Top 40 hits and over 50 million records sold worldwide. Other hits include “Evil Woman,” “Strange Magic” and “Don’t Bring Me Down.” When cofounder/frontman Jeff Lynne re-formed ELO in 2001 for the Zoom album, Tandy was behind the keyboards again, center stage, and in 2015 for another incarnation — this time Jeff Lynne’s ELO. No cause of death was given but Tandy had been ill for a while. He is survived by his second wife, Sheila.
Steve Albini (61)
Born: July 22, 1962 Died: May 7, 2024
An audio engineer known for his “meticulous working methods” in the studio, Steve Albini is recognized for influencing the sound of indie and alternative bands like Nirvana and the Pixies. In addition to his work on Nirvana’s In Utero and the Pixies’ breakthrough album Surfer Rosa, Albini was the frontman for underground bands including Big Black and Shellac. He dismissed the term “producer” and refused to take royalties from the albums he worked on, charging only a flat fee. He died from a heart attack in Chicago, where he ran the recording studio Electrical Audio.
Joe Bonsall (76)
Born: May 18, 1948 Died: July 9, 2024
Only months after announcing he wouldn’t be part of the Oak Ridge Boys’ 50th anniversary tour, tenor vocalist and longtime member Joe Bonsall succumbed to complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Earlier he told Billboard, “My legs aren’t what they used to be.” For Bonsall, who spent five decades performing with the popular country and gospel quartet, the slow neuromuscular disease made walking impossible. Fans had prayed for him after several medical setbacks over the last few years, including a brush with death in 2022 when doctors gave him emergency treatment for pulmonary embolisms. “God is not through with me yet,” he tweeted. Bonsall will be remembered for singing on hits such as “Elvira,” “Bobbie Sue” and “American Made.” In 2015, he and his bandmates were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
John Mayall (90)
Born: Nov. 29, 1933 Died: July 22, 2024
Born in Macclesfield, England, in 1933, John Mayall developed a love of music at a young age. Inspired by his musician father and growing up on American jazz and blues, he learned how to play piano, harmonica and guitar. By the 1950s, he was performing with bands and eventually moved to London in the early ’60s. Bringing his love of the Chicago blues sound to Britain, he was considered a music pioneer. He created the band Bluesbreakers, and it was a revolving door for up-and-coming artists in the late 1960s and early 1970s, paving the way for Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce (they left to start Cream) and Mick Taylor (who played with Rolling Stones), plus pre-Fleetwood Mac musicians Peter Green, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood. After disbanding the Bluesbreakers, he put out the album Blues From Laurel Canyon in 1968 and shortly thereafter moved to America. While he may have never seen as much success as, say, Clapton, he still played well into his late 80s. He worked with many more artists over his long career and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last October under the Musical Influence Award.
Abdul Fakir (88)
Born: Dec. 26, 1935 Died: July 22, 2024
It is appropriate that Abdul “Duke” Fakir was born and died in Detroit, home of Motown Records, which is where he made his name. Fakir and buddy Levi Stubbs were convinced to sing one night with two kids from a neighboring high school — “Obie” Benson and Lawrence Payton — and the sound was so sweet that they joined forces, eventually under the name the Four Tops. The premier foursome became a signature quartet at “Hitsville U.S.A.” with charting singles in the 1960s and ’70s including “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch),” “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” “Ain’t No Woman” and “Baby, I Need Your Loving.” The group’s last surviving member (he was part of the group for over 70 years), the tenor Fakir retired not long before his death from heart failure.
Jack Russell (63)
Born: Dec. 5, 1960 Died: Aug. 7, 2024
Tragically, Great White, L.A.’s glammed-up hard rock group led by Jack Russell, will be remembered for more than just their platinum-selling albums Once Bitten (1987) and …Twice Shy (1989). After disbanding in 2001 they regrouped as Jack Russell’s Great White with catastrophic results. While playing a club gig at The Station in West Warwick, Rhode Island, a deadly fire caused by pyrotechnics used in their show killed 100 people including band member Ty Longley and injured 200 more. Russell was never charged, but Great White’s tour manager went to jail on manslaughter charges. The anguished frontman, described by one critic as “a sweet-piped singer who sounded like Robert Plant,” became a pariah in the music industry and remained haunted by the tragedy for the rest of his life. He began touring again in 2011, the year he and his girlfriend Heather Ann Kramer wed. In January 2024 he released his final studio recording, a collaboration with guitarist Tracii Guns, and in the summer announced he had Lewy body dementia and was retiring. A month later he was dead.
Greg Kihn (75)
Born: July 10, 1949
Died: Aug. 13, 2024
Musician, Greg Kihn Band, “Jeopardy,” “The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ‘Em)”
Sérgio Mendes (83)
Born: Feb. 11, 1941
Died: Sept. 5, 2024
Musician, Brazilian bossa nova pop pioneer, “Mas Que Nada”
Tito Jackson (70)
Born: Oct. 15, 1953 Died: Sept. 15, 2024
The story goes that Toriano Adaryll Jackson — Tito for short, the third of 10 Jackson children — was caught playing his stern father’s guitar after breaking a string. His talents were such that his dad bought Tito his own a guitar, leading to the start of the incomparable Motown combo the Jackson 5. Tito, a three-time Grammy nominee and a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, helped anchor the group through such memorable hits as “ABC,” “I Want You Back” and “I’ll Be There,” rising up from humble beginnings through an extraordinary career alongside his breakout star brother Michael. Along with the group’s tours and reunions, Tito had a successful solo career as a blues and soul artist and as a judge on a British music competition series. He died of a heart attack at age 70.
Freddie Salem (70)
Born: May 15, 1953
Died: Sept. 23, 2024
Guitarist for Southern Rock band the Outlaws
Kris Kristofferson (88)
Born: June 22, 1936 Died: Sept. 28, 2024
Kris Kristofferson had the gravelly growl and rugged looks of a true Texas-born troubadour. But his resumé was pure Renaissance man: Rhodes scholar, rugby star, bartender, Golden Gloves boxer, railroad worker, acclaimed singer-songwriter and actor, and Army Ranger who championed peace. Offered a teaching job at West Point, Kristofferson headed to Nashville instead, working odd jobs until he decided to put his Army skills to use and landed a helicopter in Johnny Cash’s front yard. Cash rewarded the stunt, recording Kristofferson’s “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” which won Song of the Year at the 1970 Country Music Association Awards and set Kristofferson’s songwriting career in motion. Hits like “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night” and “For the Good Times” followed as did a lengthy acting career, including the 1976 smash A Star Is Born costarring Barbra Streisand. The thrice-married Kristofferson was 88 when he died.
Johnny Neel (70)
Born: June 11, 1954 Died: Oct. 6, 2024
Deft keyboardist and harmonica player Johnny Neel was a musician’s musician. After losing his sight as an infant, he began writing music and recorded his first album at only 12 years of age. After moving to Nashville in 1984, he soon caught the attention of legendary Allman Brothers guitarist Dickey Betts and joined his band on tour. After hearing Neel’s work on the Dickey Betts Band’s 1988 album Pattern Disruptive, Gregg Allman became a major admirer and recruited him to tour with the Gregg Allman Band and later with the reunited Allman Brothers. Neel, who also owned a sound studio in Nashville and had a thriving solo career, played on the Allmans’ 1990 Seven Turns album and cowrote their hit comeback single “Good Clean Fun,” which went to No. 1 on Billboard’s mainstream rock chart. He died of heart failure.
Paul Di’Anno (66)
Born: May 17, 1958
Died: Oct. 21, 2024
Original Iron Maiden singer
Jack Jones (86)
Born: Jan. 14, 1938
Died: Oct. 23, 2024
Singer, “Lollipops and Roses,” “Wives and Lovers”, The Love Boat theme song
Phil Lesh (84)
Born: March 15, 1940 Died: Oct. 25, 2024
As the bass player for the world’s most renowned and beloved jam band the Grateful Dead, Phil Lesh appropriately developed a playing style that would be the perfect fit for the group’s sound, and, on his six-string bass, famously made the most of his notes accompanying guitarist Jerry Garcia’s solos, adding his own improvisational melodies. Beyond helping define the early era of the electric bass, Lesh (who said his playing was influenced by Bach) joined an early Garcia band after being fired by the post office for having long hair. “When Phil’s happening, the band’s happening,” is how Garcia described the man who composed the Dead’s 1970 song “Box of Rain” in order to have a tune to sing to his dying father.
Quincy Jones (91)
Born: March 14, 1933 Died: Nov. 3, 2024
CBS/courtesy Everett Collection
It’s hard to say what record producer and Grammy Award-winning musician Quincy Jones is most known for. Over the course of seven decades, the jack-of-all-trades artist produced three of the most successful Michael Jackson pop albums, composed many hit film scores, including songs for In the Heat of the Night, In Cold Blood, The Italian Job and The Wiz, and was the producer of the 1985 USA For Africa “We Are the World” megastar collaboration. Time magazine named him one of the most influential jazz musicians of the 20th century. Jones had seven children with five different women including Parks & Rec star Rashida Jones. Rashida’s mother, actress Peggy Lipton, was Jones’ third wife. He died at his home in Bel-Air from pancreatic cancer.
Dennis Byron ( 76)
Born: April 14, 1949
Died: Nov. 14, 2024
Colin Petersen (78)
Born: March 24, 1946
Died: Nov. 18, 2024
Both drummed for the Bee Gees
Slim Dunlap (73)
Born: Aug. 14, 1951
Died: Dec. 18, 2024
Musician, guitar player for the Replacements
Remind 