2021

Robbie Shakespeare from Sly and Robbie died on December 8, 2021

Robbie Shakespeare (September 27, 1953 – December 8, 2021) was a Jamaican bass guitarist and record producer, best known as half of the reggae rhythm section and production duo Sly and Robbie, with drummer Sly Dunbar. Robert Warren Dale Shakespeare (Robbie Shakespeare) grew up in East Kingston, Jamaica. He had a musical family, such that “his family home was a rehearsal and hangout spot for a variety of upcoming musicians and singers.” His brother Lloyd had a band called the Emotions which rehearsed in the house.Robbie Shakespeare’s first instrument was an acoustic guitar that was always present in the home….
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Country music singer Stonewall Jackson died December 4, 2021

Stonewall Jackson (November 6, 1932 – December 4, 2021) was an American country music singer and musician who achieved his greatest fame during country’s “golden” honky tonk era of the 1950s and early 1960s. Stonewall Jackson was born in Tabor City, North Carolina the youngest of three children. Stonewall is not a nickname, he was named after Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. When Stonewall Jackson was two, his father died and his mother moved the family to Worth County in South Georgia, where he grew up working on his uncle’s farm. In 1950 Stonewall Jackson enlisted in the Navy and…
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Status Quo bassist Alan Lancaster died September 26, 2021

Alan Lancaster (February 7, 1949 – September 26, 2021) was born Alan Charles Lancaster and was an English musician, best known as a founding member and bassist of the legendary British rock band Status Quo. While attending Sedgehill Comprehensive School in London in 1962, Alan Lancaster befriended future Status Quo singer and guitarist Francis Rossi while playing in the school orchestra. With classmates Alan Key on drums and Jess Jaworski on keyboards, they formed a band called The Scorpions, who played their first gig at the Samuel Jones Sports Club in Dulwich. At a later gig at the sports club,…
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Nanci Griffith sadly died August 13, 2021

Nanci Griffith (July 6, 1953 – August 13, 2021) was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Nanci Griffith was the youngest of three children of Ruelene, a real estate agent and amateur actress, and Marlin Griffith, a graphic artist and barbershop quartet singer, and was born in Seguin, Texas and raised in Austin, Texas. Nanci Griffith learned to play the guitar by watching a PBS TV series hosted by Laura Weber and started to write her own songs. She began her career as a singer performing in a local coffeehouse, aged 12. At the age of 14, she did her…
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ZZ Top Bassist Dusty Hill died July 28, 2021

Dusty Hill (May 19, 1949 – July 28, 2021) was born Joe Michael “Dusty” Hill and was an American musician who was the bassist of the legendary rock band ZZ Top for more than 50 years. He also sang lead and backing vocals and played keyboards. Dusty Hill was born in Dallas, Texas, and raised in the Lakewood neighborhood of East Dallas. He attended Woodrow Wilson High School, where he played the cello and grew up listening to blues music, which he said was uncommon in white families, and recalled shocking the parents of his childhood friends when he brought…
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Slipknot’s Joey Jordison died July 26, 2021

Joey Jordison (April 26, 1975 – July 26, 2021) was born Nathan Jonas “Joey” Jordison and was an American musician and the original drummer and co-founder of the heavy metal band Slipknot, in which he was designated #1, and the guitarist for the horror punk supergroup Murderdolls. Joey Jordison was born in Des Moines, Iowa, to Steve and Jackie Jordison and had two younger sisters. He grew up in a rural area outside of Waukee where he used to play basketball on the street in front of his house. Joey embraced music at an early age, which he attributesd to…
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Kansas frontman Robby Steinhardt died July 17, 2021

Robert Eugene Steinhardt (May 25, 1950 – July 17, 2021), known as Robby Steinhardt, was an American rock violinist and singer best known for his work with the group Kansas, for which he was co-lead singer and frontman along with keyboardist Steve Walsh. Robby Steinhardt was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1950 and grew up in Lawrence, Kansas and was the adopted son of Ilse and Milton Steinhardt, who was the director of music history at the University of Kansas. Robby started violin lessons at age eight and was classically trained, attended Lawrence High School and was the concertmaster during…
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Rapper and singer Biz Markie died July 16, 2021

Marcel Theo Hall (April 8, 1964 – July 16, 2021) was known as Biz Markie and was an American rapper and singer. He was best known for his 1989 single “Just a Friend”, which became a Top 40 hit in several countries, was ranked 81st on VH1’s 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders in 2000, and was Number 100 on VH1’s list of the 100 greatest hip-hop songs of all time in 2008. Biz Markie was born in Manhattan in Harlem, New York City on April 8, 1964 and was raised on Long Island, where he spent his teenage years. Biz Markie…
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Skid Row’s Johnny Solinger died June 26, 2021

John Preston Solinger (August 7, 1965 – June 26, 2021) was known as Johnny Solinger and was an American singer known for being the lead vocalist of the hard rock/heavy metal band Skid Row from 1999 to 2015. Johnny Solinger moved to the Dallas–Fort Worth area as a young boy, where he was exposed to hard rock and country music, and fell in love with them both. In 1990, he formed the rock band Solinger in Dallas, recording four independent records “Solinger”, “Solinger II”, “Chain Link Fence”, and “Solinger Live”. He enjoyed live performance and radio success throughout the Southwest….
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Singer B J Thomas sadly died May 29, 2021

B J Thomas (August 7, 1942 – May 29, 2021) was born Billy Joe Thomas and was an American singer widely known for his pop, country and Christian hits of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Some of his most popular include “Hooked on a Feeling” (1968), “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” (1969), “(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song” (1975),[2] “Don’t Worry Baby” (1977) and “Whatever Happened to Old-Fashioned Love” (1983). “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance…
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