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Hey, it's Alan. And I just wanted to let you know that you can now listen to the ongoing history of new music, early and ad free on Amazon Music included with Prime. What's that line from Pink Floyd's Dark side of the Moon? Shorter of breath and one day closer to death. Yeah, eventually that day will come for all of us. The longer the age of rock continues, the higher the attrition rate. We're seeing a slow acceleration of musicians leaving this world, and as old age, the results of decades of a not so healthy lifestyle and other infirmities take them away, they're sometimes taken by accidents and occasionally crime. I think we first noticed the beginning of a slow moving mass extinction in late 2015, when we lost Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots and Lemmy for Motorhead in less than a month. Then came 2016. David Bowie, Prince, Glenn Frey of the Eagles, a couple of members of Jefferson Airplane on the same day, Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lincoln Palmer, George Michael, and so many more. It was probably then that it dawned on us that our musical heroes were mortal. They were getting older. And looking back over my calendar from that year, I did dozens and dozens of media interviews about musicians who had passed on. Radio stations also started having me produce obituaries in advance so they could be ready with tributes the moment one was needed. I created about a hundred of them, and at least a third of them have been used so far. Last year, reality continued to tap us on the shoulder, and it's time again to remember who we lost over the last 12 months. This is 2025, a tribute to rock stars who aren't here to see 2026. This is the ongoing History of New Music podcast with Alan Cross. Welcome again, I'm Alan Cross and, well, there's no way around it. This is not a happy show. In fact, it's probably the saddest episode of the year. Then again, it is an opportunity to pay tribute to the musicians who we lost in 2025. They're gone. But that's the thing about being a musician. The songs they left behind will remain with us for many, many years. I'm going to go through a list of deaths from 2025, and I'll tell you right now that this list is not comprehensive because we just don't have time to cover all the rips that happened. And because there are so many, I'm probably going to miss a few. And for that I apologize in advance. The passing with the most coverage had to be that of Ozzie, who died on July 22, two weeks after that final Back to the Beginning concert in Birmingham. The fact that he made it to that show and was well enough to perform as well as he did is something of a miracle. He was already very sick with Parkinson's and chronic pain stemming from various injuries and surgeries. There were also bouts of pneumonia. There were blood clots, sepsis, injuries from falls, and more. Two weeks before the gig, he was secretly hospitalized. We don't know why. The family has never said, but apparently it was touch and go. Ozzie, though, rallied. The prospect of being able to perform one more time kept him motivated, and somehow they did manage to keep that secret. Every precaution was taken to make sure that nobody found out. There was a lot of security, and hospital staff were very vigilant when it came to keeping the secret. Still, rumors floated out and a few people tried to visit. One guy walked up to the desk and said, I'm here to see John Osborne. John Osborne is Ozzy's real name. I'm his brother. He said he was turned away on the grounds that he was an imposter, probably a member of the press. But it turns out that there was another John Osborne in that same hospital, and this guy was his actual brother. Ozzy essentially went from the hospital to rehearsals for the show. He was determined to make it, and he did. After the gig, his health deteriorated. He had a final breakfast with his family on July 20th, and if you care to look, the family posted video of that online. He managed to finish dictating the last bit of another autobiography the day before he died. It's now out under the title Last rites. Then, on July 22, the end. An air ambulance was dispatched and EMS personnel tried to revive him, but it was too late. The official cause of death was a heart attack brought on by coronary artery disease. Ozzie was 76. Here were his last words to fans.
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Here we are. First, let me get the thank yous out the way, because I'm not going to bore you with a long, drawn out monologue. I'd like to thank whoever voted me into the Rock and Roll hall of Fame for my sorrow work. A great thank you. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, I really thank you, thank you, thank you. My fans have been so loyal to me over the years. I cannot thank them enough. I've been fortunate over the years to praise with some of them, world's greatest guitar players, drummers, bass players. Few of them are here tonight, but I want to spend one one thing for a guy by the name of Randy Rhodes. If I hadn't met Randy Rhodes, I don't think I'd be sitting here now. I'm also more than that. My wife Sharon saved my life and my grandbabies are my bit. I love them all.
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For the rest of this RIP list for 2025, let's go through things in chronological order. Peter Yarrow, the Peter in the famous folk group Peter, Paul and mary, died on January 7th at the age of 76. It was bladder cancer two days after that. Sam Moore, one half of the soul group Sam and Dave, died at 89 due to complications from surgery. On January 13, P fluid of the pioneering Bronx mixed race rap funk rock metal band 247 Spies, died. His real name was Peter Forrest and he was the band's original frontman. That day he'd been found beaten to death in the back of an abandoned ambulance bus that he'd been driving. A 29 year old man was arrested four days later and charged with his murder. And although he's best known as a filmmaker, I'm going to mention David lynch here. Along with making movies like Blue Velvet and TV shows like Twin Peaks, he was also a painter, a writer, a cartoonist and a musician. His best known work is probably a 1989 work called Floating into the Night released by Julie Cruz. He produced the album and wrote all the lyrics in collaboration with his friend Angelo Badalamente. Songs from the album were featured in other projects. You might remember this great dream pop track. David lynch died on January 15th at the age of 78. The cause of death was cardiac arrest brought on by emphysema, made worse by the Southern California wildfires. As an aside to that David lynch produced track, singer Julie Cruz took her own life in 2022 after a painful case of lupus and depression. Garth Hudson, the mighty organist of the band, died on January 21. He was in poor health for years and died in a nursing home in Woodstock, New York on January 21st at the age of 87. We lost a punk in the form of Edwina Banger. She was a member of 70s Manchester bands like the Nosebleeds and Slaughter and the Dogs. She was formerly known as Ed Garrity and Ed Banger before her transition. The Nosebleeds were interesting in that they featured a pre Smith Morrissey and a pre Cult Billy Duffy. At one point, no Cause of Death was released. 60s icon Marianne Faithfull died on January 30th at the age of 78. She was part of the whole Rolling Stones entourage and had a series of hit Singles and albums herself. If you're not familiar with her work, check out her 1979 album Broken English. It is an incredibly powerful album even today. There was no official cause of death, but she'd been battling emphysema, bulimia and breast cancer for years. She also got hit really hard by COVID 19 Dave Jordan was a highly regarded record producer and engineer. His resume included work on albums by Talking Heads, Frank Zappa, chili peppers, rolling stone, 5440, social distortion, Jane's addiction, Alice in Chains, Big Wreck and dozens of others. He died on February 5. He was 75 when he died and the cause of death was not given. And we lost Rick Buckler, the drummer of the Jam. After Paul Weller left the group, it was up to him and bass player Bruce Foxton to keep the legacy of the band alive. Rick wrote several books on the group. He was scheduled to go on a North American speaking tour and it looked like I was going to be involved in some capacity. But then early this year he fell sick with an undisclosed illness and died shortly thereafter on February 17th. David Johansson of the New York Dolls died in 2025. He was the frontman of one of the most important of all the pre punk bands. When the group ended after some disastrous management by Malcolm McLaren, he moved on to other things. You may remember a singer named Buster Poindexter. That was him. He did an amazing cover of the song Hot Hot Hot. David also did a lot of acting. If you remember the movie Scrooged. He's the crazy cab driver that takes Bill Murray on a wild ride. He was in TV shows like the Equalizer, a couple of documentaries, and he voiced some kids animated shows. In 2020 he was diagnosed with stage four brain cancer which forced him to retire. Then in November 2024 he fell and broke his back in two places that required surgery that was so expensive. This is the US after all, that his stepdaughter had to launch a fundraiser. But the operation never happened because the brain cancer finally took him on February 28th. He was 75. Brian James had quite a career. He played in more than a dozen bands, including punk pioneers the Damned as well as the Lords of the New Church. It was bladder cancer. He was 74 and Canadian alt rock suffered a loss with the passing of Kevin Staples. He was one half of Rough Trade with Carroll Pope. I guess we can call them new wave or post punk, but the truth is there was no one like Rough Trade. They had a heck of a run from the late 70s through to about the mid-80s Carol got all the attention, but Kevin was always there through their last recording in 2020. And about that last recording, this was a reissue, a redo a reimagination of High School Confidential, which when it first appeared in 1980 was scandalous because of its lesbian themes. The 2020 version wasn't a remix or anything like that. This was a brand new recording. So let's have a listen to that. Rough trade with the 2020 version of their 1980 hit High School Confidential. Keyboardist Kevin Staples died of cancer on March 23rd. Back with more of our memoriam for 2025 in just a moment.
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Year Same extra value meals at McDonald's, so now get two snack wraps plus fries and a medium soft drink for just $8 for a limited time only. Prices and participation may vary. Prices may be in Hawaii, Alaska and California. And for delivery this is our annual look at the musicians we lost over the previous 12 months. Because rock stars we've always known are aging, we're having to deal with this sort of thing more and more. Gang of Four, the British post punk band who influenced the Chili Peppers, Nirvana, Rage against the Machine, Franz Ferdinand, the Killers and so many others, lost another member in 2025. Dave Allen, the bass player and an original member the died on April 5th at the age of 69. He'd been suffering from early onset dementia. Then just two days later, we lost another big name from the 70s and 80s. The original drummer with Blondie, Clem Burke, died of cancer on April 6. After getting their start at CBGB with all the other artsy bands, they became the biggest of all American New wave bands, selling over 40 million records, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of fame in 2006. Clem was on every single Blondie record with Deborah Harry and Chris Stein. He also subbed in as a drummer with Ramones for a bit. They gave him the name Elvis Ramone for the two gigs he played. He worked with the romantics for about 15 years and he played on albums by Iggy Pop, Eurythmics and get this, Bob Dylan and Nancy Sinatra. And this is interesting. Clem was involved in an eight year study jointly run by two English universities that looked at the physical and psychological effects of being a professional drummer. That netted him an honorary Doctor of Music. He continued that work with something called the Clem Burke Drummer Project. There are too many other musical projects to count. But it all came to an end when Clem died of cancer on April 6th at the age of 70. No one, except the people closest to him even knew he was sick. One way or another I want to.
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Find you I'm gonna get you Get Check it. One way or another I'm gonna win.
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You I'll get ya, I'll get ya. Less than a week after Blondie's Clem Burke died, producer Roy Thomas Baker passed away. He was an English producer who worked mostly out of the famous Trident Studios in London. His clients included David Bowie, the who, Santana and later Jet. But he'll be remembered mostly for guiding Queen through their biggest years and including the production of Bohemian Rhapsody in 1975. He helped the Cars find their distinctive sound with their debut album and then stayed with them through three more. He moved to the US to work with Elektra Records as an A and R person. He continued to record and consult with Motley Crue, Metallica, Journey, Foreigner, Simply, Red, Guns N Roses, Ozzy Devo, the Stranglers, Smashing Pumpkins, the Darkness and so many others. Chances are you've got a Roy Thomas Baker produced album or six in your collection. He was 78 when he died on April 12. David Thomas, the frontman with the distinctive voice for Cleveland pre punk band Per Ubu, passed away on April 23. Per Ubu never got the attention they deserved, but as far as I'm concerned, they were very important to the rise of a new kind of American rock in the 1970s. He'd been sick for a while and required a walker to get around. And he'd also been suffering kidney disease and required dialysis. And then there was Mike Peters of the Alarm. This is a story. The Alarm came out of Wales in the late 70s and we're part of that cohort of bands who made what some call big music. Think U2 and the water Boys and you'll understand what I mean. I saw the Alarm a number of times and I can tell you that Mike was one of the best frontmen I've ever seen. Talk about energy and passion. But in 1995 he was diagnosed with lymphoma. He beat that. But in 2005 he was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. That's when he and a fellow leukemia patient founded the Love Hope Strength foundation, and its mission was to advocate for other leukemia sufferers and to raise money for research. Again, he beat the disease, and he made a BBC documentary chronicling his whole journey. Then in 2007, he and 38 other musicians from bands like the Fixture, Squeeze and the Stray Cats led a trek to Mount Everest base camp, and they performed the highest concert ever conducted on land at 5,364 meters, or 17,598ft. More money was raised for cancer research, and then after that came a campaign to promote the importance of donating bone marrow. Everything was just fine up until September 2022, when his cancer returned. While seeking treatment, he learned that his leukemia had turned into something called Richter's syndrome, which is a more aggressive form of the disease. Clinical trials and T cell therapy followed, but this time there was no winning. Mike died on April 29th at the age of 66. His funeral was a month later in his Welsh hometown. There was a big musical tribute in the Village Square, and 2,000 fans showed up outside the church watching the ceremony on a big screen. Through it all, Mike remained positive and he never gave up. He channeled all that musical energy into energy that helped others. No wonder he's a hero in Wales. Let's go through a few more souls we lost in 2025. Jill Soulbuel, who was part of that contingent of strong female alt rock singers in the 1990s and the singer of the hit I Kissed a girl in 1995, died at the age of 66. She died in a house fire that started at around 5:30 in the morning of May 1. She was staying at a friend's house in rural Minnesota, east of Minneapolis, and she couldn't get out of her second floor bedroom. The cause of the fire was suspicious. Guitarist Rick Derringer, the guy behind the 1973 hit Rock and Roll Hoochie Coo, suffered some sort of medical crisis which resulted in him being put on life support. This came two months after he had a triple bypass. So it sounds like his death on May 26 may have had something to do with his surgery. If you pay close attention to the credits of the Simpsons, you'll remember the name Alf Clausen. He composed all the music for the show between 1990 and 2017, outside of the opening theme, which is Danny Elfman. He also did music for other TV shows and movies, including Ferris Bueller's Day off. He was 84 when he died, and it was progressive supranuclear palsy, which is like a supercharged version of Parkinson's. Sly Stone, the groundbreaking synthesizer of funk, soul and rock in the late 60s and early 70s, died on June 9. He led a really interesting life, filled with drug issues, arrests and time in jail. By the end of the first decade of the 21st century, he was living in a camper van in the same area of Los Angeles made famous by the movie Boyz N the Hood. Eventually his situation was discovered and a lawsuit was filed on his behalf, and he ended up getting $5 million in royalties that was denied to him by his manager. That resulted in something of a comeback until he died of COPD and at the age of 84. Two days later, another complicated giant was gone. Brian Wilson, the brains behind the Beach Boys, died in his sleep in Beverly Hills. His battles with mental health went back as far as the 1960s. In the 2010s, cognitive impairment set in, but he continued to make music and tour. But after a tour in 2022, he contracted Covid, which turned into Long Covid. He hung on for three years. His death certificate listed respiratory failure complicated by sepsis, cystitis, and a host of other things. And the same day Brian died, Douglas McCarthy, the vocalist for Nightsareb, passed away. I want to mention them because they were a big part of the industrial music scene of the 1980s. That set the stage for groups like Nine Inch Nails. In the 1990s, Night Zera played what they called electronic body music, which back then was considered to be a very aggressive descendant of early 80s techno pop. And what they did rubbed off on Ministry, Depeche Mode, Skinny Puppy Rammstein and the Prodigy. I played them a lot on the radio and in clubs back then. Nights of Reb kept going for years, but McCarthy didn't make it through a 2021 tour and had to be hospitalized. He eventually got back to work, but he had to retire in 2024 because of cirrhosis of the liver, which he admits was the result of years of alcohol abuse. He was 58 when he died. Masto nights are EV featuring vocalist Douglas MacArthur from 1987. More notable deaths in music from 2025. In just a second, Amadeus. Yeah, that Amadeus. Shows up in Vienna at 25. He's jobless, totally free from his dad and ready to make some noise. He finds love in an amazing partner, Constance Weber, and suddenly he's dropping beats that nobody can ignore. Salieri was convinced that Amadeus was God's chosen one. So he had to be silenced. Tune in to the story of history's most infamous musical rivalry, Amadeus. All new Mondays on Showcase Stream on Stack tv. This is our annual tribute to rock musicians who passed on over the last 12 months, and we're going through things in chronological order. Patrick Walden was best known for being the guitarist in the English indie band Baby Shambles, along with Pete Docherty. His life was colorful. There were drug issues, time in rehab and charges of theft. When he died on June 25 at the age of 46, he was pursuing a degree in jazz composition. It's not known how he died, but indications were that he was still struggling with addiction. Mick Ralphs of both Mottla Hoople and Bad Company passed away on June 23 at the age of 81. Sometime in the early 2000s, he suffered a stroke and was bedridden. He died in a personal care home on June 23rd. Then we have Brendan Burke. He was a member of the Canadian band royal canoe. On July 1, the day before his 43rd birthday, he was headed north on Highway 10 through Duck Mountain Provincial park in the northwestern part of Manitoba when a southbound vehicle swerved to the right and crashed into Brendan's car, which apparently was parked on the side of the road. He and his partner, Olivia Melkalchuk, died instantly. It was 3:30 in the afternoon and a third person, somebody from the other car, also died. If you're a fan of Spinal Tap, well, you know all about Rob Reiner. You'll know that in addition to the three main guys, Nigel Tufnell, Derek Smalls and David St. Hubbins, they had a keyboardist named Viv Savage. Viv Savage's part was played by David Kaff, and he died of perfectly natural causes on July 11 at the age of 79. Brendan Hines, a founding member of the Atlanta metal band Mastodon, died in a motorcycle crash. His bike ran into a BMW SUV and an investigation pointed to Hines driving dangerously at the time. He was 51. Rick Davies was one of the songwriters in Supertramp with Roger Hodgson. He wrote so many of their hits. He was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2015 and died of complications relating to that disease on September 6th. He was 81. Stephen Liscombe was the keyboardist with the English 80s synth band Blamage. They had hits like Living on the Ceiling, Blind Vision and the Day before you Came. Muscomb had heart issues and was almost killed by an aortic aneurysm in 2012, but he survived. He died on September 13th at the age of 70. John Lodge was an important member of the Moody blues since the 1960s. He passed away suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 82 on October 10th. Tommy Price, legendary drummer who played with Billy Idol and Joan Jett, was suddenly gone on October 10th. No cause of death was given. He was 68. And then we have the case of Ian Watkins, the former frontman of the band, lost profits and a convicted pedophile. This man was unspeakably evil when it came to child sex abuse. He was stabbed to death by fellow inmates in a British jail where he was serving a sentence of 35 years. He was 48. Original Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley, a guy who prompted so many kids to pick up a guitar in the 1970s, died on October 16. He fell twice, the first time in his studio. Then there was a second fall down a flight of stairs, during which he hit the back of his head really, really hard. There was a brain bleed and the situation was declared hopeless, so his family made the painful decision to remove him from life support. Sam Rivers was the bass player and a founding member of Limp Bizkit. He died in his Florida home at the age of 48 on October 18th. He was in the bathroom at the time and was found face down in a pool of blood. And it looks like the cause of death was a pulmonary embolism. He'd already had a liver transplant in 2018 and was on all kinds of medication. Then there's Dave Ball, one half of the British technopop duo SoftCell. Mark Allman was out front, while Dave stayed in the back on keyboards and various electronics. He later became a producer and remixer. When his health started to decline, he couldn't tour with Mark in a revived soft cell, as he would have liked what he did, which was rare. He performed in a wheelchair. He'd suffered several issues, including fractured vertebrae in his spine, five cracked ribs and a broken wrist. This led to a bad case of pneumonia and sepsis, and that necessitated a medically induced coma. He was in the hospital for seven months. So if you saw Soft sell Open for simple minds in their 2025 tour, that wasn't Dave behind. Mark Ball was far too ill to go on the road. He died in his sleep at home on October 22nd at the age of 66. And this happened just days after the two completed a final album, Take My Tears and that's Not Nilly. Here are a few more deaths in 2025. Gilson Lavis, the drummer for Squeeze in the original days, passed away on November 5th at the age of 74. He'd suffered from alcoholism earlier in his life, but had been sober for a while. He remained a supporter of AA until he died. Jimmy Cliff, the great reggae pioneer, died at 81 on November 24th. He preceded Bob Marley when it came to the rise of reggae and was a national hero in Jamaica. He had many hits and won a couple of Grammys. He suffered a seizure and then contracted a fatal case of pneumonia. Steve Cropper, the legendary guitarist of Booker T and the MGs and all those recordings on Stax Records, not to mention a member of the Blues Brothers band, died on Dec. 3. He was 84. Chris Rhea, the British singer, died of complications, also from a stroke, on Dec. 22. He was 74. The following day, Jack Pedler, one time drummer with Teenage Head, passed away at 72 on Christmas Eve. Perry Bamonte, the guitarist and keyboardist for the Cure for a very long stretch starting in the early 90s, died at 65 after a short illness. He started as a guitar tech for the band and worked his way up to being a full member. And on the same day, we lost Howie Klein, a very important American DJ and record executive. He died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 77. And finally we have Manny, the bass player of the Stone Roses and later of Primal Scream. Gary Mountfield, that was his full name, was a seriously good bass player. When he and drummer Alan Rennie Wren locked in, they gave the Stone Roses a powerful groove, one that helped invent Manchester and the dance rock of the very late 80s and early 1990s with songs like I Want to Be Adored. Manny's Rickenbacker bass carried so much of the song. When I went to see the Roses play at Maniton Square Garden, the crowd sang the bass part before Ian Brown's vocals kicked in. And thus endeth the saddest ongoing history episode of the year. We'll have to do this again in 12 months because, well, we'll continue to lose our rock heroes as they age out of existence. And considering how many of them are now in their 70s and 80s, we are going to have to deal with a lot of really heavy stuff in the coming years. If you want to get caught up on years of ongoing history episodes, hundreds of them are available as podcasts. Just download and go. And you can download them from wherever there are podcasts. In other words, everywhere. While you're there, consider having a listen to my other podcast, Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry. That's my true crime meets music program. If you like the dark stuff, it's there. I've got my website ajournalofmusicalthings.com, it's updated every day of the year. It comes with a free newsletter that covers the music news of the day and we can meet on all of the social media programs. Finally, all emails can go to AllenAllencross CA. And yes, I answer all my own email. Technical Productions by Rob Johnston I'm Alan Cross.
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