It is generally agreed, no matter what genre of music you are into, that 2016 was a bad year for losing legends of popular music. We pay respect to those who have left us this year.
2016 started badly with the loss of American rock drummer Jason Mackenroth (Rollins Band, Mother Superior) in the first week of the year and it got progressively worse throughout right up until the final week of the year when British pop superstar George Michael died. In between we lost true legends like Prince, David Bowie, Glenn Frey & Rick Parfitt amongst many other greats.
It doesn’t really matter whether you are into Rock, Metal & Blues like the good folk at Maximum Volume or you also venture out into other genres like Soul, Jazz, Pop, Indie etc. Every music fan will have lost someone they admired this year and will raise a whiskey and play their music in tribute as they see the year out.
Below is by no means an exhaustive list but it’s just some of the musical talent that has been lost this year. May they rest in peace or, if they prefer, cause hell wherever they are.
| January |
| Jason Mackenroth (46), American rock drummer (Rollins Band, Mother Superior) |
| Long John Hunter, (84), American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter |
| David Bowie, (69), English songwriter and artist |
| Glenn Frey (67), American guitarist and vocalist (The Eagles) |
| Paul Kantner (74), American guitarist and vocalist (Jefferson Airplane) |
| March |
| George Martin, (90), English producer |
| Keith Emerson (71), English pianist and keyboardist (Emerson, Lake & Palmer) |
| Ernestine Anderson (87), American jazz and blues singer |
| April |
| Merle Haggard, (79), American singer-songwriter |
| Prince, (57), American musician |
| Lonnie Mack, (74), American rock, blues, and country singer-songwriter guitarist |
| May |
| Olle Ljungström (54), Swedish singer and guitarist |
| Candye Kane, (54), American Blues singer and entertainer |
| John Berry, (52), American guitarist (Beastie Boys) |
| Nick Menza, (51), American instrumentalist. Former drummer for the band Megadeth |
| Thomas Fekete, (27), American guitarist (Surfer Blood) |
| June |
| Scotty Moore (84), American guitarist (Elvis Presley). |
| Rob Wasserman (64), American composer and bass player (RatDog, Lou Reed). |
| July |
| Sandy Pearlman (72), American producer (Blue Oyster Cult, The Clash), songwriter |
| August |
| James Woolley (49), American keyboard and synthesizer player (Nine Inch Nails, 2wo) |
| Matt Roberts (38), American rock guitarist (3 Doors Down) |
| Tom Searle (28), English metalcore guitarist (Architects) |
| September |
| Chris Stone, (81), American recording studio owner (Record Plant) and entrepreneur |
| Hagen Liebing, (55), German musician (Die Ärzte) |
| Michael Casswell (53), English guitarist |
| October |
| Steve Byrd (61), English guitarist (Gillan, Kim Wilde) |
| November |
| Leonard Cohen (82), Canadian singer-songwriter |
| Leon Russell (74), American musician and songwriter |
| December |
| Greg Lake (69), English progressive-rock vocalist and multi-instrumentalist |
| Rick Parfitt (68), English rock guitarist and songwriter (Status Quo) |
| George Michael (53), English singer-songwriter |
