Entwistle... I had just bought tickets to see the Who for the first time... I was three stories up on a ladder painting my buddy's house when the news came over the radio. I didn't fall, but I may have sobbed a little bit.
Bobby Womack. But it made me appreciate that I got to see him perform with Gorrillaz even more since I never thought I would ever see him in concert.
John Denver. I was going to work on a public bus and started thinking about John Denver for some unknown reason. I am not even a fan. When I got to the office and went online I read he had died in a plane crash. Strange. I had my ear buds on as usual on the bus and there was no radio anyway so I couldn't have incidentally heard anything about it.
Vic Chesnutt. I had only " discovered" his music not long before his death, and embraced all I could find of his catalogue. I was devastated when I heard he was no longer with us.
Elvis and Lennon. Also Michael Jackson.....It was my very first live on- air radio show. The story broke and I was left having to announce this very shocking news. I'll never ever forget that shift.
Unfortunately, he is still convinced that he himself is the most important man who ever lived and that we have it all wrong, it's a tragedy for him that no-one understands him and how great he is for achieving what he did. But that's crazy for you.
I met Magic Slim and Micheal Burks, great bluesmen, and their deaths affected me considerably. I never met Jon Lord, but his music has been a part of my life as long as I can remember. But I actually shed tears when Ronnie James Dio passed.
John Mellor (aka Joe Strummer). I think he had a lot more to say musically, especially with the traction he was getting with the Mescaleros