10 Musicians We Lost in 2020
2020 was a brutal year for many. It took away from us many of our beloved favorite personalities. Here, we pay our respects to 10 musicians who passed away the past year.
1. Eddie Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen (January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was a Dutch-American rockstar. In 1972, he co-founded the rock band Van Halen with his elder brother, drummer Alex Van Halen, bassist Mark Stone, and singer David Lee Roth.
Eddie was best known for popularizing the tapping guitar solo technique, allowing rapid arpeggios to be played with two hands on the fretboard. In 2012, he was voted number one in a Guitar World magazine reader's poll for "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
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He died from throat cancer on October 6, 2020, at the age of 65.
2. Neil Peart
Neil Peart (September 12, 1952 – January 7, 2020) was a Canadian musician, best known as the drummer and primary lyricist of the rock band Rush. He was inducted into the Modern Drummer Readers Poll Hall of Fame in 1983. He was 31 at the time — the youngest person ever so honored.
Peart drew inspiration from some of the famed drummers of the British hard rock scene, including Keith Moon, Ginger Baker, and John Bonham.
He was also an avid motorcyclist. After the death of his wife and daughter, he took a hiatus from music and traveled extensively throughout North and Central America on his motorcycle, covering 88,000 km (55,000 mi). In 2002, he published his memoir titled Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road.
Peart died from brain cancer on January 7, 2020, in Santa Monica, California. He was 67.
3. Leslie West
Leslie West (October 22, 1945 – December 23, 2020) is an American rock guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He is best known as a member of the hard rock band Mountain, which he founded in 1969. He is also recognized for popularizing the Gibson Les Paul Jr. guitar with P-90 pickups, along with the use of Sunn Amplifiers, to create a tone that became his trademark sound. He was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame on October 15, 2006.
Born Leslie Weinstein, he changed his last name to West after his parents divorced.
Over his career, he collaborated with several well-known musicians such as The Who, Bo Diddley, Ian Gillan (Deep Purple), and Joe Bonamassa. In 2005, he contributed to Ozzy Osbourne's Under Cover album, performing guitar on a remake of "Mississippi Queen".
West died at the age of 75 on December 23, 2020. He went into cardiac arrest two days earlier and was rushed to a hospital in nearby Palm Coast where he never regained consciousness.
4. MF Doom
Best known by his stage name MF Doom, Daniel Dumile ( July 13, 1971 – October 31, 2020) was a British-American rapper and record producer. Noted for his intricate wordplay, signature metal mask, and "supervillain" stage persona, Doom became a major figure of underground hip hop in the 2000s. After his death, Variety described him as one of the scene's "most celebrated, unpredictable and enigmatic figures".
Doom was born in London and relocated to Long Island, New York at a young age. He began his career in 1988 as a member of KMD, performing under the name Zev Love X; the group disbanded in 1993 upon the death of member DJ Subroc, Doom's brother. After a hiatus, Doom reemerged in the late 1990s, performing at open mic events while wearing a metal mask resembling that of Marvel Comics supervillain Doctor Doom, who is depicted on the cover of his 1999 debut solo album Operation: Doomsday. He adopted the MF Doom persona and was rarely seen in public without the mask.
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Doom died on December 31, 2020, at the age of 49. The cause of death is not made public. Numerous musicians offered tributes, including Danny Brown, Denzel Curry, DJ Premier, El-P, Flying Lotus, Ghostface Killah, JPEGMafia, Noname, Q-Tip, Questlove, Tyler, the Creator, and Thom Yorke.
5. Peter Green
Peter Green (29 October 1946 – 25 July 2020) was an English blues rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was a co-founder of Fleetwood Mac and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. He also wrote many of the band's early tracks including "Black Magic Woman" and "Oh Well."
Many rock guitarists have cited Green as an influence, including Gary Moore, Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Andy Powell of Wishbone Ash, Mark Knopfler, Noel Gallagher, and Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood.
Green died on 25 July 2020 at the age of 73.
6. K. T. Oslin
K. T. Oslin (Kay Toinette Oslin, May 15, 1942 – December 21, 2020) was an American country music singer and songwriter. She won a Grammy in 1988 for Best Country Vocal Performance for her song "80's ladies." The following year, she won a Grammy in the same category for the song "Hold me."
She also had a series of other top-ten country hits during the late 1980s and early 1990s, four of which topped the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
She was inducted into the Texas Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2014 and was voted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018.
Oslin died on December 21, 2020, a week after being diagnosed with COVID-19. She was 78.
7. Tony Rice
Tony Rice (June 8, 1951 – December 25, 2020) was an American guitarist and bluegrass musician. He was an influential acoustic guitar player in bluegrass, progressive bluegrass, newgrass, and acoustic jazz. He was known for his baritone voice and his flatpicking style.
In his career, Rice famously collaborated with Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Garcia, J. D. Crowe, and Norman Blake. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2013.
Rice died at his home in Reidsville, North Carolina on December 25, 2020. He died while making his coffee, according to a statement from longtime friend and collaborator Ricky Skaggs.
8. Charley Pride
Charley Pride (March 18, 1934 – December 12, 2020) was an American singer, guitarist, and professional baseball player. His greatest musical success came in the early to mid-1970s, when he was the best-selling performer for RCA Records since Elvis Presley. During the peak years of his recording career (1966–1987), he had 52 top-10 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, 30 of which made it to number one. He won the Entertainer of the Year award at the Country Music Association Awards in 1971.
Though he loved music, one of his lifelong dreams was to become a professional baseball player. In 1952, he pitched for the Memphis Red Sox of the Negro American League. He met his wife Rozena while playing baseball in Memphis, Tennessee. They married in 1956. While he was active in baseball, he was encouraged to join the music business by country stars such as Red Sovine and Red Foley.
Known for his rich baritone voice, Pride was one of the most successful country musicians of all time, and the first Black artist to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame (2000).
Pride died COVID-19-related complications on December 12, 2020, in Dallas, Texas. He was 86.
9. Hal Ketchum
Hal Ketchum (April 9, 1953 – November 23, 2020) was an American country music artist. He released 11 studio albums since 1986, including nine for divisions of Curb Records.
His most commercially successful album was Past the Point (1991), which was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. Between 1991 and 2006, Ketchum had 17 entries on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, including three that reached No. 2, "Small Town Saturday Night", "Past the Point of Rescue", and "Hearts Are Gonna Roll". Ketchum's music is defined by his songwriting and folk music influences.
He was also a painter and his work has been shown in Santa Fe, New Mexico's Pena Gallery, where he had an art show opening in 2002. He was also a master carpenter and enjoyed making toys.
Ketchum retired from the music business in 2019 following a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. He died at his home in Fischer, Texas on November 23, 2020, at the age of 67.
10. Kenny Rogers
Kenny Rogers (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, and entrepreneur. He was particularly popular with country audiences but also charted more than 120 hit singles across various music genres, and topped the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone.
Rogers' fame and career spanned multiple genres: jazz, folk, pop, rock, and country. He remade his career and was one of the most successful crossover artists of all time. He was inducted to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013.
In his career, he collaborated with several famed musicians including Dolly Parton, Sheena Easton, and Lionel Richie.
Rogers died from natural causes on March 20, 2020, under hospice care at his home in Sandy Springs, Georgia. He was 81 years old.