The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (262 page)

Outside the rapper’s mother’s duplex in Gentilly, Soulja Slim – who had survived a shooting back in 1995– was ambushed and shot four times as he emerged from his car shortly before 6 pm: he collapsed and died on the front lawn, the car’s engine still running. Just before the shooting, Slim had been in an altercation at a gas station, though it is more widely believed that the killing was connected to a major falling-out Slim had over finances with his previous record label, No Limit. An investigation led New Orleans police to a suspect who was not charged (due to lack of evidence) but was then fingered for the killing of another Louisiana rap artist a month later. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the star himself also became a posthumous suspect in one or two recent murders in the area, including that of Robert Lee Paige, who had been shot and thrown into a City Park lagoon that September. Slim’s mother was vehement in the defence of her late son. It has since been revealed that a substantial price had been put on Slim’s head by the New Orleans gangsta fraternity.

Saturday 29

K-Rupt

(Carlton Williams Bongo Juma - Nairobi, 15 November 1979)

Doubtless many will find the completely unprovoked murder of Kenyan rapper K-Rupt more tragic than that of Soulja Slim. During the previous two years, K-Rupt had been enjoying national success with various hit records, including his latest dub ‘Dada Njoo’, which was on the charts at the time of his death. The day after a show with fellow Kenyan hip-hop star Nameless, the rapper was riding a matatutu (twoman taxi) to his next performance when the vehicle was commandeered in an apparent carjacking. As K-Rupt argued with the attackers, one pulled a gun on him and killed him with a single shot. His body was found dumped in Laikipia Forest. 2003 was an extraordinarily hard year for Kenyan rap music, with the deaths of K-Rupt’s sometime collaborator E-Sir in March and Wicky Mosh the following month.

Close!

David Mathenge

He may be known as Nameless (and, to most, still remains faceless), but Kenyan hip-hop musician David Mathenge deserves a mention in this book for having survived what looked like certain death. Twice. Within six months.

On 18 March 2003, having appeared the previous evening as a special guest alongside rapper E-Sir at a Nakuru beauty pageant, the rising star returned to his native Nairobi in a tour vehicle. Apparently distracted by the splendour of Lake Elementaita, the driver of the Mitsubishi lost control, the vehicle careering off the motorway and down a bank. In all, three passengers were thrown out and killed - including E-Sir - but ‘Nameless’ Mathenge, who remained conscious the whole time, was released from hospital with merely a fractured ankle. Then, in August the same year, Mathenge was the survivor of an eerily similar car crash that resulted in another two fatalities. Understandably, the artist has said: ‘There is nothing that makes you feel the value of life more than when you have come so close to death.’

Lest We Forget

Other notable deaths that occurred sometime during 2003:

June Carter Cash
(popular US country singer/musician who co-wrote her husband’s ‘Ring Of Fire’ hit; bom Valerie June Carter, Virginia, 23/6/1929; after heart surgery - and four months before Johnny, 15/5)

Arthur Conley
(US singer who scored a million-seller with the Otis Redding co-written ‘Sweet Soul Music’ in 1967; born Georgia, 4/1/1946; intestinal cancer, 17/11)

Dino Conner
(US vocalist who lined up alongside his twin brother, Shazam, in briefly popular R & B vocal trio H-Town; born Keven Conner, Texas, 1974; car crash, 28/1)

Slim Dusty
(Australian country legend who scored an international pop hit in 1959 with ‘Pub with No Beer’; born David Kirkpatrick, New South Wales, 13/6/1927; cancer, 19/9)

Jinny Janis
(US member of a cappella vocal act The Chordettes, who went to #2 with the million-seller ‘Lollipop’ in 1958; born Virginia Osborn, Washington, 25/4/1927; cancer, 19/5)

Shawn Lane
(US guitarist with Southern rockers Black Oak Arkansas, who joined the band at just fourteen; born Memphis, Tennessee, 21/3/1963; lung disease, 26/9)

Rana Ross
(formidable ‘chick rock’ bassist with metallers Sinboy and Vixen; born Rana Langer, New York, 20/10/1961; AIDS, 3/5)

Dick St John
(US pop songwriter with Dick & Dee Dee, who hit US #2 with 1961 ‘s ‘The Mountain’s High’; born Richard Gosting, California, 1940; head injuries after slipping from a ladder, 27/12)

Gary Stewart
(US ‘outlaw’ musician who hit Country #1 with 1975’s brilliantly-titled ‘She’s Actin’ Single (I’m Drinkin’ Doubles)’; born Letcher County, Kentucky, 28/5/1944; suicide by gunshot, 16/12)

Vic Taylor
(Jamaican reggae/ska singer with pioneering acts Tommy McCook & The Skatalites and Byron Lee & The Dragonaires; born 1946; heart failure, 23/6)

Claude Trenier
(US final surviving member of pioneering lounge rock ‘n’ rollers The Treniers after his brother Buddy passed away in 1999; born Alabama, 14/7/1919; cancer, 17/11)

Sheb Wooley
(US actor/singer responsible for massive 1958 novelty #1 ‘The Purple People Eater’; born Oklahoma, 10/4/1921; leukaemia, 16/9)

2004

JANUARY

Monday 12

Randy Vanwarmer

(Randall Van Wormer - Indian Hills, Colorado, 30 March 1955)

His name will live on longer in the memory than his shortlived solo career, but Randy Vanwarmer remained a successful songwriter well after his short flirtation with fame back in 1979. Vanwarmer had lost his father in a car crash in 1967 and was subsequently raised in Cornwall, England. He returned to the US to join the New York music scene in the late seventies. Vanwarmer wrote the schmaltzy ballad ‘Just When I Needed You Most’ when he was only eighteen, his rendition of the song going on to sell 2 million copies at the end of the decade, a Top Ten hit in both the US and UK. With rock and disco all the rage, further efforts like this one were less successful, but Vanwarmer soon found an outlet for his songwriting in country music, where his compositions scored major hits for, among others, Alabama and Dolly Parton. Vanwarmer continued to generate impressive songwriting credits before leukaemia took him at just forty-eight years old.

‘If I could find a “randy van warmer”, I’d go out and buy a transit tomorrow morning.’

John Peel, 1979

Wednesday 14

Valfar

(Terje Bakken - Sogndal, Norway, 3 September 1978)

Windir

Finally, a Norwegian black-metal death due to misfortune rather than criminal activity. Formed around 1995, Windir donned the garb and growled the tunes convincingly enough as the latest in a long line of Scandinavian satanists, singer Valfar – who’d begun the project as a oneman enterprise – the suitably striking frontman with his straggly hair, white-out makeup and stage blood. Needless to say, once the band had become established around 2001, titles like ‘Dance of Mortal Lust’ and the grimly prophetic ‘Journey to the End’ also gained Windir a strong following in the USA.

Close!

Ted Nugent

(Amboy Dukes)

From the ‘He Had It Coming’ Department: the ASPCA’s least-favourite rock dinosaur very nearly ‘got his’ on 11 January 2004 - on the set of his own reality TV series. As the cameras rolled for VHI’s
Surviving Nugent: The Ted Commandments,
the notorious right-wing hunting enthusiast lost control of the chainsaw he was wielding, very nearly turning himself into one of the fillet steaks he so dearly loves. The bad news for deer and mountain lions everywhere was that although Nugent lost an enormous amount of blood, the 55-year-old’s injuries were not sufficient to have him put down - and the show (which, appropriately for many reasons, was filmed at his ranch in Waco) continued within hours.

Under his given name of Terje Bakken, Valfar was, in fact, a family man still close to his parents. On 14 January 2004, he headed into the Sogndal Valley in Norway’s frozen west to visit the family cabin. With snow falling heavily and the road even more treacherous than usual, Valfar soon realized his car would not be able to make it, and attempted to turn and head back. Sadly, the singer’s body was found three days later near Reppast0len. He had died from hypothermia.

Thursday 15

Jimmi Lawrence

(Chichester, 25 January 1977)

Hope of the States

(Screwpitch)

Chichester hadn’t been especially noted as a hotbed of British rock talent until the earnest, powerful Hope of the States emerged in 2002. The young six-piece quickly found themselves in the unlikely position of rubbing shoulders with S Club 8 as their conscience-pricking second single, ‘Enemies/Friends’ (2003), vaulted them into the charts and on to
Top of the Pops.
Hope of the States – Sam Herlihy (vocals/guitar/piano), Anthony Theaker (guitar/piano/organ), Jimmi Lawrence (guitar), Mike Siddell (violin), Paul Wilson (bass) and Simon Jones (drums) – had proved themselves as a live act and now sought recognition for their first album. With almost no prior warning, they were hit by tragedy just as success beckoned.