The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars (353 page)

Borden had reconvened two years later, although without Daum, who had returned to his day job and preferred pursuits of hunting and fishing. Sadly, he became the second former Borden guitarist to die on the road, killed by a hit-and-run driver who then ploughed into a wall.

Wednesday 28

Billy Powell

(Corpus Christi, Texas, 3 June 1952)

Lynyrd Skynyrd

(Vision)

(Various acts)

Following the death of keyboardist Billy Powell, guitarist Gary Rossington and percussionist Artimus Pyle now stand alone as the only surviving members from Lynyrd Skynyrd’s glory days.

Music-theory major Powell began as a roadie for Skynyrd (while playing in local band, Alice Marr), keeping his musicianship a secret until singer Ronnie Van Zant heard him play and invited him to join full time in 1972. Thus, the keyboardist was sitting pretty as the band went global with the albums
Pronounced Leh-nerd Skin-nerd
(1973) and
Second Helping
(1974), plus the Top Twenty hits (and long-term radio staples) ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ and ‘Freebird’. Powell escaped the harrowing 1977 air crash that killed three of his bandmates
(
October 1977),
though he suffered severe facial lacerations that almost lost him his nose. (He was, however, the first to be released from hospital and the only member of Lynyrd Skynyrd fit enough to attend the funerals of his friends.)

The keyboard player’s dealings with the band understandably lessened after this tragedy: indeed, the traumatised Powell – like Wilkeson, now a born-again Christian – joined devout rock act Vision for three albums during the next decade, having also found time to work with former colleagues in The Rossington-Collins Band and in his own initiative, Alias. But, despite some difficult memories, the draw of Skynyrd was to prove too much for him, Powell rejoining the group for a ‘tenth anniversary reunion’ in 1987: he was to remain with Lynyrd Skynyrd until his own death.

Authorities received a 911 distress call from Powell at around 12.55 am on 28 January 2009, the musician complaining of shortness of breath. However, Powell was discovered deceased by the time paramedics arrived at his Orange Park, Florida condominium, his death attributed to cardiac arrest. In 2010, Lynyrd Skynyrd issued the song ‘Gifted Hands’ as a tribute to their former keyboardist.

See also
Allen Collins (
January 1990); Leon Wilkeson (
July 2001); Hughie Thomasson (
September 2007); Ean Evans (
May 2009). Sometime Skynyrd singers Terry ‘Topper’ Price (d 2007) and Deborah JoJo’ Billingsley (d 2010) have also passed on.

Thursday 29

John Martyn

(Iain David McGeachy - New Malden, England, 11 September 1948)

Having been brought up in Glasgow by his grandmother, singer/songwriter John Martyn strapped on his guitar and returned to southern England as a teenager, where his tuneful if deeply personal compositions made him an immediate hit on London’s folk/crossover scene. It was the start of four decades of critical acclaim – if not blanket commercial acceptance – for one of the finest British singer/songwriters of his generation.

Martyn became the first white soloist to sign with Island Records, issuing a debut long-player
London Conversation
(recorded for just £158 in 1968), and quickly establishing a following for his evocative lyricism and imaginative use of acoustic instrumentation. Like his contemporaries Al Stewart, Ralph McTell and Bert Jansch, Martyn was a regular performer at Soho’s Les Cousins club – and it was Stewart who stepped forward to produce Martyn’s bluesier but more-polished follow-up set,
The Tumbler
(1968).

John Martyn: Grace and danger in equal measures

By 1970, the guitarist was collaborating with his then-wife, singer Beverley Kutner. This partnership threw up a pair of well-received records, the first of which,
Stormbringer,
was recorded in Woodstock with members of The Band. Most acclaim, however, was rightly reserved for solo projects such as the classic
Solid Air
(1973) – a haunting pre-death tribute to a further contemporary, Nick Drake, a close friend of Martyn’s who passed away in mysterious circumstances the following winter
(
November 1974).
The record also marked an increased acceptance of Martyn’s work, Eric Clapton’s cover of ‘May You Never’ displaying how far into the rock mainstream his still-introspective songs were now permeating.

The breakdown of Martyn’s marriage to Kutner gave the world the incendiary, cathartic
Grace and Danger
(1980), a record that had sufficiently disturbed label boss Chris Blackwell to see him delay its issue by twelve months. However, when finally released, it reignited commercial interest in Martyn, the musician becoming a considerable presence on the live circuit, where he was now able to fill substantial venues. This more powered recording presaged a run of albums such as
Sapphire
(1984) and
Piece by Piece
(1986), his final work for Island.