We note with sadness the following contributors to rock and pop music of the 50s through the 80s – the BEST music ever made! – who passed on last month:
January 02
● Tony Carr / (George Caruana) → Drummer and percussionist in several jazz groups in his native Malta, emigrated to London in the 50s and played in jazz ensembles led by Billy Eckstine and others, switched to pop rock in the mid-60s for three albums with folkie Donovan, and later enjoyed a long career as a studio musician with Alexis Kroner, the CCS, Paul McCartney & Wings, Roger Daltrey, Al Stewart, Hot Chocolate and many others, died from undisclosed causes on 1/2/2026, age 98.
● Johnny Legend / (Martin Jon Margulies) → Long-bearded, longhair rockabilly revival musician, erotic film producer, sometime actor, and professional wrestling manager known as the “Rockabilly Rasputin” and as a beloved, if eccentric, cult hero with nine off-the-wall solo albums, ten compilation albums of rockabilly music, and thirteen bizarre schlock films including Young, Hot ‘N’ Nasty Teenage Cruisers (1977), appeared in two films with friend and fellow eccentric, actor Andy Kaufman, and curated music and trash film festivals into the 00s, retired to the Oregon coast in the late 10s and died from complications of a stroke and heart failure on 12/2026, age 77.
January 05
● Andrew Bodnar → Bass guitarist and co-founder, in 1975 with drummer Steve Goulding, of Brit rock group The Rumour, which became Graham Parker’s backing band from 1976 to 1980 and again from 2011 to 2015, in between working with Elvis Costello, including the distinctive bass line on “Watching The Detectives” (#108, UK #15, 1977), Nick Lowe (“I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass,” UK #8, 1978, co-written with Goulding and Lowe), touring with the Thompson Twins in the mid-80s and appearing on Parker’s 90s solo albums, as a session musician contributed to albums by The Pretenders, Tina Turner, Demond Dekker, Garland Jeffreys and others, died from unspecified causes on 1/5/2026, age 71.
January 06
● Jim McBride / (Jimmy Ray McBride) → Frustrated songwriter since his teens and 14-year U.S. Postal Service employee at age 32, finally caught a break with “The Bridge That Won’t Burn” for Conway Twitty (Country #3, 1981) and quickly became a leading figure on Nashville’s Music Row with dozens of honky tonk influenced, neo-traditional country hits, several co-written with superstar Alan Jackson, including their signature hit “Chattahoochee” (#46, Country #1, 1992), wrote or co-wrote four other Country #1 hits among a total of eighteen Top 40 hits, was elected to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2017 and served as president of the Nashville Songwriters Association, suffered injuries in a fall at home and died in a hospital on 1/6/2026, age 77.
January 09
● Terry Sullivan / (Terence Sullivan) → Drummer in 60s Brit psych rock Dry Ice, joined folk rock Renaissance in 1972 and played on seven albums with the band before leaving in 1980 and dropping from sight until resurfacing and forming supergroup with Good Ol’ Boys in the late 80s, reformed Renaissance in 1998 with former bandmates Annie Haslam and Michael Dunford and issued a lone album before disbandment in 2002, thereafter returned to a mostly quiet life with his family until dying following a short, unspecified illness on 1/9/2026, age 87.
January 10
● Bob Weir / (Robert Hall Parber Weir) → Founding member, rhythm guitarist, singer, songwriter and co-frontman with lead guitarist Jerry Garcia for rock’s longest, strangest trip, the Grateful Dead, its 30-year run created a cultural institution defining folk-, country- and psychedelic rock with long, improvisational jams and supporting legions of cult followers known as Deadheads, co-wrote “Sugar Magnolia” (#91, 1973) and “Touch Of Grey” (#9, 1987), simultaneously issued albums as a solo artist and as frontman for Kingfish and Bobby & The Midnites, after Garcia’s death in 1995 joined his former bandmates in Dead spinoffs The Other Ones, Furthur, Dead & Company and, most recently Wolf Bros., the latter playing Dead classics with symphony orchestra backing in a series of concerts through a final performance in London in June 2025, diagnosed with cancer and died from underlying lung problems on 1/10/2026, age 78.
January 15
● Kenny Morris / (Kenneth Ian Morris) → English percussionist with a short but influential career as a rock drummer, known for eschewing cymbals and hi-hats for a rhythm based on tom-toms and the bass drum while playing with pioneering post-punk rockers Siouxsie & The Banshees from 1977 to 1979, abruptly left at the start of a tour and stepped into a long career as a film soundtrack composer, short film director, art teacher, art gallery manager, and painter with online and gallery exhibits, wrote an unpublished memoir in the 20s before dying after a short, unspecified illness on 1/15/2026, age 68.
January 18
● Cat Coore / (Stephen Coore) → Celebrated Jamaican guitarist and cellist credited with advancing reggae to a global stage during a fifty-year career with venerable reggae band Third World, co-founded the group in 1973 and played guitar in the band’s fusion of reggae, soul, funk, pop, and rock, often adding classical influences played with a cello on the group’s ten US charting singles (among 37 total singles), including “Now That We Found Love” (#47, R&B #9, UK #10, 1978), awarded the Order of Distinction by the Government of Jamaica in 2005 in recognition of outstanding contributions to Jamaican culture and the creative arts, died from unspecified causes on 1/18/2026, age 69.
● Ralph Towner → Self-taught multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and bandleader, virtuoso classical, twelve-string and electric guitarist, pianist, percussionist, trumpeteer, synthesizer and French horn player with a lifetime blending jazz, classical and world music, played in the Paul Winter Consort in the early 70s, co-formed long-running prog-folk-jazz Oregon in 1971 and appeared on nearly 30 albums by the group through 2017, at the same time enjoying a long and varied solo career with 27 albums of his own or as group leader, and dozens of collaborations with other modern jazz and fusion musicians, including John Abercrombie, Gary Burton, Larry Coryell, and Keith Jarrett, lived in Italy after 1995 and died in Rome for undisclosed causes on 1/18/2026, age 85.
January 22
● Francis Buchholz → Teenage bass player in several rock bands in his native Hannover, Germany, co-founded a second lineup of hard rock/metal Scorpions in 1973 and rode to metal superstardom for the next 19 years, along the way recording iconic bass riffs on “Rock You Like A Hurricane” (#25, 1984) and “Wind Of Change” (#4, Mainstream #2, 1991) and other hits, handled the group’s business affairs until leaving in 1992 over directional disagreements, spent time with his family and managed the sound and lighting equipment rental business he founded in 1976, returned to music in the mid-00s in Dreamtide with former Scorpions guitarist Uli Jon Roth and later in Temple of Rock with another former Scorpions guitarist, Michael Schenker, retired in 2017 and died from cancer on 1/22/2026, age 71.
● Guy Hovis / (Guy Lee Hovis Jr.) → Pop vocalist in duets with his then-wife Ralna English on nationally beloved The Lawrence Welk Show from 1970 until the series concluded in 1982, divorced in 1984 but continued to perform with English or as a solo act in concert halls, resorts, casinos and at state fairs for several decades in addition to solo appearances on TV programs hosted by Merv Griffin, Johnny Carson and others, formed a Chistian music ministry in the late 80s and served as state director for US Senator Trent Lott from 1990 to 2007, sang “Let The Eagle Soar” at George W. Bush’s second presidential inauguration in 2005, died from undisclosed causes on 1/22/2026, age 84.
January 23
● Margaret Ross / (Margaret Ross Williams) → Co-lead vocalist in 60s girl group The Cookies from 1961 to 1967, the group charted nine singles from 1956 to 1963, including “Don’t Say Nothin’ Bad (About My Baby) ” (#7, R&B #3, 1963) and provided backing vocals for other artists during the same period, among them Little Eva (“The Loco-Motion,” #1, 1962) and Freddie Scott (“Hey Girl,” #10, 1963) before Beatlemania ended the girl group era, left The Cookies and the music industry in 1967, got married, raised a family and worked for the New York City Department of Health until retiring in 1998, occasionally joined in girl group revivals over the years, often with some of her former group mates, died from undisclosed causes on 1/23/2026, age 83.
January 26
● Sly Dunbar / (Lowell Fillmore Dunbar) → Record producer, reggae drummer and, with creative partner Robbie Shakespeare, one half of the innovative studio duo Riddim Twins and later as Sly & Robbie, produced albums for Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff, Bunny Wailer and others, recorded with multiple top acts, including Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger and Grace Jones, in all estimated to have had a part in over 200,000 recordings in a 45-plus year professional partnership, either on their own as a musical duo or as backing musicians or producers for other artists, retired in the late 10s and died at home from cancer on 1/26/2026, age 73.
January 27
● “Mingo” Lewis / (James Lewis) → Versatile drummer, percussionist and occasional composer with a lone solo album, Flight Never Ending (1976), but a pivotal role in early Latin rock and jazz fusion as a session drummer for Santana and Return to Forever in the early 70s, and in Al Di Meola’s fusion band on five albums from 1976-1982, also performed as a sessionman for John McLaughlin, Todd Rundgren and others, and appeared on albums by Billy Joel (Turnstiles, 1976), XTC (Skylarking, 1986) and four by The Tubes, among many others, was the musical composer for the Colombian crime drama telenovela Sangre Negra and taught Afro-Cuban music in Bogotá, died from lung disease on 1/27/2026, age 72.
January 31
● Billy Bass / (William Nelson Jr.) → Teenage employee in George Clinton’s New Jersey barbershop, swept the floors and sang and danced for customers until joining the backing band to Clinton’s doo wop group The Parliaments in 1967 as bass guitarist, coined the name Funkadelic for the group and was key to their pioneering blend of funk and psychedelic rock on “One Nation Under A Grove” (#28, R&B #1, 1978) and other hits, left in 1971 in a financial dispute with Clinton after Funkadelic merged with its sibling group, mainstream funk Parliament, to become Parliament-Funkadelic (a.k.a. P-Funk), did session work for The Temptations, the Commodores and others in the 70s and 80s, occasionally recorded as bassist on later P-Funk albums and issued a solo album in 1994 with backing by several former bandmates, toured with the P-Funk All-Stars from 1994 to 2005 and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic collective, died in hospice care from undisclosed causes on 1/31/2026, age 75.
