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:
September 01
● Cassandra Wilson / (Cassandra Fowlkes) → Grammy-winning, multi-instrumentalist jazz-blues-pop singer and songwriter, first in local church choirs and R&B cover bands in Mississippi; relocated to New York City in 1982, began singing improv jazz and skat and co-founded the M-Base collective of funk, jazz and soul musicians headed by Steve Coleman; opened for Miles Davis, toured with Wynton Marsalis and started issuing solo recordings in the mid-80s into the 90s, with albums featuring original compositions plus jazz-inflected covers from various genres, including blues legend Robert Johnson’s “Come on Into My Kitchen”, Irish pop-rocker Van Morrison’s “Tupelo Honey” and pop-rock The Monkees’ “Last Train To Clarksville,” among others; won a Grammy for New Moon Daughter (1996), recorded and produced the Miles Davis tribute album Traveling Miles (1999) and starred in a 2000 documentary film based on the album; continued performing at festivals and regional venues while mentoring aspiring young vocalists until passing following a brief illness on 9/1/2026, age 70.
September 04
● Craig Douglas / (Terence Perkins) → British teen idol pop singer in the late 50s/early 60s relative calm before the Beatlemania storm; delivered a string of nine, smooth Top 40 UK hits through 1962 and became one of the era’s most popular music personalities; began his career as a milkman on the Isle of Wight before winning a local TV talent contest, earning the nickname “The Singing Milkman” and rocketing to stardom with a cover of Sam Cooke’s “Only Sixteen” (UK #1, 1959) which knocked Elvis Presley‘s “A Fool Such as I” off the top of the UK Singles Chart; established a lasting legacy in Britpop history with other hits including “A Teenager in Love” (UK #13, 1959), “Pretty Blue Eyes” (UK #4, 1960), and “Our Favorite Melodies” (UK #9, 1962); starred in the musical film It’s Trad, Dad! (1962) before abruptly disappearing from the UK charts after 1963; performed on nostalgia tours, cabaret circuits, and cruise ships until 2010 when a rare disorder forced confinement to a wheelchair; passed away following a short illness on 9/4/2026, age 85.
● Jon Small / (Jonathan Craig Small) → Rock drummer, teenage close friend of Billy Joel and bandmate with Joel in Long Island psych rock/soul The Hassles from 1964 to 1969, and in heavy psych-rock duo Attila with Joel for one year and one unremarkable, eponymous album (1970); broke with Joel when Joel ran off with his wife and later married her, but reconciled years later and collaborated with Joel as a client during a successful, 40-year, Grammy-nominated second career as a go-to music video and film director and producer; worked with Aerosmith and Run-DMC on the famous “Walk This Way” video (1986), on multiple Garth Brooks videos such as “Standing Outside The Fire” (1993) and “The Red Strokes” (1994), as well as videos for Anita Baker and Luther Vandross, and several for Joel, among them “Tell Her About It” (1983) and the Ray Charles duet “Baby Grand” (1987); also produce live concert films for The Highwaymen, Reba McIntire and Joel, and others; died from cancer on 9/4/2026, age 79.
September 05
● Andy Williams / (Andrew J. Williams) → Wannabe professional wrestler who injured a knee in training in 1995 and took up the electric guitar during rehab; formed metalcore Every Time I Die in 1998 and played rhythm guitar on eight albums and every live show for the band through 2020; resumed wrestling in 2015 and appeared in multiple events on the pro circuit, joining the All Elite Wrestling (AEW) team as “The Butcher” in 2019, and other “stables” and tag teams during the 20s; hit his head on a metal post during a match and died from a subsequent cardiac arrest on 9/5/2026, age 48.
September 13
● Cheetah Chrome / (Eugene Richard O’Connor) → Guitarist, songwriter, and punk rock pioneer as a founding member of Cleveland protopunk legends Rocket from the Tombs and in the outrageous New York punk outfit Dead Boys from 1975 to 1979; co-wrote several of the group’s songs including the punk classic “Sonic Reducer” (1977) and “Ain’t It Fun” (1978); over the next four decades did session work, toured or appeared with numerous other artists, reformed Dead Boys on two occasions and for a third time in 2017, toured with RFTT in 2011-12, published the memoir Cheetah Chrome: A Dead Boy’s Tale from the Frontlines of Punk Rock in 2010, released two albums of solo material in 2000 and 2014, and served as A&R and special projects director for Plowboy Records in Nashville from 2012; was planning a 50th anniversary tour in celebration of Dead Boys’ first LP, Young, Loud And Snotty (1977) but passed away from unspecified causes on 9/13/2026, age 71.
September 14
● Pete Byrne / (Peter James Byrne) → Singer, songwriter, guitarist, and founder in 1979 of New Wave synth-pop group Neon along with future bandmate Rob Fisher and Tears for Fears founders Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith; formed Naked Eyes with Fisher in 1982, scored a huge hit with their cover of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “Always Something There To Remind Me” (#8, UK #59, 1983) and followed the self-penned hit single “Promises, Promises” (#11, 1983); disbanded Naked Eyes in 1984 and did session work and wrote songs for others until releasing a lone solo album in 2001; restarted Naked Eyes in 2005 as a solo act, cut the LPs Fumbling With The Covers (2007) and Disguise The Limit (2021), and continued touring through 2025; died from acute colitis and a subsequent stroke on 9/14/2026, age 72.
● Peter Max / (Peter Max Finkelstein) → German-American visual artist best known for psychedelic and pop culture works with bright Day-Glo colors, flowery patterns, butterflies, stars and planets evoking the hippie world of the 60s counterculture; among his globally-popular works were painted images of rock and pop artists, including Bob Dylan and Ringo Starr, covers for albums by Badfinger, Hank Williams, Aretha Franklin and others, a postage stamp for the U.S. Postal Service commemorating Expo ’74, signage welcoming visitors to the U.S. at border crossing with Canada and Mexico in the 70s, a Continental Airlines’ Boeing 777 livery in 1999, a Norwegian Cruise Lines hull in 2012, and scores of posters for concerts, sporting events and the like; published a visual autobiography and collection of personal essays, The Universe of Peter Max, in 2013; was sued for tax evasion in 1999 and for embezzlement in 2019; died in a New York City hospital following a years-long battle with advanced dementia on 9/14/2026, age 88.
September 15
● Roz Ashford / (Rosalind Ashford-Holmes) → Founding member and soprano vocals in late 50s teen girl group trio The Del-Phis, performing in Detroit-area YMCA and teen dance parties before adding Motown office secretary Martha Reeves in 1960, changing the group’s name to The Vels and cutting three unremarkable singles; the quartet landed a backing vocals job at Motown for two Marvin Gaye hits in 1962, then backed Reeves on a demo recording, which became “Come And Get These Memories” (#29, R&B #6, 1963) by Martha and the Vandellas when released by Motown; left in 1969 after six Top 10 singles, married and started a career with the local Detroit phone company; periodically reunited with Reeves and original Del-Phis groupmate Annette Beard in the 80s and occasionally toured with Beard and a third singer, Roschelle Laughhunn as The Original Vandellas into the 00s; died at home from natural causes on 9/15/2026, age 83.
● Ronnie Dove / (Ronald Eugene Dove Sr.) → Little-known pop singer fronting his own group, The Belltones, in the mid-50s before going solo in 1964 and releasing two Top 40 hits that year, “Say You” (#40, 1964) and “Right Or Wrong” (#14, 1964); stayed relevant during the mid-60s British Invasion with nine further Top 40 pop hits and eight straight AC hits, including “I’ll Make All Your Dreams Come True” (#21, AC #2, 1965) before the hits trailed off in the late 60s; revived in the 70s with four minor country-pop hits including “Things” (Country #25, 1975) but never regained the popularity from the mid-60s; quit the music industry by 1990 to care for his ailing mother but returned following her death in the early 90s to perform sporadically in oldies circuit shows for the ensuing 20 years; died at home under hospice care on 9/15/2026, age 91.
● Pye Dubois / (Paul Phillips Woods) → Canadian songwriter/lyricist and “fifth member” of 70s Toronto rock group Max Webster and for frontman Kim Mitchell’s successful 80s-90s solo career, including the lone US hit “Go For Soda” (#86, Mainstream #12, CAN #22, 1985); best known for writing the lyrics to Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” (#44, Mainstream #8, 1981), “Force Ten” (Mainstream #3, 1987) and “Test For Echo” (Mainstream #1, CAN #6, 1996); stopped writing in the late 90s and largely disappeared from the industry until being inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2021; died at home on 9/15/2026, age 77.
● Gerrit Graham → Columbia University undergrad alongside future filmmaker Brian DePalma, which led to a long career as screenwriter and part actor in films, on stage and on TV; starred with Robert De Niro in early DePalma films Greetings (1968) and Hi Mom! (1970), later appearing in films such as Demon Seed (1977), Pretty Baby (1978), and National Lampoon’s Class Reunion (1982); had TV roles in episodes of Dallas (1988), The Pink Panther (39 episodes, 1993-1995) and Law & Order (1999), among many others; began writing lyrics for songs written by Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir in the 80s and collaborated with Weir on the Dead’s “Victim Or The Crime” (1989) as well as various Weir on the Dead spinoffs, including four songs on RatDog’s album Evening Moods (2000) and other compositions; wrote teleplays and screenplays, including 80s episodes of The Twilight Zone and Disney films The Little Mermaid (1989) and The Prince And The Pauper (1990); continued to collaborate with various artists, including the lyrics to David Kraal’s “Hard Times Of America” (2026) until dying from complications of lung disease on 9/15/2026, age 77.
September 17
● Gary McCracken → Canadian rock musician and music teacher best known professionally for drumming in Toronto rock band Max Webster from 1976 to dissolution in 1981, including singing lead vocals on the band’s hit “A Million Vacations” (CAN #80, 1979); worked with Rush, Triumph, Klaatu and other Canadian groups in the 80s and issued a lone solo album in 2000; brought music to generations of students in a technical school in hometown Sarnia, Ontario before retiring in the mid-10s; died from an unspecified form of cancer on 9/17/2026, age 75.
● Kevin Spencer / (Kevin Bion Spencer) → Original member, co-lead singer, keyboardist and occasional songwriter for 70s-80s R&B/dance-pop vocal trio Dynasty, the pre-fab group created during the launch of record label SOLAR (Sound of Los Angeles Records, a reformed Soul Train Records); sang on all of the group’s ten R&B charting singles from 1979 through 1988, including “I’ve Just Begun To Love You” (#87, Dance #5, R&B #6, 1980); following dissolution returned to session vocal work and appeared on recordings by Carrie Lucas, Shalamar and Gladys Knight & The Pips, among several others; battled cancer in later years and died from the disease on 9/17/2026, age 71.
September 23
● Jackie Jackson / (Clifton Courtney Jackson) → Jamaican bass guitarist, prolific and influential session musician on ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub and discomix recordings throughout the 60s and 70s, and member of reggae pioneers Toots and the Maytals for more than 50 years; joined Supersonics, the house band at Treasure Isle recording studio in 1967 and played on numerous rocksteady and early reggae hits, including enduring songs like Desmond Dekker’s “Isrealites” (#9, UK #1, 1969), The Maytals’ “Pressure Drop” (1969), Paul Simon’s “Mother And Child Reunion” (#4, UK #5, 1972) and many others; won a Grammy award in 2025 as a Maytal, received the Order of Distinction from the Jamaican government in 2012, and won a similar accolade in 2018 from the Jamaican Reggae Industry Recording Association (JARIA) for his services to Jamaican popular music; toured with The Maytals until retiring when COVID restricted concert venues in 2020; admitted to a Jamaica hospital in July 2026 and died from undisclosed causes on 9/23/2026, age 79.
September 25
● Chuck Varga / (Charles Varga) → Founding member, bass guitarist, costume designer, and “Sexecutioner” character for controversial shock-metal group GWAR; designed the elaborate creature costumes and background sets for the band’s science-fiction themed, outrageous, violent, sexual, and scatological humor live act formed in 1984 and carried through 15 studio albums to 2022; was one of a small few of long-time members in the group’s frequently rotating line-up of musicians, artists, and filmmakers collectively known as Slave Pit Inc.; enjoyed a side career as a Broadway, film and television set and costume designer; died from an undisclosed form of cancer on 9/25/2026, age 68.
September 30
● Neil Henderson / (Neil Fulton Henderson) → Founding member and original guitarist in Scottish teen idol, bubblegum pop Bay City Rollers; played on their debut single. “Keep On Dancing” (UK #9, 1971) and the non-charting follow-up “We Can Make Music” (1972) but left the group in late 1972 – before the Rollers became global stars; joined Europop quintet Middle Of The Road in 1974 – after the group’s string of worldwide hits in the early 70s – playing lead guitar and writing or co-writing several songs for the group over the next decade, including the minor hits “Rockin’ Soul” (GER #31, 1974) and “Everybody Loves A Winner” (GER #43, 1976); dropped out of the group to open a guitar shop and recording studio in the 80s, later becoming a maintenance engineer and dropping from sight altogether; suffered a stroke in his later years and died from a long-term, unspecified illness on 9/30/2026, age 73.
