If you could bring back one musical artist that died too early in their life, who would you pick? Who would you want to hear more music from?
Let’s just put Jim Morrison, John Lennon and Jimi Hendrix off this list because most people would probably pick one of those 3.
I’d have to go with Jeff Buckley or Kurt Cobain. I wasn’t even a huge Nirvana fan but there’s two artists that hadn’t released a lot of material. Honorable mention would probably be Layne Staley (original singer for Alice In Chains). Their music has aged very well IMO, still sounds fresh where a lot of those grunge bands of the 90s didn’t age so well today.
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Chris Cornell and Prince
Warren Zevon
Janis Joplin
Cornell and Prince were both over 50 when they died.
Randy Rhoads
Buddy Holly. Jim Croce.
Because Rhoads was just at the beginning of his career with just a couple classic albums.
Bon Scott would have been second pick because he only had a handful of albums with ACDC before dying.
John Denver
As much as I wish I could have seen Soundgarden, I was lucky enough to see Chris Cornell with Audioslave and as a guest on stage with Pearl Jam in Santa Barbara in 2003 (first time they did Temple of the Dog stuff since the early 90s!).
I got to see Scott Weiland with Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver (he was incredible live with STP).
So for me it'd be between Layne Staley and Kurt Cobain...and I just like Alice in Chains better. Plus, that Mad Season side project album he made with Mike McCready from Pearl Jam, the drummer from Screaming Trees, and the bass player from another Seattle band was great. So Layne Staley, you win, good sir!
"Nutshell" unplugged
Mad Season "River of Deceit"
Duane Allman or Otis Redding!
Neil Peart. I know he was insistent that he was done with touring and that it seemed I'd seen Rush live in concert for the last time, there was always hope he might have changed his mind at some point.
steve clark freddie mercury stevie ray vaughan tammi terrell
freddie mercury
Harry Nilsson. Unique as hell. Jump into the fire, the coconut song, without you (Him singing, not a woman), spaceman, everybodys talking at me (yup everyone thinks that was Glen Campbell)
Glen Miller
Wolfgang Mozart
Glen Miller...good call. My grandfather was way into him, would always play swing and 40s stuff in the car. Feel like I'm the only 40 year old who would listen to Glen Miller or fuuuuuuck I always forget the name of the other guy...the one who did "Sing, Sing, Sing." Those drums were killer.
Eva Cassidy.
Voice of an angel. Died at 33 from melanoma. Most of her recognition came posthumously.
Brian Jones. The best period for the Rolling Stones was when he was in the band. He added a lot because he was a multi-instrumentalist who could pick up and play almost any instrument. You can hear unusual instruments like marimba, sitar, dulcimer, mellotron, harmonica, recorder, and saxophone on the Stones songs in this period and they were all played by Jones.
If Hendrix is off the list, then it’s
Ronnie Van Zant Marvin Gaye Bon Scott
good call on ronnie van zant. always wondered how a collaboration with neil young would have sounded
John Bonham.
I'm not enough of a drumming aficionado to compare his talent to other great musicians, but his death effectively ended the greatest rock band of all time.
^^^ I remember hearing his drum kit would sometimes have a double bass but when he’s leave the set the other members would take that 2nd kick drum and throw it again because they didn’t like the sound.
Several of the big ones have been mentioned (Buddy Holley, Janis Joplin, Cobain, Freddie Mercury, etc) but clearly there aren't any country music fans on here because a couple of the biggest names are missing.
I would put Hank Williams right up there with the Morrison, Lennon and Hendrix.
Patsy Cline may not be quite with those guys but she is damn close.
And is does everyone on here believe the conspiracy theories that Elvis is still alive or do you consider 42 as too old to qualify?
Also surprised no one has mentioned Amy Whinehouse, 2Pac, Sid Vicious, Ritchie Valens or Bob Marley.
Zep was never the same without John Bonham.
more like zep was immediately over after bonzo's last breath. when they got back together for live aid they had 2 drummers fill his shoes.
Eric Wright
Music, bring back the "dead?" The obvious answer would be Jerry Garcia. No?
Not sure if Muddy was trolling, but I like some John Denver songs -- which takes some courage to admit.
Other choices: Tom Petty, Greg Lake.
We don't need to bring back the dead. Just bring back their music. This rap crap is not even music in my opinion. It's not fun music and and just seems to be hate music. I even enjoyed the music my parents liked.
Dolores ORiordan. Nicolette Larson. Dan Fogelberg. And a bunch of names previously mentioned.
nah that's ok - jerry garcia can remain dead.
grateful dead - yuuuuck!!!!!!!!!
a band for some reason hippies n stoned out preppy kids gravitated towards. nothing against those people but that band...
Kurt Cobain is the easy one. Nirvana definitely still had 1-3 great albums in them when he died.
Part of me wants to say Andrew Wood of Mother love bone. But if he hadn't died, Pearl Jam may not have existed.
I do agree with Van Zant. Obviously they would be way past their prime now, but he could have made some more great music if he hadn't died.
I'm with Muddy- John Denver for sure, and I'm not ashamed to say it! 😁 I'm also super bummed that I never got to see Prince live... so, him too 🔆
^i saw Prince at First Ave back when he used to pop in. Those were some fun days.
^Super jealous! To this day, one of my favorite songs to dance to on stage is still Pussy Control 🤩
I second Stevie Ray Vaughn.
Don’t forget the ladies Janis Joplin Mama Cass
Morrison. Doors had a few good albums left in them.
And Bonham
^Oops, failed to read OP's rule of eliminating Morrison
Mozart
Amy Winehouse
The Big Bopper
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