Legendary Rocker Tom Petty Dies at 66

U.S. rock legend Tom Petty has died after cardiac arrest at his Malibu, California, home. He was 66.

Petty's family said he was taken to the hospital early Monday, but he could not be revived. They said he died Monday evening "surrounded by family, his bandmates and friends."

Petty was born in Gainesville, Florida, in 1950, and he credits his musical awakening to a chance meeting with Elvis Presley in 1961. The "King of Rock and Roll" was working on a movie nearby and after the two were introduced, a young Petty told his family he was going to be a rock star.

Anti-rock star

But Tom Petty never really saw himself as a rock star, not in the way rock stars are thought of. As a frontman, Petty was no David Lee Roth, or Axl Rose, or Mick Jagger. There was never that larger-than-life swagger and attitude to boot. At times Petty's voice sometimes seemed strained, and quavering, like it was difficult for him to get the notes out.

But that didn't matter because Petty was able, with a little help from his friends, to stand behind his music.

On the cover of his third album Damn the Torpedoes Petty is standing behind his signature red Rickenbacker, on his second, You're Gonna Get It, he's barely visible, shadowed in blue light surrounded by the "Heartbreakers," the extraordinary musicians who made up his band.

Tom Petty was never just Tom Petty, not without Mike Campbell on lead guitar, Benmont Tench on keyboards, Ron Blair on bass, and Stan Lynch on drums, the four who made up the original "Heartbreakers." The lineup has changed a bit, but Tench and Campbell remained Petty's constant musical companions.

It's hard to get a feel for the American iconic songwriter on his first album, eponymously titled Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Petty was 26, but on this album, he and his crew are playing around with the band they would become. There are some straight blues numbers (Hometown Blues and Anything That's Rock and Roll). There's some Rhythm and Blues and Alt-country in there as well.

But way down there at the bottom of the record is the song that forecasts the iconic songwriter that Petty was becoming: American Girl is the last track on the album about "... an American girl, raised on promises." This is a song of longing, and heartbreak and hope, which is at once evocative, and indicative of where this band was heading.

On his third album Damn the Torpedoes, Petty cements his role as the anti-front man. His songs are about girls, but from the perspective of a a down-on-his-luck guy. The songs show that he needs and adores the women in his life, but is generally terrified and a bit resigned to the pain they will cause him.

Don't Do Me Like That, for instance, Even the Losers, and the flawless Here Comes My Girl, where Petty tells us the tale of the woman "standing right by my side." It's a nearly perfect song — the jangly guitars, the anxious verses, and the soaring triumphant chorus — the sound of a songwriter hitting his stride.

All told, the Heartbreakers released 13 different albums, Petty released three solo albums, played with the supergroup The Traveling Wilburys, and he also reunited with his first band Mudcrutch for some tour dates around the U.S.

And somewhere along the way he flew into the stratosphere of American songwriters inhabited by people like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Carole King and Stevie Nicks, American musicians who captured day-to-day life, rather than rock and roll excess.

On his last studio release, Petty channels the anger of a generation left behind in American Dream Plan b.

"Well, my mama so sad, Daddy’s just mad," he sings, "Cause I ain't gonna have the chance he had..." managing to capture the frustration of the American dream deferred in 17 simple words.

Petty wrapped his most recent tour last week at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. In December, Petty told Rolling Stone magazine that he thought this would be the group's last tour together. He said, "It's very likely we'll keep playing, but will we take on 50 shows in one tour? I don't think so. I'd be lying if I didn't say I was thinking this might be the last big one."

Petty leaves behind his wife, Dana York Epperson, a stepson, Dylan, and two daughters, Adria and AnnaKim, from a previous marriage.

"It’s shocking, crushing news," Petty's friend and Traveling Wilburys bandmate Bob Dylan told Rolling Stone magazine in a statement. "I thought the world of Tom. He was great performer, full of the light, a friend, and I’ll never forget him."

(Photo by Mr. Bullitt, Sweden. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Los Angeles, California.)

Tributes Pour in for Late Rock 'N' Roll Icon Chuck Berry

Musicians have been paying tribute to American rock n' roll icon Chuck Berry, who died Saturday at the age of 90.

In a series of tweets, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger thanked Berry for "all the inspirational music he gave to us."

Mick Jagger: "His lyrics shone above others & threw a strange light on the American dream. Chuck you were amazing & your music is engraved inside us forever"

Legendary American singer Bruce Springsteen: "Chuck Berry was rock's greatest practitioner, guitarist, and the greatest pure rock 'n' roll writer who ever lived."

British rock singer Rod Stewart said Berry "inspired us all" while American singer Huey Lewis said his "music and influence will last forever."

The legendary African-American musician, a native of St. Louis, Missouri, gave his first performance in high school. Since then, he forged a life that included three years in reform school, 20 months in prison, and decades in the spotlight, pioneering a musical form that has become synonymous with American music.

Charles Edward Anderson Berry, who went by the nickname Chuck, was famous for such 1950s hits as Maybellene, Roll Over Beethoven, Sweet Little Sixteen, and Johnny B. Goode. The singles — revolutionary combinations of pop, country music and blues — were dance hits in high school gymnasiums and music clubs across the United States. His musical style helped give birth to the age of the American teenager, all hormones and energy and optimism.

Influence for many musicians

Berry’s hit Maybellene was a rock ’n’ roll treatment of a country song known as Ida Red. Berry wrote in a memoir that his music label, Chess, “couldn’t believe that a ... hillbilly song could be written and sung by a black guy.”

His music influenced most of the popular musicians that came after him, including such well-known music legends as the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys and the Grateful Dead. Referring to Berry in the mid-1980s, Rolling Stone’s Keith Richards famously quipped, “I’ve stolen every lick (guitar improvisation) he ever played.”

Born in the Midwest

Berry was born into a middle-class family in Missouri and gave his first performance at Sumner High School, historic in its own right as the first African-American high school west of the Mississippi River, a dividing line that separates the eastern third of the country from the West.

Berry is credited with originating many quirks exclusively associated with the rock ’n’ roll genre, including a rollicking, danceable beat, his famous “duck walk” and a heavy, rhythmic guitar style that he may well have been described in the song Johnny B. Goode: “just like he’s ringin’ a bell.” Legend has it that he developed his duck walk as a means of hiding the wrinkles in the one good suit he had brought on tour.

As for Johnny B. Goode — originally meant to be about a black boy, but changed to “country boy” for wider appeal — countless bands covered it, among them the Beatles, country star Buck Owens and heavy metal band Judas Priest.

Run-ins with the law

Berry’s brushes with the law came early and late. In high school, he was arrested for armed robbery and spent three years in a reformatory, between 1944 and 1947. He emerged to go to work in an automobile factory, but he was playing music publicly with the Johnnie Johnson Trio by 1953. A meeting in Chicago with famed blues musician Muddy Waters led to the release of Maybellene, national fame and a string of hits.

In 1961, Berry got in trouble for transporting a 14-year-old girl across state lines and served 20 months in prison, a period in his life that friends said changed him forever. In 1979, he served 120 days in prison for tax evasion.

Berry’s music evolved at a time when racism was running high; blacks and whites were segregated into different schools, businesses, churches and public facilities. But his music attracted fans of all ethnicities.

Music for everyone

“I made records for people who would buy them,” he said once. “No color, no ethnic, no political — I don’t want that, never did.”

Despite his troubles with the law and the conditions of the times, Berry rose to the top of his profession.

He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1984, became one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, and was given a Kennedy Center Honors Award in Washington in 2000 for his lifetime of contributions to American cultural life.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced March 16 that Berry’s work will be featured in a new exhibit alongside that of Elvis Presley and other rock ’n’ roll greats, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the music magazine Rolling Stone.

Berry said the musical genres that inspired him were swing and big band, the music of the 1940s. In an appearance on The Tonight Show in 1987, Berry said he originally wanted to play the more traditional musical styles.

“The main guy was Louis Jordan. I wanted to sing like Nat Cole, with lyrics like Louis Jordan, with the swing of Benny Goodman, with Charlie Christian on guitar playing Carl Hogan’s riffs with the soul of Muddy Waters,” he said.

But Berry knew a good thing when he saw it. Married to his wife, Themetta Suggs, since 1948 and with four children to support, Berry embraced the musical style that made his career. In the 1957 hit Rock and Roll Music, Berry sang, “It’s gotta be rock ’n’ roll music, if you wanna dance with me.”

Berry’s final original album, titled Chuck, is expected to be released by Dualtone Music Group later this year.

Photo: In Schiphol (Amsterdam), Chuck Berry at press conference. 3 February 1965. Courtesy of Joop van Bilsen / Anefo.

Sir George Martin, ‘Fifth Beatle,’ Dies at 90

Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr has announced the death of the so-called "fifth Beatle," producer Sir George Martin, at age 90.

Starr posted the news on Twitter Wednesday, with a photograph of Martin with the Beatles captioned "Thank you for all your love and kindness George."

Universal Music Group has confirmed the death, but details have not been released.

British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted a tribute early Wednesday, calling Martin "a giant of music."

Martin, a classically trained musician, signed the four young Beatles to a music contract in 1962. He was considered essential to their success, helping them arrange, and produce many of their biggest hits, starting with one of their first: 1962's "Love Me Do."

​​In some cases, Martin's classical music training filled in gaps for band members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Starr, who entered the industry with only a basic knowledge of reading and writing music. Martin is credited with scoring now-iconic trumpet solos, string quartet interludes, and piano breaks in some of the Beatles' most memorable songs.

After the breakup of the Beatles in 1970, Martin went on to work with other artists such as Elton John, Bob Dylan, and Sting. He was knighted by the British monarchy in 1996.

Martin continued working on Beatles-related projects, recording two solo albums for Paul McCartney and, in 2006, developing a Beatles-based Cirque de Soleil show called "Love" that has won two Grammy awards for its soundtrack.

Guinness World Records has named Martin as the most successful music producer ever, with more than 50 number-one hit records in Britain and the United States alone, over a career that lasted six decades.

Blues Legend B.B. King Dead at 89

by Susan Logue, Eric Felten

One of the great masters of blues guitar is dead.  B.B. King died late Thursday at the age of 89.  During a career that spanned nearly 70 years (his first recording was in 1949), the "King of Blues" influenced generations of musicians. 

To his legion of fans around the world, the sustained, single-note guitar syle of B.B. King is unmistakable.  He was without a doubt one of America's best-known and best-loved blues musicians.  And he never seemed to lose the thrill, through a career in which he spent most of each year on the road, performing for audiences around the world.

"I've always felt that to be an entertainer, you've got to entertain.  So I've tried to pull all my energies together if I'm singing, to put it all right there.  I'm trying to remember that the people who come to see me are fans who are expecting the best that I have,  so I never go onstage slack (unprepared)," King said.

Lucille

Wherever B.B. King traveled, one of his signature black Gibson guitars accompanied him. He named each one of them "Lucille."  He told fans he first christened his instrument just after a performance at a club in Arkansas, when two men had a fight and knocked over a kerosene heater, which started a fire.

"And everybody started to run for the front door, including B.B. King.  When I got on the outside, I realized I left my guitar," he recalled.  "And , in '49 believe me keeping a good guitar was a hard job.  People would borrow them without your permission.  I went back for my guitar, and the building was burning rapidly, and it started to collapse around me.

"So I almost lost my life trying to save my guitar," he added.  "The next morning we found out these two men were fighting about a lady that worked in the nightclub.  I never did meet her, but I learned her name was Lucille.  I named my guitar Lucille to remind me never to do a thing like that again."

How BB got his name

The famous blues musician was born Riley B. King on September 16, 1925.  The name B.B. came later, an abbreviation of "Blues Boy," which he used while working in Memphis as a disc jockey.  Before that, he worked on the Mississippi farm where he was born, picking cotton and driving a tractor. As a boy, B.B. King sang with amateur gospel groups.  But by the age of 16, he was singing and playing guitar on street corners. He found that singing the blues was more profitable than singing gospel.

"As I played, people would come by and generally request tunes.  And the people that would request gospel songs, would always praise me highly.  They would say, 'Great, son.  That is fantastic.  Keep it up, you'll be great one day.'  But they never tipped.  But usually people that would ask me to play a blues song would always tip me and maybe (buy me) a beer from time to time.  So you can see now, starting out to be a gospel singer, I decided to be a blues singer," King said.

Hits

B.B. King made his first record in 1949, at the age of 24.  Three years later, his recording of Lowell Fulsom's "Three O'Clock Blues" became a number one R&B hit. 

His only pop hit was "The Thrill Is Gone," from 1969, for which he received a Grammy.  Nevertheless, B.B. King was described by critics as America's "most popular blues guitarist," and with good reason  He had a tremendous influence on rock musicians like British guitarist Eric Clapton, George Harrison, and U2.  B.B. King met the Irish band while performing in Dublin and ended up recording the song "When Love Comes to Town" them in 1988.

B.B. King credited the British rock bands of the 1960s with popularizing the music he loved, making it possible for him to crossover to a mainstream audience:

"When the British groups for example, the Rolling Stones, Cream, the Who, when these groups started to play blues in the U.S., it started to become a very popular kind of music and opened the doors for a lot of black blues singers and musicians like myself,”  King said.

Awards

During his long career, B.B. King received 15 Grammy awards. He was inducted not only into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame, but the Rock and Roll and R&B halls as well. He was awarded honorary doctorates from several universities and was honored by presidents. B.B. King kept his music fresh by being true to himself:

"I don't try to play what my ancestors played, as they played it.  In fact, I don't play myself as I did in '49, when I began my career.  I play as I feel today,” he said.

Bobby Womack Dies at 70

American Soul singer Bobby Womack has died.

He started his career in the city Cleveland in the 1950s in a gospel group with his brothers.

In the 1960s, the group recorded on Sam Cooke's label and switched from gospel to secular music.

Womack possessed a distinctive voice and was a powerful songwriter. 

He eventually left his brothers and ventured out on his own.  His hits included Across 110th Street, If You Think You're Lonely Now, That's The Way I Feel About 'Cha, and Woman's Gotta Have It.

Some of Womack's biggest hits were songs written for other artists, including Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Joe Tex and Dusty Springfield.

Womack wrote and recorded with this brothers, It's All Over Now which the Rolling Stones covered.  The New York Times reports the Stones' version became the group's first number one single in Britain and their first international hit. 

Bobby Womack influenced generations of performers and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009.

He struggled with drugs and health problems for decades and was in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. 

He continued to work and perform after the Alzheimer's diagnosis and in 2012 released his first album in more than a decade.

His website says the 70-year-old Womack was scheduled to start a European tour next month.

When he was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Womack said "This is just about as exciting to me as being able to see Barack Obama become the first black president of the United States of America."