Chuck Schuldiner, frontman of death metal pioneers Death, dude died of cancer in 2001 at the age of 34. I never had the chance to see them play live but their records are incredible.
Cliff Burton, Bass player of Metallica, died when the band’s tour bus crashed and he was crushed underneath it. The band lost part of its soul and it took them a very long time to get over Cliffs death. Seeing videos of him playing live makes one understand what was lost, as he was an incredible musician.
On a more general note every artist that died very young, many made a big impact to their genre or even to a wider audience without it ever knowing.
Max Bennett. He’s not famous famous but he’s well known enough in the jazz scene. He played with Frank Sinatra, Dizzie Gillespie, and recorded on countless studio sessions. I knew him personally and I think was his last student before he passed. Some people closer to him than me told me one of the last things he said was “I need to give jcabral9 his lesson” and it makes me tear up whenever I think about it. I was too young to understand most of his concepts–I wish I could know him as an adult and professional musician myself.
Sure, there are plenty of musicians who had a bigger impact on music as a whole, but NOBODY I’ve ever seen was more in tune with the universe than Stevie when he was playing.
As far as I can tell, he didn’t actually play the guitar. He just acted as a conduit to channel music directly from the universe through a guitar. I don’t think he ever once had to pause and consider what to play next when he was improvising, it just flowed out of him non-stop.
He had already started getting even better, having finally gotten sober, and it kills my soul every time I think about what else he could’ve given us had he not gotten on that helicopter.
Aaliyah. 22 is far too young to have died, and her career was moving in the craziest direction. She was set to collaborate with Trent Reznor; I wanna see how she would’ve changed the game.
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