The Band- The Weight

Famous Dead Musicians/Artists and Causes of Death (Pt 2, Age 37-50)

This is an article in which I tried to bundle all the great losses of rock'n roll and modern music. That means all the musicians which are worldwide known and died at young age (before 51 years old). I tried to give a little information about the way they died. Most of the information I got from Wikipedia. When someone thinks I forgot an artist or that the information is incorrect... I'm open for new information.

The list is in order of age of dying
For the artists younger than 37 I'll recommend you Pt 1;

37
Lhasa de Sela (Lhasa) (1972-2010)
Following a 21-month-long battle with breast cancer, Lhasa died, age 37, on the evening of January 1, 2010, at her home in Montreal.
Rhett Forrester (Riot) (1956-1994)
Murdered. He was shot and killed in Atlanta, Georgia, after he refused to give up his vehicle in an attempted carjacking. The crime has not to date, been solved.
King Curtis (1934-1971)
Murdered. Around midnight Curtis was lugging an air-conditioning unit towards his brownstone apartment on West 86th Street in New York City when he noticed two junkies were using drugs on the steps to his home. When he asked them to leave, an argument started. The argument quickly became heated and turned into a fist-fight with one of the men, 26-year old Juan Montañez. Suddenly, Montañez pulled out a knife and stabbed Curtis in the chest. Curtis managed to wrestle the knife away and stab his assailant four times before collapsing. Montañez staggered away from the scene and Curtis was taken to a hospital, where he died from his wounds less than an hour later. Montañez was arrested at the same hospital Curtis had been taken to. When police officers investigating the murder learned that another man had been admitted to the hospital with stab wounds around the same time as Curtis, they quickly realized that the two events were connected. Montañez was charged with Curtis' murder and subsequently sentenced to a term of imprisonment.

Jeffrey Lee Pierce (The Gun Club) (1958-1996)
Brain hemorrhage. His health had been poor for some time, and he suffered further from prolonged use of opiates ("I beat scars into my arms waiting for an early death"). The final Gun Club album, 1993's Lucky Jim includes the songs "Idiot Waltz" and "Desire." In the early stages of his career, Pierce was supported by Debbie Harry of Blondie, who was convinced of his potential as musician and artist. He originally met Harry, as well as Chris Stein (also of Blondie), through his position as the president of Blondie's US fan club. Jeffrey Lee Pierce died from a brain hemorrhage.
Jam Master Jay (Run-D.M.C.) (1965-2002)
Murdered. He was shot and killed in a recording studio in Queens. The other person in the room, 25-year-old Urieco Rincon, was shot in the ankle and survived. In 2003, Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff, a convicted drug dealer and longtime friend of Murder Inc. heads Irv and Chris Gotti, was investigated for targeting Mizell because the DJ defied an industry blacklist of rapper 50 Cent that was imposed because of "Ghetto Qu'ran", a song 50 Cent wrote about McGriff's drug history. In 2007, federal prosecutors named Ronald "Tenad" Washington as an accomplice in the murder. Washington also is a suspect in the 1995 murder of Randy "Stretch" Walker, a close associate of the late rapper Tupac Shakur. According to court papers filed by the prosecution, Washington “pointed his gun at those present in the studio, ordered them to get on the ground and provided cover for his associate to shoot and kill Jason Mizell (a.k.a. Jam Master Jay)."
Bobby Darin (1936-1973)
Heart attack. In 1971, he underwent his first heart surgery in an attempt to correct some of the heart damage he had lived with since childhood. In 1973, Darin's ill health took a turn for the worse. After failing to take medication to protect his heart before a dental visit, he developed blood poisoning. This weakened his body and badly affected one of his heart valves. On December 11, Darin entered Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for surgery to repair two artificial heart valves he had received in the previous heart operation back in January 1971. On December 19, a five-man surgical team worked for over six hours to repair Darin's damaged heart. Darin died minutes afterward in the recovery room.

Michael Hutchence (INXS) (1960-1997)
Suicide. The New South Wales coroner determined that Hutchence's death was the result of suicide. The coroner's report states: "An analysis report of the deceased's blood indicates the presence of alcohol, cocaine, Prozac and other prescription drugs. On consideration of the entirety of the evidence gathered I am satisfied that the deceased was in a severe depressed state on the morning of the 22nd November, 1997, due to a number of factors, including the relationship with Paula Yates and the pressure of the on-going dispute with Bob Geldof, combined with the effects of the substances that he had ingested at that time. As indicated I am satisfied that the deceased intended and did take his own life." Kym Wilson and her then boyfriend Andrew Reyment were the last people to see Michael alive as they left him; he was still awaiting a phone call from London concerning whether Yates would be able to bring his daughter Tiger to Australia. Michael Hutchence's last outgoing phone calls were to his manager, Martha Troup, and his former long-time girlfriend, Michele Bennett, who stated that Hutchence was crying, tired and said he needed to see her. Bennett arrived at his door soon after at approximately but, there was no answer. The message he left for his manager was "I've f-ing had enough." Hutchence's body was discovered by a hotel maid: "He was in a kneeling position facing the door. He had used his black leather belt to tie a knot on the automatic door closure at the top of the door, and had strained his head forward into the loop so hard that the buckle had broken."

Joe Meek (1929-1967)
Suicide. Meek was obsessed with the occult and the idea of "the other side". He would set up tape machines in graveyards in a vain attempt to record voices from beyond the grave, in one instance capturing the meows of a cat he claimed was speaking in human tones, asking for help. In particular, he had an obsession with Buddy Holly (claiming the late American rocker had communicated with him in dreams) and other dead rock and roll musicians. His professional efforts were often hindered by his paranoia (Meek was convinced that Decca Records would put hidden microphones behind his wallpaper in order to steal his ideas), drug use and attacks of rage or depression. Meek's homosexuality - illegal in the UK at the time - put him under further pressure; he had been convicted of "importuning for immoral purposes" and fined £15: he was consequently subject to blackmail. In January 1967, police in Suffolk, discovered a suitcase containing the mutilated body of Bernard Oliver. According to some accounts, Meek became concerned that he would be implicated in the murder investigation when the Metropolitan Police stated that they would be interviewing all known homosexuals in the city. One month later, the eighth anniversary of Buddy Holly's death, Meek killed his landlady and then himself with a single barreled shotgun that he had confiscated from his protegé.
38
Paul Gray (Slipknot) (1972-2010)
Drug overdose. Gray had been found dead in room 431 at the Towneplace Suites hotel in Urbandale, Iowa. Autopsy results were released that stated Gray had died of an accidental overdose of morphine and fentanyl, and had also shown signs of "significant heart disease".
Bob Hite (Canned Heat) (1943-1981)
Heart attack. Hite was found dead in his van of a heart attack.
David Byron (Uriah Heep) (1947-1985)
Alcohol related complications. He died of alcohol related complications in Reading. The coroner's report cited epilepsy and fatty liver.

Israel Kamakawiwoʻole (1959-1997)
Weight-related respiratory illness. Kamakawiwoʻole was obese and at one point carried 757 pounds (343 kg; 54.1 st) on his 6-foot-2-inch (1.88 m) frame. He endured several hospitalizations because of problems caused by his weight and died at The Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu.

George Gershwin (1898-1937)
Brain tumor. In 1937 Gershwin began to complain of blinding headaches and a recurring impression that he was smelling burned rubber. Doctors discovered he had developed a type of cystic malignant brain tumor known as glioblastoma multiforme. Although some tried to trace his disease to a blow on the head from a golf ball, the cause of this type of cancer is still unknown. It occurs most often in males, accounts for 52% of all brain cancers, and is nearly always fatal. Gershwin suffered "musical blackouts" during his final performances. It was in Hollywood, while working on the score of The Goldwyn Follies, that he collapsed.

Dimebag Darrell (Pantera & Damageplan) (1966-2004)
Murdered. He was shot onstage while performing with Damageplan at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio. The gunman was Nathan Gale, who shot Abbott eight times, including five times in the head, killing him instantly. Gale then continued shooting, killing four others and wounding a further seven. Gale fired a total of fifteen shots, taking the time to reload once and remaining silent throughout the shooting. Early theories of motive suggested that Gale may have turned to violence in response to the breakup of Pantera, or the public dispute between Dimebag Darrell and Pantera singer Phil Anselmo, but these were later ruled out by investigators. Another theory was that Gale believed Dimebag Darrell had stolen a song that he had written. In the book, A Vulgar Display Of Power, several of Gale's personal writings, given to the author by his mother, suggest that the gunman was not angry about Pantera's breakup or about a belief that Pantera had "stolen songs;" instead, the documents suggest that Gale's paranoid schizophrenia caused delusions that the band could read his mind, and that they were "stealing" his thoughts and laughing at him.
Suba (1961-1999)
He was working on the postproduction of the album of his newfound diva, Bebel Gilberto, when his studio caught fire. Overcome by smoke, he died trying to rescue the newly recorded material with her. Suba died just a few days after the release of his now-legendary album São Paulo Confessions, and shortly before the completion of Bebel Gilberto's acclaimed Tanto Tempo, the biggest selling Brazilian album outside Brazil.
Van McCoy (1940-1979)
Heart attack. McCoy died from a heart attack in Englewood, New Jersey.
Lester Butler (The Red Devils) (1959-1998)
Speedball. Butler died of an overdose of heroin and cocaine in Los Angeles. Two of his friends were convicted in his death with involuntary manslaughter.
Dédé Fortin (Les Colocs) (1962-2000)
Suicide. He committed seppuku, a Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment, (removing of some of the vital organs) in his apartment in Montreal. A friend found him in a pool of blood.
Jeffrey Porcaro (Toto) (1954-1992)
Gardening accident. He was spraying insecticide in his garden and inhaled too much of the spray, triggering a heart attack. An autopsy revealed a serious heart condition that had been previously undiagnosed.
39
El Duce (The Mentors) (1958-1997)
Death by misadventure, but his notoriety stems from his claim that Courtney Love offered him 50 thousand dollars to kill her husband, grunge icon, Kurt Coabin. In 1996, El Duce told his story to a film-maker and a polygraph test supposedly determined that he was telling the truth. A week after the interview, he was found dead by a railway track. Supposedly there was a high volume of alcohol in his blood and the authorities dubbed his a death by misadventure, but his friends suspect foul play.

Dennis Wilson (The Beach Boys) (1944-1983)
Drowned. Succeeding years saw Wilson battling alcohol abuse. Smoking and drugs had also taken a toll on his vocal chords, although the resultant gravelly effect helped define him as a singer. On December 28, 1983, Wilson drowned at Marina Del Rey, Los Angeles after drinking all day and diving in the afternoon to recover items he had thrown overboard at the marina from his yacht back in 1980.
Brenda Fassie (1964-2004)
Cocaine overdose. Brenda collapsed at her home in Buccleuch and was admitted into a hospital in Johannesburg. The press were told that she had suffered cardiac arrest but later reported that she had slipped into a coma brought on by an asthma attack. The post-mortem report revealed that she had taken an overdose of cocaine in the night of her collapse, and this was the cause of her coma. She stopped breathing and suffered brain damage from lack of oxygen. Fassie was visited in the hospital by Nelson Mandela, Winnie Mandela, and Thabo Mbeki, and her condition was front-page news in South African papers. She died in hospital without returning to consciousness after her life support machines were turned off. According to the South African Sunday Times and the managers of her music company, the post-mortem report also showed that she was HIV-positive.
Billy MacKenzie (The Associates) (1957-1997)
Drug overdose. Depression and the death of his mother are believed to have contributed to his suicide. He overdosed on a combination of the anti-depressant amitriptyline, temazepam, and paracetamol in the garden shed of his father's house in Dundee.

Johnny Thunders (The New York Dolls) (1952-1991)
Conflicting sources report heroin overdose or methadone and cocaine poisoning or that the autopsy did not disclose a cause of death. He apparently died of drug-related causes, but it has been speculated that it was the result of foul play. Dee Dee Ramone took a call in New York the next day from Stevie Klasson, Johnny's rhythm guitar player. "They told me that Johnny had gotten mixed up with some bastards... who ripped him off for his methadone supply. They had given him LSD and then murdered him. He had gotten a pretty large supply of methadone in England, so he could travel and stay away from those creeps - the drug dealers, Thunders imitators, and losers like that." What is known for certain is that Johnny's room was ransacked and most of his possessions were missing (passport, makeup, clothes). Rigor mortis had set in with his body positioned in an unnatural state, described by eyewitnesses as "like a pretzel", underneath a coffee table. Friends and acquaintances acknowledge he had not been using heroin for some time, relying on his methadone prescriptions. The police did not open a criminal investigation.
Jermaine Stewart (1957-1997)
AIDS-related liver cancer. He died in the Chicago suburb of Homewood, Illinois.
Harry Chapin (1942-1981)
Car accident. Chapin was driving in the left lane on the Long Island Expressway at about 65 mph on the way to perform at a free concert scheduled for later that evening in East Meadow, New York. Near exit 40 in Jericho he put on his emergency flashers, presumably because of either a mechanical or medical problem (possibly a heart attack). He then slowed to about 15 miles (24 km) per hour and veered into the center lane, nearly colliding with another car. He swerved left, then to the right again, ending up directly in the path of a tractor-trailer truck. The truck could not brake in time and rammed the rear of Chapin's blue 1975 Volkswagen Rabbit, rupturing the fuel tank by climbing its back and causing it to burst into flames. The driver of the truck and a passerby were able to get Chapin out of the burning car through the window and by cutting the seat belts before the car was completely engulfed in flames. He was taken by police helicopter to a hospital, where ten doctors tried for 30 minutes to revive him. A spokesman for the Nassau County Medical Center said Chapin had suffered a heart attack and "died of cardiac arrest", but there was no way of knowing whether it occurred before or after the accident.

Tim Hardin (1941-1980)
Heroin overdose. During the years Hardin moved between England and the U.S. his heroin addiction had taken control of his life by the time his last album, "Nine". He sold his writers' rights in the late 1970s. Tim Hardin died of a heroin overdose in 1980.
Blaze Foley (1949-1989)
Murdered. Foley was shot to death while helping his friend Concho January defend himself from his violent son Carey January on the verandah of Concho's house. Carey January was acquitted of murder in the first degree by reason of self-defense. Friends of Foley were outraged at the verdict.
Clyde McPhatter (The Drifters) (1932-1972)
Alcohol-related compications. McPhatter died in his sleep at the age of 39 from complications of heart, liver, and kidney disease, brought on by alcohol abuse - abuse that had been fueled by a failed career and the resentment he harbored towards the fans he felt had deserted him. In a 1971 interview with journalist Marcia Vance, McPhatter told Vance "I have no fans."
Claude François (1957-1997)
Electrocuted. After finishing a shower, Francois noticed that the light bulb in the socket hanging above him was burned out. With his feet still in the water, he reached up to change the bulb and was instantly electrocuted. Several female fans committed suicide upon news of his death.
Fats Waller (1904-1943)
Pneumonia. Waller contracted pneumonia and died on a cross country train trip near Kansas City, Missouri. Upon arrival at Kansas City, word of Waller's death immediately spread throughout the station and onto another train headed west. Also on the train was Louis Armstrong who, upon hearing the news, cried for hours.

Dinah Washington (1924-1963)
Drug overdose. Dinah's eighth husband, NFL player Dick "Night Train" Lane went to sleep with his wife and awoke later to find Dinah slumped over and not responsive. The doctor came to the scene to pronounce her dead. An autopsy later showed a lethal combination of secobarbital and amobarbital which contributed to her untimely death.
Al Jackson Jr. (Booker T. & The MG's) (1935-1975)
Murdered. After the Ali-Frazier fight, Jackson returned home and found intruders in his house. He was reportedly told to get down on his knees and then shot fatally five times in the back. Around 3:00 a.m., Barbara Jackson ran out in the street, yelling for help. She told police that burglars had tied her up and then shot her husband when he returned home. Police found nothing in the house out of place and Al Jackson's wallet and jewelry were still on him. The man police believed to have pulled the trigger had reportedly known someone in Memphis and after robbing a bank in Florida, told them to meet him over at Al Jackson's house. Tracked through Florida to Memphis to Seattle, Washington, the suspected triggerman was killed by a police officer on July 15, 1976 after a gun battle.
40
Sergio Vega (1969-2010)
Murdered. Vega was murdered while on his way to perform at a village festival concert in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. Gunmen travelling in a truck drove alongside his red Cadillac and opened fire on the vehicle. They then reportedly fired shots at Vega's head and chest from close range. At the time of his death, rumours had been circulating online that he had already been killed. Just hours before he was shot, Vega was interviewed for an article on entertainment website La Oreja, in which he confirmed he was still alive. Vega was a singer of narcocorridos — ballads that celebrate the lives of drug dealers. Musicians who play this kind of music in Mexico are known to sometimes become the targets of rival gangs.

John Lennon (1940-1980)
Murdered. When Lennon and Yoko Ono returned to the Dakota, the New York apartment building where they lived, when Mark David Chapman shot Lennon in the back four times at the entrance to the building. Earlier that evening, Lennon had autographed a copy of Double Fantasy for Chapman. Lennon was taken to the emergency room of the nearby hospital and was pronounced dead on arrival.
Glenn Miller (1904-1944)
Disapeared. On December 15, 1944, Miller was to fly from the United Kingdom to Paris, France, to play for the soldiers there. His plane departed from Bedfordshire and disappeared while flying over the English Channel. No trace of the aircrew, passengers or plane has ever been found. Miller's status is missing in action. There are a few theories about what happened to Miller's plane, including the suggestion that he might have been hit by Royal Air Force bombs after an abortive raid on Germany. One hundred and thirty-eight Lancaster bombers, short on fuel, jettisoned approximately 100,000 incendiaries in a designated area before landing. The logbooks a Royal Air Force navigator recorded that he saw a small, single-engined monoplane spiraling out of control and crashing into the water. However, a second source, while acknowledging the possibility, cites other RAF crew members flying the same mission who stated that the drop area was in the North Sea. In a book by a former member of Dwight D. Eisenhower's personal staff, argues that the U.S. government covered up Miller's death. This suggested that Miller, who spoke German, had been enlisted by Eisenhower to covertly attempt to convince some German officers to end the war early. The book goes on to suggest that Miller was captured and killed in a Paris brothel, and his death covered up to save the government embarrassment.
41
Falco (1957-1998)
Car crash. He died of severe injuries received from a collision with a bus in his Mitsubishi Montero in the Dominican Republic. It was initially reported that the autopsy showed high blood levels of alcohol and cocaine, however this was later dismissed. At the time of his death, he was planning a comeback.
Adrian Borland (The Sound) (1957-1999)
Borland had lived with severe depression for about 14 years and he had tried to commit suicide at least three times, the third (according to his mother) when he jumped in front of a car. He had also developed a drinking problem. At Christmas horrified commuters watched as Borland committed suicide by throwing himself under a train at Wimbledon Station.
Ira Louvin (The Louvin Brothers) (1924-1965)
Carcrash. Louvin was notorious for his drinking and short temper. He married four times, his third wife having shot him multiple times in the chest and hand after he allegedly beat her. He died in 1965 when a drunken driver struck his car in Williamsburg, Missouri. At the time, a warrant for Louvin's arrest had been issued on a DUI charge.

John Coltrane (1926-1967)
Liver cancer. The cause of his illness was hepatitis, although he also attributed the disease to Coltrane's heroin use. In an interview Albert Ayler claimed that Coltrane was consulting a Hindu meditative healer for his illness instead of Western medicine, though Alice Coltrane later denied this.
Eric Carr (Kiss) (1950-1991)
He was diagnosed with an unexpectedly serious and extremely rare type of cancer - heart cancer.
Sylvester (1947-1988)
Complications from AIDS. He died in San Francisco.
Kevin Wilkinson (The Waterboys) (1958-1999)
Suicide. Wilkinson commited suicide by hanging himself in the family home in Baydon, near Swindon.
Joe Dassin (1938-1980)
Heart attack. Dassin died of a heart attack during a vacation to Tahiti.
Bobby Debarge (Switch/(DeBarge) (1956-1999)
AIDS. In 1988, Bobby and his younger brother Chico were arrested for intention to distribute drugs in their hometown of Grand Rapids. Bobby served his five years in a federal penitentiary in Wisconsin, and his brother Chico served five years in a federal penitentiary in Milan, Michigan. During the prison intake process, Bobby found out he had AIDS which he contracted through heroin use. After leaving prison and gaining sobriety, DeBarge tried continuing his music career, but shortly after his release, Bobby died from complications of AIDS.
Kirsty MacColl (1959-2000)
Killed in a controversial boating incident. On a holiday in Mexico, with her sons and her partner, she and her sons went diving in a specific diving area that watercraft were restricted from entering. With the group was a local veteran divemaster. As the group was surfacing from a dive, a speeding powerboat entered the restricted area. MacColl saw the boat coming before her sons did; Louis was not in the boat's path, but Jamie was. She was able to push him out of the way (he sustained minor head and rib injuries) but in doing so, she was hit by the boat and killed instantly.

Biography

The Band was an influential Canadian-American rock and roll group of the 1960s and ’70s, formed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Band included Robbie Robertson (guitar, piano); Richard Manuel (piano, harmonica, drums, saxophone, organ); Garth Hudson (organ, piano, clavinet, accordion, synthesizer, saxophone); Rick Danko (bass guitar, violin, trombone), and Levon Helm (drums, mandolin, guitar, bass guitar).

The members of The Band first worked together as The Hawks, the backing band of rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins from 1959 until 1963. Afterwards, Bob Dylan recruited the quintet for his history-making 1965/1966 world tour and they joined him on the informal recordings that became the acclaimed Basement Tapes.

Dubbed “The Band” by their peers, the group left the comfort of their communal home in Saugerties, NY to begin recording as a group unto themselves. The Band recorded two of the most important albums of the late 1960s: their 1968 debut Music from Big Pink (featuring the hit single “The Weight”) and 1969’s The Band. These critically praised albums helped conceive country rock as something more than a genre, but rather as a celebration of “Americana.” As such, throughout their career they would repopularize traditional American musical forms during the psychedelic era. The Band dissolved in 1976; Martin Scorcese’s landmark concert film “The Last Waltz” documented their final performance. They reformed in 1983 without founding guitarist and main songwriter Robbie Robertson.

Although always more popular with music journalists and fellow musicians than the general public, The Band has remained an admired and influential group. They have been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Their music fused many elements: primarily old country music and early rock and roll, though the rhythm section often had a bouncy, funky punch reminiscent of Stax or Motown, and Robertson cites Curtis Mayfield and the Staple Singers as major influences. At its best, however, The Band’s music was an organic synthesis of many musical genres which became more than the sum of its parts. The group’s songwriting was also remarkable as, unlike much earlier rock and roll, and following upon the example set previously by The Byrds, very few of their early compositions were based on conventional blues and doo-wop chord changes.

The Band comprised Robbie Robertson (guitar); Richard Manuel (piano, harmonica, drums, saxophone); Garth Hudson (organ, piano, clavinet, accordion, synthesizer, saxophone); Rick Danko (bass guitar, violin, trombone); and Levon Helm (drums, mandolin, guitar, bass guitar) Excepting Robertson, all were multi-instrumentalists; each person’s primary instrument is listed first. There was little instrument-switching when they played live, but when recording, the musicians could offer all manner of subtle aural colors and textures to enhance songs. Hudson in particular was able to coax an impressive range of timbres from his Lowrey electronic organ; on the choruses of “Tears of Rage”, for example, it sounds startlingly like a mellotron. Helm’s drumming was rarely flashy, but he was often praised for his subtlety and funkiness. Critic Jon Carroll famously declared that Helm was “the only drummer who can make you cry,” while prolific session drummer Jim Keltner admits to appropriating several of Helm’s techniques.

Singers Manuel, Danko, and Helm each brought a distinctive voice to The Band: Helm’s gritty, southern voice had more than a hint of country, Danko sang in a soaring, unfettered tenor, and Manuel alternated between fragile falsetto and a wounded baritone. The singers regularly blended in unorthodox, but uncommonly effective harmonies. Though the singing was more or less evenly shared between the three men, both Danko and Helm have stated that they saw Manuel as the Band’s “lead” singer.

Robertson was the unit’s chief songwriter (though he sang lead vocals on only three or four songs in The Band’s career). This role, and Robertson’s resulting claim to the copyright of most of the compositions, would become a point of much antipathy between the group’s members, especially between Robertson and Helm.

Producer John Simon is cited as a “sixth member” of The Band for producing and playing on Music from Big Pink, co-producing and playing on The Band, and playing on other songs up through The Band’s 1993 reunion album Jericho.

On 10 December 1999 is when Rick Danko died in his sleep at age 56. He had been a long-time drug user. In 1997 he had been found guilty of trying to smuggle heroin into Japan. He told the presiding judge that he had begun using the drug (together with prescription morphine) to fight life-long pain resulting from a 1968 auto accident. No drugs were found in his system at the time of his death. Following the death of Rick Danko, The Band broke up for good.

The Band - It Makes No Difference