October 20^th, a plane carrying the rock band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ran out of fuel in Missouri, and crashed into a swamp, killing the guitarist and the singer (among others). While the band continued, it was never quite the same. The music industry has had a sad history of losing promising young artist to plane crashes, and then writing songs about it ( such as American Pie by Don Mclean). While it certainly would have been funner today to write about Art Bushwald’s birthday, seeing Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane crash on the various history web sites made me wonder what kind of music we might have had if these artists had lived. Its unfortunate that we will never know. Today’s list, in no real order, of 10 of the most famous musical deaths. Unfortunately, there are at least a dozen others that could have been added.

1. Buddy Holly
2. Lynyrd Skynyrd – Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines
3. Jim Croce
4. Randy Rhodes – Guitarist for Ozzy Osborn
5. Otis Redding
6. Stevie Ray Vaughn
7. Ritchie Valens
8. Glen Miller
9. Otis Redding
10. John Denver

Of course, if they decide in heaven to have a airplane safety concert, there is not question that it would have to be promoted by Bill Graham, who died in a crash as well. Let’s hope there are no new additions to this list in the future (maybe if Blink 182 reunites they should stick to buses).

Amazingly enough, I heard this song today on the Radio. I am curious if the station knew it was Jackson Browne’s birthday. So to celebrate his birthday, we’ll honor those he honored in this song, the roadies, or road crew. These men and woman lug the equipment for the concerts onto the stage, then back to the truck on a daily basis. They spend hundreds of days a year on the road so we can be entertained. But every so often, some of them make it big, such as:

1. Jan Alejandro – Was one of the roadies sung about by Jackson Browne. He later got to play the piano on stage with Todd Rundgren, Roger Powell, Ringo Starr, and Bill Wyman during a Jerry Lewis Telethon where he was seen by 33 million people. He later worked on the last Led Zeppelin concert.
2. Billy Powell went from the road crew to a member of Lynyrd Skynyrd.
3. Lemmy was on the road crew for Jimi Hendrix, long before he formed Motorhead.
4. Noel Gallagher, before he was in Oasis, was a roadie for Inspiral Carpets.
5. Kurt Cobain was a roadie for the Melvins before forming Nirvana.
6. Nirvana had a roadie named Ben Sheppard who went on to be in Soundgarden
7. Bob Bryar was the sound tech for My Chemical Romance before they asked him to join the band.
8. Henry Rollins was a roadie for The Teen Idles before his Black Flag days.
9. John Marshall filled in for James Hetfield after James sustained some burns on his hands. While performing, he maintained his sound tech duties. He later went on to the band Metal church. While filling in, he mainly stayed out of sight, requiring some coaxing to come out, not doing so until his fourth show.
10. A band called Grinderswitch used to open for the Allman Brothers. This band was made up of roadies for the Allman Brothers and they’d often borrow the instruments for their act.

Perhaps we should petition congress to make Oct 9th, roadie day?  Nah, they’d just want the day off and that might mess up Roctober or Octoberfest somewhere.