Death
Valentino Khan Shares Heartwarming Story of Bob Saget’s Reaction to “Deep Down Low”
The tragic passing of Bob Saget over the weekend has inspired several high-profile electronic music artists to share their stories of meeting the late comedy icon. Who would America’s Dad have had such a curiosity and appreciation for in dance music? Saget made a particularly meaningful impact on renowned producer Valentino Khan, who shared a heartwarming tribute on Instagram. Khan explains he was playing a set at Encore Las Vegas when the Full House star approached the booth to introduce himself. The two exchanged pleasantries and although it was brief, Khan said that Saget struck him as particularly kind. Later in the evening before leaving the club, Saget returned to the DJ booth to show Khan he’d been trying to identify his global hit, “Deep Down Low,” on his ph...
R.I.P. Burke Shelley, Budgie Singer-Bassist Dies at 71
Burke Shelley, the singer and bassist of the influential Welsh metal band Budgie, has died at the age of 71. Shelley’s daughter, Ela, shared the following post Monday night (January 10th) on Facebook: “It is with great sadness that I announce the death of my father, John Burke Shelley. He passed away this evening in his sleep at Heath Hospital in Cardiff, his birth town. He was 71 years old. Please respect the family during this time. With love, His four children: Ela, Osian, Dimitri and Nathaniel.” Although no cause of death was given, Shelley had suffered from health problems over the last few years (a genetic disorder called Stickler syndrome, plus two aortic aneurysms), which kept Budgie off of the road and from issuing new music. Advertisement Related Video Born John Burke Shelley on ...
Robert Durst, Real Estate Heir Who Admitted to Murder in HBO’s The Jinx, Dead at 78
Robert Durst, the heir to a billion-dollar real estate empire who was sentenced to life in prison after admitting to murder in the HBO miniseries The Jinx, has died at the age of 78. As TMZ reports, the cause was cardiac arrest, though he had also been battling bladder cancer, and was weakened after a bout with COVID-19 put him on a ventilator last year. The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst aired in 2015 and examined the possibility that Durst was a serial killer. Incredibly, the series was Durst’s idea, having reached out to director Andrew Jarecki to volunteer himself for an interview. At the time, he was suspected in the deaths of three people: his wife Kathleen McCormack Durst, who disappeared in 1982; the 2000 murder of his friend Susan Berman; and the 200...
Betty White Died Six Days After Suffering Stroke
Betty White’s death certificate has revealed that the television icon suffered a stroke six days before she died. Via TMZ, the official cause of death is listed as cerebrovascular accident, or loss of blood flow to parts of the brain. Reportedly, she was alert and cogent following the stroke, and passed away peacefully in her sleep on December 31st, just weeks short of her 100th birthday. According to PageSix, her final words were “Allen,” in apparent reference to her late husband Allen Ludden. White would have enjoyed her centennial birthday on January 17th. On that day, theaters will screen Betty White: A Celebration, a film marking 100 years since she was born, although it was slightly altered following her death. That same date, her hometown of Oak Park, Illinois will ce...
Lollapalooza Co-Founder Ted Gardner Dead at 74
Ted Gardner, who co-founded Chicago’s iconic Lollapalooza festival alongside Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, has died at the age of 74. He passed away on December 28th, 2021 after battling an unspecified illness, Pollstar reports. Prior to launching Lollapalooza, Gardner was the full-time manager of Jane’s Addiction starting in 1989. He and Farrell in 1991 went on to host the inaugural festival, which was reportedly set up at the time as a farewell tour for the band. In addition to co-founding Lollapalooza, Gardner was a prolific rock manager who worked with Queens of the Stone Age and The Verve, among others. Originally from Melbourne, he and his wife, Nikki Brown, looked after a myriad of bands in Los Angeles for over 25 years, such as The Cramps, Rose Tatt...
R.I.P. Classic BlackBerry, Phone with Best Keyboard and Worst OS Dead at 22
BlackBerry, the tech company that shattered the barrier between work and home, has stopped supporting its classic line of phones after 22 years. All of the standard BlackBerry models have turned into paper weights with keyboards as of today, January 4th, though a small number of devices powered by the Android operating system will continue to function. The move was a long time coming. The last version of the BlackBerry OS launched in 2013, and the company mostly moved out of the phone industry in 2016. In September of 2021, BlackBerry announced that it would be discontinuing support for BlackBerry 10, 7.1 OS and earlier to focus on its security software and services. BlackBerry first began in 1996 as Research in Motion, promoting a device it called a two-way pager. That first offering allo...
Nicki Minaj Remembers Former Business Manager Angela Kukawski as ‘Sweetest Person’ After Her Death
Nicki Minaj honored her former business manager Angela “Angie” Kukawski, who recently died in a suspected homicide. The Los Angeles-based business manager was reported missing a week ago on Dec. 22, but Los Angeles and Simi Valley police officers found her body inside her car parked on Patricia Avenue in Simi Valley the next day, according to a press release from the Los Angeles Police Department issued Wednesday (Dec. 29). Her death was ruled a homicide by the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office. She was 55. On Minaj’s Instagram Story Wednesday, the rapper wrote, “Hardest working, most reliable, sweetest person you could ever know. You didn’t deserve this, Angela. My heart is breaking for your children. Rest In Peace.” Explore See latest videos, charts and news Nicki Minaj sympathize...
Promising Electronic Music Producer CharlestheFirst Dead at 25
CharlestheFirst, a fast-rising DJ and electronic music producer, has tragically died at the age of 25. “Early this morning our beloved Charles Elias Ingalls passed away in his sleep,” reads a tweeted statement shared by Lab Group, a multimedia collective co-founded by CharlestheFirst. “Amongst many things, Charles was a larger than life presence that deeply moved and affected all who knew him.” “A son, a brother, a friend, a poet, and an absolutely brilliant musician,” the statement continues. “He lived his life with a sense of magic and inspiration that most people only dream of.” Known for his ability to blend hypnotic bass music with lo-fi and hip-hop, CharlestheFirst released his latest album SOLUS in March 2021. The expansive record was ...
R.I.P. Jonshel Alexander, Child Actor in Beasts of the Southern Wild, Shot and Killed
Jonshel Alexander, the former child actor who co-starred in the 2012 Oscar-nominated drama Beasts of the Southern Wild, was shot and killed over the weekend in her home state of Louisiana. She was 22 years old. As multiple outlets report, she and an unidentified man were both shot in a vehicle in New Orleans on Saturday. She was pronounced dead at the scene, while the man drove himself to the hospital for treatment. Alexander leaves behind a one-year-old daughter. Alexander was only 12-years-old when she played Joy Strong, friend of the protagonist Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis), in Benh Zeitlin’s debut feature film. She beat out over 4,000 other actors for the part, her mother Shelly Alexander recalled. “She brought life to everything. Jonshel was feisty, jazzy, spoiled...
EDM Artists Pay Tribute to Virgil Abloh Following Tragic Death: “Your Vision and Creations Changed the World”
Renowned fashion designer, DJ, and entrepreneur Virgil Abloh has passed away at the age of 41 after battling cardiac angiosarcoma, a rare form of cancer. Known for his pioneering work as Louis Vuitton’s first Black artistic director, Abloh’s influence extended far beyond the confines of fashion and deep into the music industry. He was a prolific DJ, performing at many high-profile music festivals and clubs, and frequently collaborating with Kanye West as a creative director for the hip-hop mogul’s creative content company, DONDA. The son of Ghanaian immigrants, Abloh is revered as a trailblazer in the fashion industry, which has been decried by many for its lack of diversity. CNN Style called him “one of fashion’s most powerful Black men.&...
R.I.P. Hank Von Helvete, Former Turbonegro Singer Dies at 49
Hank Von Helvete, the best-known singer of long-running Norwegian death-punk act Turbonegro, has died at age 49. His passing was confirmed by his family via the Norwegian newspaper Tvedestrandsposten and through Turbonegro’s social media pages, but no cause of death was revealed. Von Helvete (real name Hans-Erik Dyvik Husby) joined Turbonegro as the band’s third lead singer in 1993, taking over for Harald Fossberg. He fronted Turbonegro until his departure in 2009, save for a hiatus that lasted from 1999 to 2002. That break was due in part to Von Helvete’s drug addiction at the time, as he was undergoing treatment for heroin dependency. During his time with Turbonegro, Von Helvete recorded several albums with the group, beginning with 1994’s Never Is Forever and ending with 2007’s Ret...
R.I.P. Malcolm Dome, Veteran Music Journalist Who Coined the Term “Thrash Metal” Dies at 66
Malcolm Dome, a longtime music journalist who primarily covered metal and hard rock, has died at the age of 66. The veteran writer is credited with coining the term “thrash metal” in an article about Anthrax in 1984. The UK journalist got his start in the 1970s, writing for Record Mirror and Metal Fury magazines, before landing with Kerrang! upon its launch in 1981. His passing was reported by the website Louder, which encompasses the magazines Prog, Classic Rock, and Metal Hammer, all of which Dome contributed to during his lengthy journalism career. In 1981, Dome put out a book called Encyclopedia Metallica, which may have inspired the legendary metal band’s name. More directly, he referred to Anthrax’s music as “thrash metal” while writing about the band’s song “Metal Thrashing Mad” in ...
