TMZ is reporting that Tom Petty has been put on life support following a cardiac arrest in his home.
Update: The latest report is that Tom Petty has passed away. He was 66.
Update #2: TMZ is now reporting that “[t]he singer is not expected to live through the day, but he’s still clinging to life.”
Update #3: Tom Petty’s manager has confirmed that Mr. Petty has passed away.
Jason Heller, writing about the passing of Planes Mistaken for Stars’ Matt Bellinger:
A basic obituary isn’t enough to sum up a life, let alone one that had as much impact as Matt’s.
When I met Matt in 1998, I had yet to even dream of being a journalist. Back then, I worked the cash register at Wax Trax, while Matt and the other members of Planes lived in Peoria, Illinois, where they had grown up. Their singer-guitarist, Gared O’Donnell, visited Denver frequently in the ’90s to see his mom, who lived in Colorado.
Matt Novak, writing for Gizmodo:
On September 26, 1983, Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov received a message that five nuclear missiles had been launched by the United States and were heading to Moscow. He didn’t launch a retaliatory strike, believing correctly that it was a false alarm. And with that, he saved the world from nuclear war. But now reports have surfaced that Petrov died this past May. He was 77 years old.
Grant Hart, singer and drummer for Hüsker Dü, has passed away.
The band’s publicist, Ken Weinstein, said the cause was cancer.
Hüsker Dü was formed by Mr. Hart, the guitarist and singer Bob Mould and the bassist Greg Norton in the late 1970s in St. Paul, and soon became known for high-volume blasts of heart-quickening rock that could not quite disguise the hooks buried beneath the noise.
PunkNews is reporting that Matt Bellinger of Planes Mistaken for Stars has passed away:
Strike Anywhere stated, “RIP Matt Bellinger. Devastated to hear of his passing. Planes Mistaken For Stars played an integral part to the early years of Strike Anywheres existence. Kindred spirits and fellow travelers all the way. So many great shows and great memories. Much love to Gared, Mike, Jamie, Chuck and Neil. xoxo”
Walter Becker, co-founder of Steely Dan, has passed away. He was 67.
Jake Fisher, former bassist for Northstar, has passed away.
Heather D. Heyer died standing up for what she believed in.
Friends described her as a passionate advocate for the disenfranchised who was often moved to tears by the world’s injustices. That sense of conviction led her to join demonstrators protesting a rally of white nationalists in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday.
Glen Campbell has passed away. He was 81.
Adam West passed away over the weekend. He was 88.
To at least a generation of young Bat-lovers, the cheeky ABC series was their true introduction to the DC Comics crime-fighter created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger and first popularized in the World War II era. As “American Gods” and “Sandman” writer Neil Gaiman once told Comic Riffs: Decades before he was crafting Batman comics, he was glued to West’s series — this sly, psychedelic-era confection — when he was a boy in Britain who absorbed whatever American pop culture he could find.
Adam West’s portrayal of Batman was one of my first introductions into the character. R.I.P.
Roger Moore, best known for playing James Bond, has passed away. He was 89.
Chris Cornell has passed away. He was 52.
Former Black Flag bassist, Cel Revuelta, has passed away.
Kevin Garcia, bassist of Grandaddy, has passed away. He was 41.
Robert Pirsig, the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, has passed away. He was 88.
Robert M. Pirsig, whose “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,” a dense and discursive novel of ideas, became an unlikely publishing phenomenon in the mid-1970s and a touchstone in the waning days of the counterculture, died on Monday at his home in South Berwick, Me. He was 88.