Pop icons we've lost in first half of 2016
- Updated
David Bowie in Tucson
- Lew Elliott / Tucson Citizen
- Updated
David Bowie in concert at the Tucson Community Center on Sept. 13, 1974. Tickets were $5.50-$7.50.
David Bowie in Tucson
- Lew Elliott / Tucson Citizen
- Updated
David Bowie in concert at the Tucson Community Center on Sept. 13, 1974. The television premiere of the movie "M*A*S*H" the same night may have kept some people away.
David Bowie in Tucson
- Lew Elliott / Tucson Citizen
- Updated
David Bowie in concert at the Tucson Community Center on Sept. 13, 1974. A Tucson Citizen reviewer wrote, "On stage Bowie goes in for midl sexual sorties and a lot of pelvic action."
David Bowie in Tucson
- Lew Elliott / Tucson Citizen
- Updated
David Bowie in concert at the Tucson Community Center on Sept. 13, 1974. The Tucson Citizen reviewer said, "the audience would be flaunting its youthful sexuality."
Bluegrass great Ralph Stanely was no stranger to Tucson.
He played regular shows here from the late 1990s through 2014, his last show here at Fox Tucson Theatre with his Clinch Mountain Boys. He was the genteel guardian of the genre, a driving force behind the resurgence of bluegrass that heralded a new generation of purveyors. These were artists who hailed from beyond the coal mountain towns and hollers of Stanley's lineage to America's big cities and small towns, including Tucson which is home to rising stars Run Boy Run.
Run Boy Run, comprised of brother and sister Matt Rolland (fiddle, guitar) and Grace Rolland (cello, vocals), and sisters Bekah Sandoval Rolland (Matt's wife who plays fiddle and sings) and Jen Sandoval (mandolin, vocals), and bass player Jesse Allen, is making a strong run for a national career, touring around the country.
In a Facebook post late Thursday night, the band thanked Stanley "for all your music and inspiration over the years. You'll be missed!" Run Boy Run opened for the iconic singer at Fox Tucson Theatre in 2014.
The band's post came hours after news broke that Stanley had died at his home in Sandy Ridge, Virginia. He was 89.
Stanley's Tucson shows were rich with the music that Stanley and his late brother Carter had been playing since they formed the Clinch Mountain Boys in 1946. When his brother died 20 years later, Ralph Stanley continued on, going sol at first, then reviving the band.
His Tucson shows were legendary beyond the stage for the way Stanley interacted with the audience. And if you liked what you heard on stage, you could take some home — for a price.
At a Berger Center show in early 2001, Stanley transformed the hall's lobby into a Ralph Stanley music and memorabilia store during intermission. He sold CDs, cassettes, videocassettes — DVDs were still fairly new — T-shirts, posters and Stanley’s own line of banjos. And when he wasn’t acting as his own cashier, Stanley generously signed autographs.
Stanley told the Star in 2012 that his music career and merchandising prowess wasn't necessarily fun; it was his job.
"It's always been a job. It's like you going to school and teaching school all day. It's a job for me and I like to do it. But it's business and it's a job," he explained. "As long as I stay able and feel like it, it's a good pastime. I hate staying at home and doing nothing."
Two of Stanley's final shows were at venues downtown, which was new for Stanley. He had played the bulk of his low-key, folksy Tucson gigs at Berger, the modest hall on the campus of the Arizona Schools for the Deaf and Blind.
In that 2012 Star interview, Stanley, who was 85 at the time, wasn't ruling out retirement, but he wasn't signing up for it, either.
"I know I'll have to one day," he said. "When the time comes I'll know it. Now I don't know when, but I'll know it some day. The good man upstairs has blessed me and gave me the strength and ambition and power to (continue)."
Ralph Stanley
- ANDREA PSIMER
- Updated
Country singer Ralph Stanley was renown for his banjo playing and rootsy bluegrass vocals.
- AMY FORLITI and DOUG GLASS Associated Press
- Updated
MINNEAPOLIS — An autopsy is scheduled Friday to determine what caused the death of the iconic musician Prince, who was found unresponsive in an elevator by sheriff's deputies at his suburban Minneapolis compound a day earlier.
Carver County Sheriff Jim Olson said deputies responded to a medical call at 9:43 a.m. Thursday. Medical personnel performed CPR, but couldn't revive the 57-year-old Prince, who was pronounced dead at 10:07 a.m.
The singer's death came two weeks after he canceled concerts in Atlanta because he wasn't feeling well. He performed April 14 in Atlanta, apologizing to the crowd shortly after coming on stage.
While talking to the crowd between songs, he joked about having been "under the weather," giving a slight smile. His voice seemed a bit weak at times when he spoke, but he sounded fine when singing during the 80-minute show, which featured "Nothing Compares 2 U" and his finale, "Baby, I'm A Star."
He sat at his piano for most of the show, but stood up at times to pound the keys and walked around the piano a couple of times, soaking up cheers.
Following news reports that he had fallen ill while returning from Atlanta to Minneapolis, Prince hosted a dance party on April 16 at his Paisley Park compound in Minnesota.
Jeremiah Freed, who runs the website drfunkenberry.com and who got to know Prince after writing about him over the years, said he last saw Prince at the dance party. Freed said he believed Prince held the party to show everyone he was fine.
Freed said Prince made a brief appearance but that he didn't have one-on-one time with the musician that night. Freed said the artist showed off a new purple piano he had received as a gift, as well as a purple guitar, but seemed upset about the reports of an illness.
"When he had to talk about the stories going on, he didn't seem too pleased. It was kind of like, 'I'm here. I'm good,'" Freed said, adding that Prince told the crowd: "Just wait a few days before saying your prayers."
Lars Larson, a 37-year-old Minneapolis man who worked security for Prince and at Paisley Park events for about six years, said he attended the same party. Larson said the singer briefly appeared on stage and spoke to the crowd before standing by the sound board for 20 minutes then disappearing for the night.
"He seemed great. He looked like Prince," he said. "The whole point of the show on Saturday was to show he was doing all right."
___
Associated Press writers Paul Newberry in Atlanta and Kevin Burbach in Minneapolis contributed to this report, along with researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York.
Glenn Frey and Arizona
- Tom McCauley
- Updated
The Eagles frontman put Arizona on the map with the verse about standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona, from the iconic song "Take It Easy."
Tucson Convention Center Arena through the years
- Aaron J. Latham/Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Eagles guitarist/singer Glenn Frey, left, and drummer/singer Don Henley perform at the Tucson Convention Center Monday May 24, 2004.
- By Kristin M Hall The Associated Press
- Updated
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Country giant Merle Haggard, who rose from poverty and prison to international fame though his songs about outlaws, underdogs and an abiding sense of national pride in such hits as "Okie From Muskogee" and "Sing Me Back Home," died Wednesday at 79, on his birthday.
Haggard's manager, Frank Mull, said the country icon died in Palo Cedro, California, of pneumonia that he had been battling for months. He had kept up an ambitious touring schedule, but the pneumonia in both lungs had forced him to cancel several shows this year.
A masterful guitarist, fiddler and songwriter as well as singer, the Country Music Hall of Famer with the firm, direct baritone recorded for more than 40 years, releasing dozens of albums and No. 1 hits.
Haggard — along with fellow California country star Buck Owens — was a founder of the twangy Bakersfield Sound, a direct contrast to the smooth, string-laden country records popular in Nashville, Tennessee, in the 1960s.
Merle Haggard, an architect with Buck Owen of the Bakersfield country sound, once told the Arizona Daily Star that he hoped to be remembered for the songs he wrote.
He had 38 No. 1 hits and some are ranked among the most iconic in the genre including "Mama Tried," "Workin' Man Blues," "Okie from Muskogee" and "The Fightin' Side of Me."
"There's a philosophical saying that singers come and go, but writers and the music lasts forever," he said in a 2002 interview. "That's been my dependency, on the writing. They go into the karaoke bars and sing the songs and that keeps the music alive. And every once in awhile they'll say, ‘Well, who wrote the music and who sang the song?' And they'll go, ‘Merle Haggard.'"
At karaoke bars across the country this week, folks will likely be requesting those songs in honor of Haggard, who died in California on Wednesday — his 79th birthday.
Haggard's manager, Frank Mull, told Fox News that Haggard had been battling pneumonia for months and while he tried to maintain an ambitious tour schedule, he had been forced to call off several concert dates in March.
Haggard was born on April 6, 1937, outside of Bakersfield, Californial, the son of Oklahoma migrant workers.
In the 2002 interview with the Star, Haggard said his hard-scrabble childhood played into his life as a musician.
"I sort of rambled around as a child. My dad died young and I didn't have any great supervision and I wound up in a lot of trouble," he said. His trouble landed him four years in San Quentin.
Haggard's last Tucson show was at Fox Tucson Theatre in 2013. He also played an arena show in Tucson with Bob Dylan in 2006.
Merle Haggard through the years
- Myriam Santos
- Updated
He played a Fox Tucson Theatre show in 2013.
Bluegrass great Ralph Stanely was no stranger to Tucson.
He played regular shows here from the late 1990s through 2014, his last show here at Fox Tucson Theatre with his Clinch Mountain Boys. He was the genteel guardian of the genre, a driving force behind the resurgence of bluegrass that heralded a new generation of purveyors. These were artists who hailed from beyond the coal mountain towns and hollers of Stanley's lineage to America's big cities and small towns, including Tucson which is home to rising stars Run Boy Run.
Run Boy Run, comprised of brother and sister Matt Rolland (fiddle, guitar) and Grace Rolland (cello, vocals), and sisters Bekah Sandoval Rolland (Matt's wife who plays fiddle and sings) and Jen Sandoval (mandolin, vocals), and bass player Jesse Allen, is making a strong run for a national career, touring around the country.
In a Facebook post late Thursday night, the band thanked Stanley "for all your music and inspiration over the years. You'll be missed!" Run Boy Run opened for the iconic singer at Fox Tucson Theatre in 2014.
The band's post came hours after news broke that Stanley had died at his home in Sandy Ridge, Virginia. He was 89.
Stanley's Tucson shows were rich with the music that Stanley and his late brother Carter had been playing since they formed the Clinch Mountain Boys in 1946. When his brother died 20 years later, Ralph Stanley continued on, going sol at first, then reviving the band.
His Tucson shows were legendary beyond the stage for the way Stanley interacted with the audience. And if you liked what you heard on stage, you could take some home — for a price.
At a Berger Center show in early 2001, Stanley transformed the hall's lobby into a Ralph Stanley music and memorabilia store during intermission. He sold CDs, cassettes, videocassettes — DVDs were still fairly new — T-shirts, posters and Stanley’s own line of banjos. And when he wasn’t acting as his own cashier, Stanley generously signed autographs.
Stanley told the Star in 2012 that his music career and merchandising prowess wasn't necessarily fun; it was his job.
"It's always been a job. It's like you going to school and teaching school all day. It's a job for me and I like to do it. But it's business and it's a job," he explained. "As long as I stay able and feel like it, it's a good pastime. I hate staying at home and doing nothing."
Two of Stanley's final shows were at venues downtown, which was new for Stanley. He had played the bulk of his low-key, folksy Tucson gigs at Berger, the modest hall on the campus of the Arizona Schools for the Deaf and Blind.
In that 2012 Star interview, Stanley, who was 85 at the time, wasn't ruling out retirement, but he wasn't signing up for it, either.
"I know I'll have to one day," he said. "When the time comes I'll know it. Now I don't know when, but I'll know it some day. The good man upstairs has blessed me and gave me the strength and ambition and power to (continue)."
- AMY FORLITI and DOUG GLASS Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — An autopsy is scheduled Friday to determine what caused the death of the iconic musician Prince, who was found unresponsive in an elevator by sheriff's deputies at his suburban Minneapolis compound a day earlier.
Carver County Sheriff Jim Olson said deputies responded to a medical call at 9:43 a.m. Thursday. Medical personnel performed CPR, but couldn't revive the 57-year-old Prince, who was pronounced dead at 10:07 a.m.
The singer's death came two weeks after he canceled concerts in Atlanta because he wasn't feeling well. He performed April 14 in Atlanta, apologizing to the crowd shortly after coming on stage.
While talking to the crowd between songs, he joked about having been "under the weather," giving a slight smile. His voice seemed a bit weak at times when he spoke, but he sounded fine when singing during the 80-minute show, which featured "Nothing Compares 2 U" and his finale, "Baby, I'm A Star."
He sat at his piano for most of the show, but stood up at times to pound the keys and walked around the piano a couple of times, soaking up cheers.
Following news reports that he had fallen ill while returning from Atlanta to Minneapolis, Prince hosted a dance party on April 16 at his Paisley Park compound in Minnesota.
Jeremiah Freed, who runs the website drfunkenberry.com and who got to know Prince after writing about him over the years, said he last saw Prince at the dance party. Freed said he believed Prince held the party to show everyone he was fine.
Freed said Prince made a brief appearance but that he didn't have one-on-one time with the musician that night. Freed said the artist showed off a new purple piano he had received as a gift, as well as a purple guitar, but seemed upset about the reports of an illness.
"When he had to talk about the stories going on, he didn't seem too pleased. It was kind of like, 'I'm here. I'm good,'" Freed said, adding that Prince told the crowd: "Just wait a few days before saying your prayers."
Lars Larson, a 37-year-old Minneapolis man who worked security for Prince and at Paisley Park events for about six years, said he attended the same party. Larson said the singer briefly appeared on stage and spoke to the crowd before standing by the sound board for 20 minutes then disappearing for the night.
"He seemed great. He looked like Prince," he said. "The whole point of the show on Saturday was to show he was doing all right."
___
Associated Press writers Paul Newberry in Atlanta and Kevin Burbach in Minneapolis contributed to this report, along with researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York.
- By Kristin M Hall The Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Country giant Merle Haggard, who rose from poverty and prison to international fame though his songs about outlaws, underdogs and an abiding sense of national pride in such hits as "Okie From Muskogee" and "Sing Me Back Home," died Wednesday at 79, on his birthday.
Haggard's manager, Frank Mull, said the country icon died in Palo Cedro, California, of pneumonia that he had been battling for months. He had kept up an ambitious touring schedule, but the pneumonia in both lungs had forced him to cancel several shows this year.
A masterful guitarist, fiddler and songwriter as well as singer, the Country Music Hall of Famer with the firm, direct baritone recorded for more than 40 years, releasing dozens of albums and No. 1 hits.
Haggard — along with fellow California country star Buck Owens — was a founder of the twangy Bakersfield Sound, a direct contrast to the smooth, string-laden country records popular in Nashville, Tennessee, in the 1960s.
Merle Haggard, an architect with Buck Owen of the Bakersfield country sound, once told the Arizona Daily Star that he hoped to be remembered for the songs he wrote.
He had 38 No. 1 hits and some are ranked among the most iconic in the genre including "Mama Tried," "Workin' Man Blues," "Okie from Muskogee" and "The Fightin' Side of Me."
"There's a philosophical saying that singers come and go, but writers and the music lasts forever," he said in a 2002 interview. "That's been my dependency, on the writing. They go into the karaoke bars and sing the songs and that keeps the music alive. And every once in awhile they'll say, ‘Well, who wrote the music and who sang the song?' And they'll go, ‘Merle Haggard.'"
At karaoke bars across the country this week, folks will likely be requesting those songs in honor of Haggard, who died in California on Wednesday — his 79th birthday.
Haggard's manager, Frank Mull, told Fox News that Haggard had been battling pneumonia for months and while he tried to maintain an ambitious tour schedule, he had been forced to call off several concert dates in March.
Haggard was born on April 6, 1937, outside of Bakersfield, Californial, the son of Oklahoma migrant workers.
In the 2002 interview with the Star, Haggard said his hard-scrabble childhood played into his life as a musician.
"I sort of rambled around as a child. My dad died young and I didn't have any great supervision and I wound up in a lot of trouble," he said. His trouble landed him four years in San Quentin.
Haggard's last Tucson show was at Fox Tucson Theatre in 2013. He also played an arena show in Tucson with Bob Dylan in 2006.
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