earsucker

Rowland S. Howard has passed away yesterday at the Austin Hospital from liver cancer at the age of 50.

He previously played with Nick Cave in The Birthday Party and wrote “Shivers” for The Boys Next Door in 1979. He gained more critical acclaim for his solo album, “Pop Crimes”.

His friend and former bandmate Mick Harvey said, “Sometimes people are ready to go because they have been sick for a long time, but Rowland really wanted to live. Things were going well for him outside of his health and he wanted to take advantage of that and he was very disappointed that he wasn’t well enough to do so.”

RIP. Sad.

A lot of celebrities have passed away this year and a lot of hoaxes have laid claim to celebrities such as Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears and Jeff Goldblum. So why should Nick Jonas be any different?

One silly source claimed, “Nick Jonas died at the Baylor University Medical Center at 7pm EST after going into cardiac arrest. One report claims Nick experienced chest pains and difficulty breathing while receiving a lap dance from an exotic dancer at the Silver City Cabaret, a popular strip club in Dallas.”

BS Point #1: This source sounds like they’d rather give us the address to the strip club than speak the truth about Nick. The so-called snitch also claimed that Joe Jonas “mentioned Nick had neglected to properly treat his diabetes that evening, being completely enamored by the dancers.”

BS Point #2: Does a Jonas brother even know what the word enamored means, let alone use it in a sentence???

Nick Jonas is not dead and we’ve heard nothing else aside from this nuttery.

This year has been so awful for celebrity deaths. 2009 has really claimed a lot of souls, including Michael Jackson, Patrick Swayze, Farrah Fawcett, Brittany Murphy and countless others. Now, we’ve just learned that the grim reaper has claimed another one: Avenged Sevenfold’s 28-year-old drummer, James Owen Sullivan.

Reportedly, the young drummer died of natural causes, according to Huntington Beach authorities. He was found dead in his home and the Coroner’s Office is investigating his untimely death.

RIP.

Update:

The band has issued this statement regarding The Rev’s death:

“It is with great sadness and heavy hearts that we tell you of the passing today of Jimmy ‘The Rev’ Sullivan. Jimmy was not only one of the world’s best drummers, but more importantly, he was our best friend and brother. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Jimmy’s family and we hope that you will respect their privacy during this difficult time.”

There’s another Twitter hoax going around that Kanye West has gone to the big gay fish heaven in the sky. But that isn’t true….

Don’t worry, he’ll be blogging mad in no time IN ALL CAPS!

I need a hobby, seriously.

We here at Earsucker are still in shock that Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein has left us. There are no words to explain how sad we are for his family and those whom he’s left behind.

Here’s what the celebrity world has said: (continue reading…)

We’ve just received word that a new photo of Michael Jackson and his children has been revealed.

The photo shows Michael along with Prince Michael, Paris, and Prince Michael II (aka Blanket) and was taken on November 27, 2008. (continue reading…)

Slash’s mother, Ola Hudson, has passed away in Los Angeles after suffering a battle with lung cancer.

Hudson passed away at Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica on Friday evening. She was only 62-years-old.

About five hours ago, Slash twittered, “Back in the studio today but I’m having a hard time concentrating.”

She is survived by sons Slash, 43, Albion, 38, and ex-husband, Anthony Hudson.

Our best wishes go out to Slash and his family in this tough time. May she rest in peace.

Jay Bennett, a multi-instrumentalist and former member of the band Wilco, has passed away Sunday morning.

It was reported on The Undertow Collective’s website:

We are profoundly saddened to report that our friend died in his sleep last night. Jay was a beautiful human being who will be missed.

There has been no cause of death associated with the incident, but Bennett’s friend and collaborator, Edward Burch, says, “Early this morning, Jay died in his sleep and an autopsy is being performed.”

R.I.P. Jay Bennett

Image via BeatCrave

The guy who allegedly murdered rapper Dolla, Monday afternoon, has just pleaded not guilty to the crime. According to NME, Dolla’s murder suspect, Aubrey Berry has entered his not guilty plea in court on Friday.

He pleaded not guilty to murder and assault charges. He was arrested at LAX when he was confronted at the airport with a weapon on his person.

Berry remains in jail on $5 million bail and claims that he shot Dolla in fear for his own life, after an altercation in an Atlanta nightclub, a few weeks back.

Dolla was in L.A. starting to work on his debut album, which was set to be released by Jive Records this summer.

RIP Dolla.

Image Credit: MixMatters

You may not have heard of Dolla before today, but he was an aspiring rapper out of Atlanta, Georgia. Dolla was murdered Monday afternoon, after the perpetrator brandished a gun at The Beverly Center in L.A. and shot him in the head.

That was the only photo that I could locate of the victim, from a 2008 CD, titled, “I’m Tore Up”.

TMZ has found out the identity of the suspect, who was trying to board a plane at LAX, with a gun. The perp, Aubery Berry, who was sitting there at the airport:

LAX police spotted a man who matched the description, sitting in the lobby area of Terminal 1. Cops approached Berry and almost immediately he said he knew why cops were there and then raised his hands and told them he had a 9 millimeter handgun in his waistband.

R.I.P. Dolla, he was only 21.

Via The L.A. Times / Image via Amazon

Late rapper Pimp C is set to release a posthumous album.

Pimp C passed away in December 2007 from an accidental overdose combined with sleep apnea.

Prior to his death, he was working on an album, in addition to the work that he had created for UGK on their album, “For Life”.

Bun B says, “We had enough vocals. But it wasn’t just about taking whatever vocals I had available; it was about constructing songs. It wasn’t about just throwing all the Pimp C I had out there. I had to really try to make an album.”

The album is titled, “The Naked Soul Of Sweet James Jones” and is planned for release on Rap-A-Lot Records.

Bring it!

[Image Credit: Extra Medium via Flickr]

It’s being reported that Dr. Dre’s young son, Andre Young, Jr. has passed away. His body was found at his Woodland Hills home on Saturday morning.

His mother found him unresponsive when she checked on him at 10 a.m. and called an ambulance. He was said to have been out the night before and got home at 5:30 a.m.

The cause of death is unknown at this time.

Our condolences to the Young family in this very hard time.

R.I.P.

Rest in peace, LeRoi, your music will be missed. Here he is performing with John Mayer on his song, Gravity.

Composer of the theme from the movie Shaft and winner of an Academy Award as well as two Grammys, Isaac Hayes has passed away yesterday.

He was most recently known for his South Park character, Chef, and notoriously quit because they made fun of his religion, Scientology.

He was a true pioneer.

Rest in peace, Isaac.

I know this has nothing really to do with music. But I wanted to give a shout out in rememberance to Bernie Mac, who passed away today.

He suffered from complications due to pneumonia. He was expected to make a full recovery. He was only 50 years old.

Rest in peace, Bernie Mac.

Abba drummer Ola Brunkert was found dead at his home in his garden in Spain, yesterday.

Ola was only 62 years old. He was discovered by a neighbor in his garden with cuts on his neck. His death is said to have been accidental, sources say. The police believe that he fell from a window and died while trying to seek help.

Rest in peace, Ola!

In case you haven’t already heard, blues master Jeff Healey has passed away at the young age of 41.

He was fighting a rare form of cancer that claimed his eyesight when he was only one and lost his battle against the cancer yesterday evening. This comes right before he was set to release his new album, Mess of Blues.

Rest in peace, Jeff, you’re a legend. He is survived by his wife Christie and two children; daughter Rachel, 13 and son Derek, 3.

John Stewart, who wrote the hit “Daydream Believer” for the Monkees, has passed away at 68 years old. He suffered from either a massive stroke or brain aneurysm and died early Saturday at a San Diego hospital.

“The world has lost one of its best men, but a man who lived well and made many people happy with his love, his wit and his music,” the announcement said.

I still love that song, RIP John!

You gotta love Kurt Cobain, who doesn’t, right? Nirvana was the biggest name in Seattle grunge.

So why are these clowns at Doc Martens are taking dead rock stars and photoshopping them into their dumb boots?!?? Bad PR move, retard.

“Dr. Martens is very sorry for any offense that has been caused by the publication of images showing dead rock icons wearing Dr. Martens boots,” the company said in a statement to E! Online. “Dr. Martens did not commission the work as it runs counter to our current marketing activities based on FREEDM, which is dedicated to nurturing grass roots creativity and supporting emerging talent.

Dumb dumb dumb…even though UK law will allow you to use the photos, maybe sheer class should’ve won out in the end?

Update: They apologized.