FUCK! I just got the news that Jim Capaldi died. I am so depressed you have no idea. I saw him with Dave Mason in concert a few years ago and they were as awesome as ever. My love affair with Jim goes back many years, back to when he was a member of Traffic. Of course the pic I posted above is of a much younger Jim but this is one I adore.
He died today after a brief fight with stomach cancer, his publicist said.
The 60-year-old Capaldi, born in England of Italian immigrant parents, died in his sleep at the London Clinic in the early hours with his wife and family at his bedside.
Capaldi, whose driving rock rhythms and songwriting ability helped make groundbreaking band Traffic a household name in the 1960s and '70s with -- among others -- Steve Winwood and Dave Mason -- also had an illustrious solo career.
"Steve rang me when he heard this morning. He is very upset. They were very close and had plans to record and tour again. He was praying Jim would recover from his illness," Winwood's manager Mick Newton said.
Capaldi was inducted with Traffic last spring into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, just five months before being diagnosed with terminal cancer. A reunion tour was in the works but was scotched last August due to Capaldi suffering what at the time was described only as a "severe gastric ulcer."
When Traffic finally broke up in 1974 after releasing 11 albums, Capaldi busied himself with solo projects. Traffic eventually reformed to tour in 1993-94, and Capaldi toured in 1998 with fellow band founder Mason.
wow, I didn't know.
ReplyDeleteHey Joe - funny you should appear. I read your short story Domestic this morning and it was like the best thing I've read in months. Good job!
ReplyDeleteSo yeah, it was a bad week for drummers. First Spencer Dryden, then Jim.
Hope things don't really run in threes.