Favorite Seventies Artists In The News

Posted by Administrator on January 31st, 2023

Cindy Williams, the dynamic actress best known for playing the bubbly Shirley Feeney on the hit 1970's-80's sitcom Laverne & Shirley, died on Jan. 25 after a short illness, it was announced by her family on Jan. 30. She was 75. "The passing of our kind, hilarious mother, Cindy Williams, has brought us insurmountable sadness that could never truly be expressed," a statement from Williams' children Zak and Emily Hudson read. "Knowing and loving her has been our joy and privilege. She was one of a kind, beautiful, generous and possessed a brilliant sense of humor and a glittering spirit that everyone loved." Willams had credits spanning six decades, but it was her role on Happy Days spin-off Laverne & Shirley that endeared her to millions and made her a household name. On the series, she starred opposite the late Penny Marshall (who died in 2018) as one half of a dynamic friend duo whose adventures powered the show, which ran for eight seasons from 1976-1983. Born in Van Nuys, Calif. on Aug. 22, 1947, Williams' interest in acting throughout high school led her to studying theater at Los Angeles City College. Some of her first professional acting credits include a three-episode arc on the 1969 series Room 222 and appearances on other shows, like Nanny and the Professor and Love, American Style, in the early 1970's. Williams went on to become a prolific working television and film actor, appearing in dozens of titles, but it was after she first appeared in Happy Days in 1975 that her career began to take shape. The lighthearted Laverne & Shirley proved to be a ratings hit and earned six Golden Globe nominations, including two for Best Comedy Series and one for Williams in the Best actress in a Comedy category. She also appeared in several standout films, most notably, George Lucas' acclaimed 1973 film American Graffiti, which earned her a British Academy Film Awards nomination for Best Supporting Actress. The film went on to be nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture, at the 1974 Academy Awards. Williams also had roles in acclaimed films, including George Cukor's Travels with My Aunt in 1972 and Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation in 1974. Also an accomplished stage actress with a long list of credits, in 2022 Williams toured her one-woman show, "Me, Myself and Shirley," where she shared stories from throughout her careerr. She had at least one series of dates scheduled for later in 2023. Upon news of her passing, Williams' friends and fans took to social media to honor the late actress, including her American Graffiti co-star and director Ron Howard. "Her unpretentious intelligence, talent, wit & humanity impacted every character she created & person she worked with," Howard tweeted, going on to say that the pair worked together on six different projects together. "Lucky me," he added. Henry Winkler, who played Fonzie on Happy Days, also tweeted that Williams was "a fine and talented human being." Williams' children added in their statement that they were proud of their mother for many reasons -- "her lifelong mission to rescue animals, her prolific artistry, her faith" among them -- but "most of all, her ability to make the world laugh!" "May that laughter continue in everyone, because she would want that," the statement said. "Thank you for loving our Mom, she loved you too." - CNN, 1/31/23.

KISS announced on Jan. 30 that Welsh ragga-metallers Skindred will support them for their final UK tour, set to kick off June 3 in Plymouth, and London rockers The Wild Things will open the tour for them. KISS announced back in 2018 that they'd be embarking on one final tour before hanging up their iconic costumes, with bassist/co-vocalist Gene Simmons saying they were retiring from live performing out of "self-respect" and because of the "love" for their fans, although Simmons has hinted recently at a significant extension to the farewell tour, promising that KISS would take their show to 100 more cities before retiring. KISS's farewell UK tour will also hit Birmingham (6/5), Newcastle (6/6), London's O2 (7/5) and Manchester (7/7) before wrapping in Glasgow on July 8. - New Musical Express, 1/30/23...... Veteran rock journalist Gary Graff is set to release an Alice Cooper biography, Alice Cooper @ 75, on Jan. 31, just days before the rocker's actual 75th birthday on Feb. 4. Among the topics the book delves into is how Alice, born Vincent Furnier, chose the name "Alice Cooper" for himself and his band. One story was at a gathering of his then-manager Dick Phillips' mother's house, Phillips' mom was reputed to be a medium and pulled out a Ouija board to have a little fun. When Furnier asked the spirits whom he'd been in a previous life, the board led him toward the spelling of "A-L-I-C-E-C-O-O-P-E-R." A great story, but not true. That actual adoption of the name was more mundane. "I just kind of said, 'Alice Cooper.' It just came out of my mouth. That was it," Cooper is quoted in the book. "It had a quality to it--a little deranged, a little wholesome, a little spooky maybe. And... I felt like it would make people go, 'Wait... what?! Alice Cooper? They're all guys. Who's Alice Cooper?'" The Ouija board myth hung around, however. And the original band would continue to reference it throughout its time together, including in guitarist Mike Bruce's memoir No More Mr. Nice Guy. "It gave us a myth, a great story," Cooper said. "People loved it even better than the truth." - Billboard, 1/30/23...... Concert industry publication Billboard Boxscore is reporting Elton John's "Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour" is the highest-grossing concert tour of all time. In Jan. 2018, Sir Elton announced he was retiring from live performing after a worldwide, multi-year farewell tour that began in September of that year. It began a record-breaking run that has grossed $817.9 million across 278 shows so far -- more than any tour in Boxscore history -- bypassing rising artist Ed Sheeran's "The Divide Tour" ($776.4 million). John's first three North American legs combined to $268.2 million over 116 shows. His stadium run from July -- Nov. 2022 brought in $222.1 million, or 83% of his arena grosses, in just 33 shows. John also holds the Boxscore record for career gross ($1.863 billion) and attendance for a solo artist (19.9 million tickets), having passed Bruce Springsteen and Madonna while on this tour. Meanwhile, Elton's Jan. 27 gig in Auckland, New Zealand was cancelled just minutes before stage time as huge floods threatened the city. Auckland experienced an entire summer's worth of rainfall in one night, with properties flooded, the city's airport closed after terminal buildings filled with rainfall, and many left without power. 40,000 fans had gathered at the Mt Smart Stadium for a show on his "Farewell Yellow Brick Road" tour, but were informed of the cancellation at 7.15pm local time, just 15 minutes before John was due on stage. A fan in attendance told Sky News: "I'm furious. It was raining heavily on the way to the stadium and I kept checking for announcements but nothing came, despite puddles being up to my ankles." No plans for a rescheduled gig have yet been shared. In more Elton-related news, his longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin has set a release date for his upcoming memoir, Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton & Me. The memoir, published by Hachette Books, is said to detail Taupin and John's lifelong creative partnership, dating back to the singer's 1969 debut album Empty Sky. Scattershot is set to drop on Sept. 12, and according to the publisher is "an exciting, multi-decade whirlwind told in a non-linear yet grounded narrative." In his own statement, Taupin promised anecdotes not only about the Rocketman but the likes of John Lennon, Bob Marley and Frank Sinatra, and said that authoring the book was "a long, arduous task." Prior to Scattershot, Elton and Bernie's relationship was documented both in the 1991 documentary Two Rooms, and the 2019 John biopic, Rocketman. - Billboard/NME, 1/30/23...... Michael Jackson's nephew Jaafar Jackson will star as the King of Pop in an upcoming biopic, Michael, the film's distributor Lionsgate announced on Instagram on Jan. 30. Produced by Oscar-winning Bohemian Rhapsody producer Graham King and directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer trilogy, Emancipation), Michael is an authorized portrait of the pop star, who died in 2009, and begins shooting in 2023. The movie will be Jaafar's acting debut, although the 26-year-old has put out music of his own; in 2019, he released his debut single, "Got Me Singing." "I met Jaafar over two years ago and was blown away by the way he organically personifies the spirit and personality of Michael," Graham King said in a statement. "It was something so powerful that even after conducting a worldwide search, it was clear that he is the only person to take on this role." "Jaafar embodies my son," his mom Katherine Jackson said in a statement. "It's so wonderful to see him carry on the Jackson legacy of entertainers and performers." - AP, 1/30/23...... Meanwhile another Motown legend, Smokey Robinson, will release his first new solo album in nearly a decade on Apr. 28. The "King of Motown" will release the nine-track album Gasms on Apr. 28. The LP features new songs produced and written by Robinson himself, and the album's first single, "If We Don't Have Each Other," is now available on streaming services. Robinson is a legendary music producer, songwriter, former Motown VP and solo musician who's penned over 4,000 songs and been inducted into the the Rock 'n' Roll and Songwriters' Hall of Fame. Robinson will soon be honored alongside fellow Motown musician Berry Gordy as the 2023 "Persons Of The Year" at the Grammy organization's Recording Academy's annual MusiCares event on Feb. 3 in Los Angeles. - AP, 1/30/23...... A lost song written by recently deceased guitar hero Jeff Beck and famous former Beatle Paul McCartney in 1994 has been discovered in McCartney's archive. Beck died on Jan. 10 at the age of 78 after suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, which led Sir Paul to begin thinking about the studio time they had shared almost 30 years ago. This led Paul's team to rediscover the never-before-heard track, which has an environmentalist slant. A spoken pro-environmentalist message recorded by Beck opens with him asking: "Why are they cutting down the rainforest?" The message was later used in an American 13-part radio series presented and created by Paul called Oobu Joobu. The show featured rehearsals, demos, unreleased recordings, conversations and cameos from many of McCartney's friends, and highlighted campaigns o issues he felt were important, such as vegetarianism. Elsewhere, Grammy-winning producer Rick Rubin recently heaped praise on McCartney for his skills as a bassist and songwriter. "I thought about how everything I've seen, Beatles-related, is either about the songwriting or Beatlemania," Rubin told MOJO magazine. "Paul McCartney the bass player, or Paul McCartney the musician, because he plays everything -- that's a little story told. You just think of him as Beatle Paul, yet in my opinion, he is the best of all bass players, he's number one." Rubin, who is credited with helping to popularize hip-hop with his work on records by the Beastie Boys, Geto Boys, Run-DMC, Public Enemy and LL Cool J -- teamed up with the Beatles legend on the 2021 miniseries McCartney 3,2,1. Meanwhile, a clip from Paul's daughter Mary McCartney's new Abbey Road documentary If These Walls Could Talk in which her famous dad almost gets hit by a car while recreating his famous trek across London's Abbey Road has been shared by the Abbey Road Studios on Twitter. Sharing the footage, Abbey Road Studios wrote: "Close call for Paul McCartney on the Abbey Road crossing! In this clip from Mary McCartney's new documentary, a car narrowly misses Paul as he recreates the 'Abbey Road' album cover." Speaking about the incident earlier in 2023, Mary said: "The bit where the car nearly ran him over on the zebra crossing, that was so funny. As we were leaving [the studio], I said, 'I'll film you [on the crossing],' and he went over and this car totally didn't stop for him." If These Walls Could Talk is currently streaming on Disney+ and charts the long history of the iconic London studio. The documentary features interviews with McCartney and fellow Beatle Ringo Starr, alongside Elton John, Nile Rodgers, Noel and Liam Gallagher, Roger Waters, Celeste, George Lucas and more. - NME/Music-News.com, 1/30/23...... On Jan. 30 The Who announced a 2023 UK tour where they will be accompanied by an orchestra on each date. The tour is the rock legends' first tour in six years and will kick off on July 6 in Hull, after which they will play a mixture of indoor and outdoor shows across the country before wrapping in Brighton on July 23. The nine-date run of shows will see the band return to Edinburgh for the first time in over 40 years (July 7 and 8), while they will also perform in Derby, on July 14, for the first time since 1966. UB40 featuring Ali Campbell will be joining them on all shows, apart from Edinburgh and London. "Having not toured the UK for six years, it's great that at this time of our careers we have the chance to go to places that are not on the usual touring map -- Edinburgh Castle and Derby, as well as the other cities across the country that we haven't been to for decades, will make this very special for me," said Who frontman Roger Daltrey in a statement. "This opportunity will give our UK Who fans the chance to hear our current show, which, with the addition of an orchestra, takes our music to new heights." "Roger initially christened this tour with an orchestra 'Moving On!' I love it," guitarist Pete Townshend added. "It is what both of us want to do. Move on, with new music, classic Who music, all performed in new and exciting ways. Taking risks, nothing to lose. I'm really looking forward to bringing this show to the UK." The Who toured the US with an orchestra at the end of 2022. At one show in Long Island, they surprised fans by playing "Young Man's Blues," which they have only ever performed live six times in the last 40 years. - NME, 1/30/23...... Journey took a break from their running feud among band members to deliver a harmonious concert at the Choctaw Grand Theatre in Durant, Okla., on Jan. 27. Journey's two-hour show, the first of two nights, was generally harmonious and upbeat, with the sextet's three focal points -- frontman Arnel Pineda, guitarist Neil Schon and keyboardist Jonathan Cain -- dominating the spotlight. Pineda, who replaced long-departed frontman Steve Perry in 2008 and sounds exactly like him, was in constant motion, running, jumping, waving, pointing and leading singalongs. Schon soloed constantly, opening the first song "Only the Young" with a burst of noise on his PRS NS-15 guitar and improvising with hard rock power chords in unexpected ways at the ends of rock radio fixtures "Wheel In the Sky" and "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'," and Cain anchored "Feeling That Way" and "Who's Crying Now" on his red piano. "It's good to be back. All together again," Cain told the audience of about 3,000. It was a unifying sentiment after months of Journey acrimony, which saw Cain and Schon battling in court over Schon's expenditures on Journey's American Express card and Cain's participation in an event at former Pres. Donald Trump's Mar-A-Lago resort. - Billboard, 1/28/23...... Queen's Brian May has doubled down on the reason why his famous glam-rock band "could never" play the UK's Glastonbury festival. May previously ruled out playing the festival held at Worthy Farm after clashing with Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis over the badger cull. Eavis previously called May a "danger to farming" and criticized the guitarist's opposition to the controversial cull, arguing that the process aims to fight against the impact that bovine tuberculosis can have on infected cattle. As a result, May insisted that Eavis' comments would prevent the band from playing at Glastonbury, even if it became a remote possibility. "We won't [play Glastonbury] and there are a lot of reasons for that. One of them is that Michael Eavis has frequently insulted me, and I don't particularly enjoy that. What bothers me more is that he's in favour of the badger cull, which I regard as a tragedy and an unnecessary crime against wildlife," he previously said. May has now reiterated his stance on performing at the festival, telling The Sun newspaper in a new interview: "Would I ever do it? No. As the man who runs it advocates killing badgers for no good reason and I could never level with that. Have they tried to book us? I think the feeling is mutual so I think they understand how I feel." Despite May's comments, Eavis claimed in the past that the band were "not quite our thing" and said that Queen's manager had sent him a "hand-written postcard" in an unsuccessful attempt to secure a headline slot for the band. The 2023 Glastonbury festival is due to take place on June 21-25, but so far only Elton John has been revealed as a headliner. - NME, 1/26/23...... On Jan. 27 veteran prog-rockers Yes sold the rights to their recorded music catalogue under Atlantic Records, which comprises their first 12 studio albums as well as various live recordings and compilation albums, to Warner Music Group (WMG). Yes's deal comprises a total of 29 albums and spans all of their studio efforts from 1969's self-titled debut through to 1987's Big Generator, as well as live albums like Yesterdays (1975) and Yesstory (1992), and a handful of compilations like Highlights: The Very Best of Yes (1993) and Yes Remixes (2003). In a statement, the band said: "The entire Yes family came together and worked enthusiastically with Warner Music Group to secure this historic deal, ensuring that these iconic recordings will continue to be curated in the optimum manner to delight their fans across more than five decades, while also finding and developing new audiences for this timeless music." WMG's acquisition of Yes' Atlantic catalogue follows similar deals with the estate of David Bowie and 300 Entertainment. The company's other recent headlines include their move to scrap unrecouped debts for heritage artists, and the historic launch of a fan-powered royalties system. Last May, longstanding Yes drummer Alan White died at the age of 72, following his battle with a "brief illness". White joined the band in 1972 and performed with them regularly until his passing. In May 2022, longstanding Yes drummer Alan White died at the age of 72, following his battle with a "brief illness." White joined Yes in 1972 and performed with them regularly until his passing. - NME, 1/28/23...... In related news, Reservoir Media has purchased the catalog of Bronx-born talent Dion Francis DiMucci, better known as Dion. The deal includes his publishing catalog and future works as well as synchronization rights to his master recordings. Best known for releasing defining, R&B-infused rock in the 1950s and '60s, Dion's catalog includes "Runaround Sue," "The Wanderer," "Ruby Baby" and "Dream Lover," which he released with his band Dion and the Belmonts. Over the course of his career, Dion has accrued 11 top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. Three of his recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame --"I Wonder Why" (with the Belmonts), "Runaround Sue" and "The Wanderer." Despite his many decades of success, Dion hasn't rested on his laurels and continues to tour and release music today. In 2021, he released the album Stomping Ground featuring Eric Clapton, Peter Frampton, Bruce Springsteen, Mark Knopfler and more. Dion's songs have continued to permeate pop culture, particularly via their placement in films and TV shows, including Diner, Peggy Sue Got Married, The Sopranos, Behind Enemy Lines, The West Wing, The Wire and Ozark. Additionally, his life and songbook inspired the creation of "The Wanderer," a musical that had a successful pre-Broadway run at Paper Mill Playhouse in Apr. 2022. - Billboard, 1/26/23...... Elvis Presley's widow Priscilla Presley is contesting an amendment made to the will of Lisa Marie Presley, who died on Jan. 12 at the age of 54 after suffering a heart attack. Lawyers representing the 77-year-old Priscilla filed a petition at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Jan. 27, claiming that the amendment naming Lisa Marie's children Riley and Benjamin Keough as trustees of her estate featured an "invalid" signature. Priscilla also alleged that prior to 2016, she and business manager Barry Siegel were the named co-trustees of the estate and that the penmanship on the signature did not match the singer-songwriter's usual style, implying that it was forged. She also noted that the signature was not witnessed or notarized, making the amendment attached to it an "invalid modification." In addition, Priscilla alleged she should have been notified of changes to the will at the time they were signed. Lisa Marie's son Benjamin died at the age of 27 in 2020. She is survived by Riley, 33, and 14-year-old twins Harper and Finley Lockwood. - Music-News.com, 1/29/23...... The NBC television network has announced it will celebrate the upcoming 90th birthday of TV variety legend Carol Burnett with a two-hour special on Apr. 26 at 8 p.m. ET/PT and will also stream the next day on Peacock. Filmed at Avalon Hollywood in Los Angeles, the special will feature an A-list lineup of musical performances from Bernadette Peters, Billy Porter, Jane Lynch, Katy Perry, Kristin Chenoweth and more. Musical tributes will pay homage to Burnett's renowned career performances on her Carol Burnett Show with the likes of Julie Andrews and Beverly Sills. Special guests include Andrews, Aileen Quinn, Amy Poehler, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Bob Mackie, Cher, Ellen DeGeneres, Laura Dern, Lily Tomlin, Marisa Tomei, Sofia Vergara, Steve Carell, Susan Lucci and Vicki Lawrence, among others. "I'm so excited NBC decided to throw me a birthday party and invited all of my closest friends," Burnett said. "I can't wait to look back at so many wonderful moments throughout my career, I feel so lucky to share this night with everyone." - Deadline.com, 1/26/23...... Legendary Motown songwriter Barrett Strong, who more than 73 years ago declared "Money (That's What I Want)" -- for the first hit single from the Motown empire, died on Jan. 29 in Detroit of as yet undisclosed causes. He was 81. Mr. Strong's canon of enduring songs include "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" for Marvin Gaye and also Gladys Knight & the Pips, "War" for Edwin Starr, the Undisputed Truth's "Smiling Faces Sometimes" and a wealth of material for The Temptations -- "I Wish It Would Rain," "Just My Imagination," "Cloud Nine," "Psychedelic Shack" and "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone," for which Mr. Strong shared a Grammy Award. In addition to the Grammy, Mr. Strong was also honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Songwriters in 1990 and a Songwriters Hall of Fame induction in 2004. BMI celebrated his legacy during a special event in 2016. The rest of Mr. Strong's time at Motown was just as memorable. He recalls that Motown initially didn't want to release "Grapevine," which he began writing during a brief tenure working for Vee Jay Records in Chicago. "They didn't think it was a hit record," said Mr. Strong, adding with a chuckle, "You know how it goes: They say, 'We don't like that,' but when it's a hit, everybody takes credit." The Miracles were actually the first to record the song, in 1966, and Gaye recorded it the following year. But it was Gladys Knight's raucous version that came out first, during September of 1967, followed by Gaye's slowed-down groove 11 months later; Knight's reached No. 2 on the Hot 100, while Gaye's topped the chart. Creedence Clearwater Revival turned in an 11-minute version of "Grapevine" on its 1970 album Cosmo's Factory, while the California Raisins covered it for a TV commercial in 1986, which launched a "career" for the cartoon group. The son of a Uniroyal plant worker and a housewife, Mr. Strong was born on Feb. 5, 1941 and grew up on Detroit's west side and sang in a gospel group with his four sisters. They toured the local church circuit and befriended stars such as Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke. "When they'd come to town they'd stop by the house and visit with us," Mr. Strong recalled. "We would all sit around the piano and play and sing." Mr. Strong left Motown during the early '70s and resumed his performing career, recording for the Epic and Capitol labels. He also co-wrote singles for The Dells. For a time Mr. Strong operated a production company called Boomtown in Detroit, mentoring and partnering with younger artists, and in 2010 he released Stronghold II, his first album in 30 years. "I am saddened to hear of the passing of Barrett Strong, one of my earliest artists, and the man who sang my first big hit," Motown Records founder Berry Gordy, Jr. said in a statement. "Barrett was not only a great singer and piano player, but he, along with his writing partner Norman Whitfield, created an incredible body of work, primarily with The Temptations. Their hit songs were revolutionary in sound and captured the spirit of the times... Barrett is an original member of the Motown Family and will be missed by all of us." - Billboard, 1/29/23...... Lisa Loring, TV's original Wednesday Addams actress on the '60s sitcom The Addams Family, died on Jan. 28 after being removed from her life support machine after she endured a stroke caused by "smoking and high blood pressure," according a social media post shared the next day. She was 64. "It is with great sadness that I report the death of our friend, Lisa Loring. 4 Days ago she suffered a massive stroke brought on by smoking and high blood pressure," her friend Laurie Jacobsen wrote on Facebook. "She had been on life support for 3 days. Yesterday, her family made the difficult decision to remove it and she passed last night." Loring was the first to take on the youngest member of the Addams family in the 1960s television program - which was based on the Charles Addams' cartoon series that first ran in The New Yorker magazine - that ran for 64 episodes across two seasons. Loring also appeared in such '60s and '70s television series as The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., Fantasy Island, Barnaby Jones and Dr. Kildare. She also had a recurring role as Cricket Montgomery in the soap opera As the World Turns, and had her final acting credit with the movie Doctor Spine. Loring's sister Marianne, who was also by her side, said Lisa "went peacefully with both her daughters holding her hands." - Bang Showbiz, 1/30/23...... Tom Verlaine, frontman for the influential '70s New Wave band Television, died on Jan. 28 following a brief illness. He was 73. Born Thomas Miller on Dec. 13, 1949, Verlaine was raised in Wilmington, Del., before moving to New York City in 1968 and taking on his stage name. He formed Television, who became an influential fixture of NYC's punk rock scene at CBGB in the '70s, establishing an early residency at the legendary Lower East Side club, with bandmates Richard Hell, Billy Ficca and Richard Lloyd. With Television he brought his signature guitar work and songwriting to two albums, 1977's landmark Marquee Moon and 1978's Adventure, before the group parted ways in 1978. Verlaine then embarked on solo endeavors -- releasing several of his own albums throughout his career over the next few decades, beginning with a self-titled record in 1979 -- and reunited with Television periodically. Verlaine's early musical influences ranged from free jazz to The Yardbirds' Five Live Yardbirds to the Rolling Stones' "19th Nervous Breakdown," and included John Coltrane, Pablo Casals and John McLaughlin. "My first music experiences were with classical and then jazz," Verlaine told Billboard in 2005. "I played sax for three years, so my real roots are in instrumental music. In fact, when I hear the term 'music' I never think of 'songs.'" Artists like Patti Smith, Michael Stipe, Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea, Blondie's Chris Stein and many others took to social media to honor the innovative guitarist. "This is a time when all seemed possible. Farewell Tom, aloft the Omega," Patti Smith, Verlaine's former partner and collaborator, captioned a black-and-white photo on Instagram. Michael Stipe also shared a heartfelt remembrance through R.E.M.'s official Instagram account. "I have lost a hero. Bless you Tom Verlaine for the songs, the lyrics, the voice!," Stipe wrote. "And later, the laughs, the inspiration, the stories, and the rigorous belief that music and art can alter and change matter, lives, experience. You introduced me to a world that flipped my life upside down. I am forever grateful," he added. - Billboard, 1/28/23.