I can't say this is personal news, but after following Kenny Rankin's singing career for about 40 years, it feels personal.
He died of lung cancer at the age of 67 on Sunday. People are still dying of lung cancer? I rarely hear about that cancer any more. It seems so 1950's.
This is devastating. The last time I saw him, I think, was about 4 years ago (?) or so at Yoshi's. I went with my friend, as we both shared a love for his music. His voice was so mellow, so smooth. He was jazzy in a rock 'n roll world. Even this morning, I was checking the pink pages for his name at Yoshi's, hoping to see his name so that I could see him perform one more time.
Another fine person struck down by a devastating disease. I think I remember that Kenny even mentioned, in that last set I saw, that he was a smoker. What an unfortunate, continuing decision.
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It is so comforting --- yet so eerie to read your words...about feeling this loss so personally and looking for his 'next' performance. I did the same thing after i heard. Immediately going to the website to see if by chance his upcoming performances were still listed. When i found an empty page, i felt the air in the room disappear. Even now --- i'm still searching the web for others who still feel this loss so deeply. Thanks for your words...helped me to feel a bit more sane ( :
A person can actually die of lung cancer even if they quit smoking 15 years or even 20 year. Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys quit smoking in 1983 and he died in 1998 of lung cancer, sad but true.
I don't know if Kenny Rankin smoked since he had a pretty nice voice, but he worked a lot in bars during the 70s and smoke is terrible.
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