ELP Star Keith Emerson 'Shot Himself Because He Could No Longer Perform For His Fans'

UK Daily Mail ^ | 3/13/2016 | Caroline Graham

[LS]

Rock star Keith Emerson killed himself because he feared he was no longer good enough as a musician, his girlfriend exclusively told The Mail on Sunday last night. The 71-year-old founder and keyboard player of Emerson, Lake and Palmer was 'tormented with worry' about upcoming concerts in Japan because nerve damage to a hand had affected his playing, said Mari Kawaguchi. She found Emerson's body when she returned to the apartment the couple shared in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, early on Friday morning. He had shot himself with a gun he kept for protection. 'Keith wasn't feeling well on Thursday night. He had bronchitis so I tucked him up in bed,' said Kawaguchi, 52.

[ifinnegan]

See 39.

My all time favorites are Jimmie Rodgers, Carter Family, Robert Johnson, Hank Williams.

But when I was young, when ELP were around I hadn’t even heard of the Carter Family or Jimmie Rodgers, and hardly Hank Williams.

[ifinnegan]

Doors I don’t like also.

I like Hemdrix. I think he is different

[21twelve]

Hendrix is great - but I'm not too the real heavy psychedelic rock. After the two people from Jefferson Airplane passed away I found their music on youtube. I had a couple of tapes of theirs in college. I really like their first two albums, but have a difficult time listening to most of the later stuff.

[lee martell]

One of the most creative and listenable songs I have heard in the past few years would be “The Hills”, sung by a Canadian of Somali heritage. His real name is Abel Tesfaye, his stage name is The Weekend. As most younger black performers do, he uses light rap in some parts of the verse, but in the chorus, his Somali roots are evident. This part, the verse, makes it worth listening to. I know very little else about him. That song caught my ear. One has to forgive the profanity though.

I wish Paul McCartney would team with The Weekend for some new work, vs wasting his time with Kanye, as he did last year. That collabrative work (between McCartney and Kanye) seemed to drop out of sight like a rock in the ocean.

[lee martell]

Last note: I also like Big Band music, as by Bunny Berringer.
I.E. “I can’t get started”

[LS]

Ok, then it would have been 73. Time flies.

[EDINVA]

How can anyone shoot his brains out, leaving his body there to be found by someone who loves him and who theoretically he loved? I’ll never ‘get it.’

[Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America]

Agreed. I found ELP to be incredibly uplifting and inspiring. Kudos to the 3 piece bands! Karn Evil 9 2nd impression is a TRIP from beginning to end.

Somehow, God managed to put two brains in Keith's head because he ability to multitask was superhuman. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyTKmmcXLSs

[berdie]

Emerson did the arrangement of America?? How old was he?

I had no idea. I have learned a lot of interesting things here.

[chajin]

There were two organists I admired in the mid 1970s, and they were both named Keith: Keith Chapman who played the Wanamaker organ in Philly, and Keith Emerson. Both of them came out with LPs of organ arrangements of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, and both recordings went gold, I think. Because of them, I convinced my now-ex to process to the organist playing the Promenade, and for us to recess to The Great Gates of Kiev. Later, when I became a church organist myself, I would play them as the prelude and postlude for every Sunday nearest our anniversary, until the ex decided to become an ex.

I am saddened at the unnecessary loss of a man who, along with the "other" Keith and Jimmy Smith, led me to a life of enjoying, and in some ways playing, classical, jazz, and rock organ music.

P.S. And the other Keith? I brought him to FL in 1985 for a concert on a Frobenius pipe organ, the only one in FL AFAIK. He stayed with us for the weekend, and one thing he talked about was how he wanted to make enough money to purchase a private plane. He eventually obtained the plane, and that is how he died, crashing the plane four years later in CO.

[Arthur McGowan]

Your assertions are Satanic. Suicide is a mortal sin, and should be discouraged in every way possible.

[ifinnegan]

Me too. Except I don’t know Bunny Beringer.

A good new band is Houndsmouth.

Check out Casino.

[bgill]

That’s some kind of messed up.

[ifinnegan]

I agree. About Airplane.

[big'ol_freeper]

Signed up today. Troll.

[usconservative]

Emerson, Lake and Palmer was the very first concert my parents allowed me to go to and I saw them at the Chicago International Amphitheatre in 1977. (That locale is now long gone.)

I will never forget them playing Fanfare for the Common Man and blowing up the synthesizers -- which were the size of cars back then -- at the end of the song.

What a sight! Man could they put on a show!

[Hot Tabasco]

All you seem to do is come on threads about dead people and say horrible things about. You’re a pathetic disgusting waste of flesh.

Thank you for posting that......I have several family members and friends who chose that way out and I don't need any asshole casting judgment on them, especially not knowing whatever demons they suffered from.........

May they all rest in peace!

[Hot Tabasco]

That's the problem with having a sense of self not predicated on who you are in God's eyes.

Since you bring God into it, how do you know that it wasn't God's plan to finally bring him home?

I'm just making the statement, I can't argue one way or the other............

[The Antiyuppie]

If only someone could have helped him. Paul McCartney can’t really sing anymore, but no one cares, because when he sings, his fans hear 1965, not 2016. The same was true about 1970’s Sinatra.

[faithhopecharity]

it was for certain true about Sinatra, who had a wonderful voice when he was young