Keyboard Legend/Innovator Bernie Worrell Passes Away At 72

Legendary keyboardist Bernie Worrell has passed away at the age of 72 on Friday afternoon. Worrell had been fighting stage four lung cancer as of late, and things seemed to have taken a turn for the worse last week when his wife Judie posted the following message on his official Facebook page:

Today, she posted the following:

While the exact cause of death has not been confirmed, we do know that Worrell had been dealing with a tumor that was growing increasingly worse.

Bernie Worrell was best known as a founding member of Parliament Funkadelic and for his inventive keyboard playing with the Talking Heads. In 1997 the “Wizard of Woo” was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and for the later part of his life was a fixture in the jam band scene. Worrell was a master of the sit-in and offered his funky powers to a myriad of bands over the years from Les Claypool (Colonel Claypool’s Bucket of Bernie Brains) to Gov’t Mule among many others.

Read our 2014 INTERVIEW with Bernie Worrell. 

Tragically, Bernie Worrell joins a handful of legendary artists including David Bowie and Prince who have passed away this year, making 2016 a sad year for music. Check out one of Worrell’s most famous moments in this live version of “Life During Wartime” with the Talking Heads from their 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense:

[youtube id=”obAtn6I5rbY” width=”630″ height=”350″]

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