On Wednesday, in a text conversation with my Dad about the cricket, he dropped the bomb on me that Kris Kristofferson had died.
And not just died. Died a couple of weeks ago.
This was my reaction:
Thoughtful and empathetic to the end, that's me.
(If I'm honest, I actually thought: I only posted one of his tunes last time out, I can't do him two posts on the trot.)
But something didn't ring true about it. For a start, I know you lot and how many of you contacted me when Quo's Rick Parfitt died. Somebody would have told me, for sure.
A quick search of t'internet revealed that it was a hoax, all over Facebook and other social media outlets. But KK was alive, well, and definitely not pushing up the daisies just yet.
I notified my Dad straight away. He was relieved, but confused as he'd watched a tribute to him on YouTube which seemed pretty convincing. So I looked for that, typed the words 'Kris Kristofferson tribute' into the search bar and found two or three concerts which seemed to fit the bill. The clue that he was still alive was that he was in the audience, and I was pretty sure my Dad would have noticed that.
So I typed in the words 'Kris Kristofferson dead' and boy oh boy did that come up trumps. There's loads of them (I didn't click on any of the links, I don't want to give these sick creators an extra click to add to their stats), but one had a picture of what seemed to be KK laying in an open casket, which seemed pretty realistic, if extreme.
Who does that? Who announces a famous person, beloved by many, is dead, just to earn a few clicks?? Do they think it's funny to dupe people? Is it a way to identify people who might fall for other internet scams??
The moral of this is not to believe everything you read online. Except anything I write. You can trust me. Wanna buy some snakeskin oil?
The final convincing point of reference for me was a quick visit to the Any Major Dude With Half a Heart blog, where each month there is a round up of everyone and anyone from the world of entertainment who has recently passed away. No mention of KK at all (although June's roll-call won't happen for a few days).
But.
What I did find there was that another hero of mine had slipped away without my knowledge. That moment of elation and relief quickly passed.
Here he is, with perhaps his most well-known song:
Gordon Lightfoot - If You Could Read My Mind
...a song which reappeared when Johnny Cash covered it on Volume 5 of his wonderful Rick Rubin-produced American Recordings series:
Johnny Cash - If You Could Read My Mind
I'm running out of heroes.
Still, I hope those two have fun jamming together up there.
More soon.
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