Benjamin Franklin once said that the only sure things in life are death and taxes. When faced with death, people deal with their mortality in different ways. Some spend their last days relaxing with loved ones, while others decide to use their remaining time to create something that can be enjoyed after they’re gone.
If you ask someone to name a farewell album, some of the most common answers might be David Bowie’s Blackstar, Leonard Cohen’s You Want It Darker, and Warren Zevon’s The Wind. However, there are other, lesser-known artists who have also taken on the challenge of creating their final works of art before passing away. These 10 records, which range from rhythm and blues, jazz, blues, gospel, alternative rock, parody, house music, and even post-punk, were recorded by artists who knew that the end was near.
Goodbye (Gene Ammons)
Gene Ammons, known as “The Boss” or “Jug,” was a tenor saxophone player who mixed jazz with R&B and soul. People who knew him often described him as a gentle giant. In the 1950s and 1960s, Ammons recorded on the Prestige label, which led to collaborations with legends like Donald Byrd and John Coltrane.
In 1969, Gene Ammons was released from Statesville Penitentiary after serving a seven-year sentence for heroin possession. Some reports say that when Ammons was released, he had emphysema and an enlarged heart. Five months before he died of bone cancer, he recorded the album Goodbye in New York City from March 18 to 20, 1974. Besides being a standard jazz record, Goodbye now serves as a fitting title for the jazz great’s last album.
By this time, Ammons likely knew how fragile his health was and how advanced his cancer had become. Later, after breaking an arm during a gig in Oklahoma City due to weakened bones, Ammons flew back home to Chicago, where he was diagnosed with bone cancer. Ammons passed away from bone cancer and pneumonia in August 1974. [1]
Airbusters (Hip Linkchain)
Willie Richard, known for his straightforward and simple guitar playing, recorded under the name Hip Linkchain. Raised in Mississippi, Linkchain started playing blues guitar in Chicago clubs in the 1950s. In 1959, Linkchain formed the Chicago Twisters and also recorded solo from time to time.
In 1989, Linkchain released Airbusters, which featured recordings from two sessions in 1984 and 1987. The album is remembered for its driving guitar, strong vocals, and as the last recording Richard ever made. The last sessions were recorded in May 1987. Richard passed away in May 1989 from mesothelioma. Given that a person with mesothelioma lives somewhere between four and 18 months after diagnosis, Linkchain was likely already feeling the effects of the illness. [2]
Traveling Through (Dick Curless)
With a baritone voice and an eye patch, Dick Curless, known as the “Baron,” made a name for himself in the 1960s as a country singer who traveled a lot. Best known for his 1965 hit, “A Tombstone Every Mile,” Curless had over twenty hits on Billboard’s country charts.
In 1994, Curless recorded Traveling Through for Rounder Records in Brookfield, Massachusetts. The songs on the album mix gospel, country, and blues played in a simple way. Traveling Through includes sad ballads like “Crazy Heart” and “I Never Go Around Mirrors,” which is one of the album’s strongest songs. Also, “I Don’t Have a Memory Without Her” is told from the point of view of a son remembering his mother.
While recording the album, Curless felt sick but didn’t know he had cancer yet. Six months later, on May 25, 1995, Curless died of stomach cancer at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Togus, Maine. The cause of Curless’s stomach cancer is unknown. [3]
Spirit Touches Ground (Josh Clayton-Felt)
After dropping out of college in the winter of 1987-1988, Josh Clayton-Felt moved to Los Angeles, where he soon formed a band, School of Fish, which was later signed to Capitol Records. School of Fish didn’t last, however, and the band broke up.
From 1993 to 1994, Clayton-Felt recorded his first solo record for A&M Records. This album led to Clayton-Felt signing a deal with A&M Records in 1996, and his next album had a single that did well on the alternative charts and led to tours with Tori Amos. The second album, Inarticulate Nature Boy, didn’t sell well, and Clayton-Felt was dropped from his label.
At the end of December 1999, while working on his next album, Clayton-Felt went to the hospital with severe back pain and other symptoms caused by late-stage choriocarcinoma, an aggressive form of testicular cancer. As the disease got worse, Clayton-Felt fell into a coma and passed away at 32 on January 19, 2000.
Clayton-Felt’s final album, Spirit Touches Ground, was released after his death. The mixing and production of the album were finished one week before Clayton-Felt was diagnosed, which means that in the final months of making the record, he was likely already experiencing the pain and discomfort associated with testicular cancer. [4]
Hymns That Are Important to Us (Joey Feek)
Born to a guitar-playing father in 1975, Joey Martin moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in the late 1980s for a job at a horse vet clinic. That same year, she met Rory Lee Feek, whom she would later marry. Joey Feek not only performed as a solo country singer but also recorded as half of Joey + Rory with her husband.
In 2014, Feek was diagnosed with cervical cancer. After surgery and treatment, Feek went into remission for a year before she started feeling sick again. While receiving cancer treatment, Feek and her husband recorded hymns in their hotel room, which make up the couple’s last record, Hymns That Are Important to Us, including a powerful version of “When I’m Gone.”
The next year, Feek announced that her cancer was terminal and she was stopping treatment. Fortunately, Feek lived long enough to see a Grammy nomination for one of her final songs. She passed away in March 2016. The album includes twelve religious hymns and a reprise of “When I’m Gone,” a song from an earlier Joey + Rory album. [5]
Pop Crimes (Rowland S. Howard)
Rowland S. Howard, a visionary Australian guitarist, first became famous playing with Nick Cave’s bands: The Boys Next Door and the Birthday Party. Rowland is remembered for his long hair, love of black clothing, and carrying a walking stick.
For many years, Howard suffered from hepatitis C. In 2003, Howard was diagnosed with liver cancer and was waiting for a liver transplant. However, Howard died from hepatocellular carcinoma in December 2008. In 2009, Howard’s last album, Pop Crimes, was released, and it quickly gained a cult following despite not being commercially successful. Recorded from the summer of 2008 to the winter of 2008, Pop Crimes is a dark and haunted-sounding album and includes a stark version of “Nothin’” by Townes Van Zandt. [6]
Man of My Word (Johnny Adams)
Born in 1932 in New Orleans, Johnny Adams, or “the Tan Canary,” had his first minor hit in 1959 with “I Won’t Cry.” In the 1970s, Adams briefly signed with the prominent national record label Atlantic Records. By the 1990s, Adams was touring nationally and internationally and was finally well-known outside of New Orleans. Over his life, Adams recorded albums with some of New Orleans’s most famous musicians, including Dr. John, Duke Robillard, and Harry Connick, Jr.
After being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1998, Adams recorded his final record, Man of My World. The album’s recording sessions were challenging for Adams, who was dealing with pain from cancer, with one of its most memorable songs, “This Time I’m Gone for Good.” The album was well-received as a strong R&B record. In September 1998, Adams passed away in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. [7]
I Can Dream (Max Merritt)
Max Merritt, a singer and songwriter from New Zealand, made music that is best described as a mix of soul and R&B. For a time, he led Max Merritt and the Meteors, who had several hits, including “Slippin’ Away” and “Hey, Western Union Man.” Many people thought of Max as one of the best performers in the 1960s and 1970s in New Zealand and Australia. In the 1960s, Max and his band moved to Australia, where he earned the nickname “King of Soul.” After living in England during the late 1960s, Merritt moved to the United States in the 1970s while continuing to tour Australia and New Zealand.
In April 2007, Merritt was admitted to a Los Angeles hospital and was diagnosed with Goodpasture syndrome, an autoimmune disorder that affects the kidneys and lungs. From 2007 until his death, Merritt struggled with both his finances and his health. In September 2020, Merritt passed away in Los Angeles, California.
Shortly before Merritt died, he recorded an album, I Can Dream, which was later released after his death. I Can Dream includes 10 of Merritt’s songs written from 2002 to 2020. Between 2014 and 2020, Max recorded some of his final songs at a studio owned by Colin Hay, a Scottish/Australian musician and member of the band Men at Work. [8]
77 Trombones (Blowfly)
Clarence Reid, a masked artist once called “hip-hop’s weird, dirty uncle,” went by the name Blowfly. Under the name “Clarence Reid,” he released more funk, soul, and R&B-oriented music for bands like KC & the Sunshine Band. As Blowfly, Clarence released sexually charged songs that parodied popular songs. In 1973, Blowfly began releasing what would add up to 30 albums. Reid claimed to be the first rapper to have a song banned.
On January 12, 2016, Blowfly announced that he had terminal cancer leading to multiple organ failure. On the same day, Blowfly announced that his last album, 77 Trombones, would be released after his death. On January 16, 2016, Blowfly passed away from cancer. [9]
Warehouse Summer (i_o)
Garrett Falls Lockhart (or i_o, as he was known) dabbled in electronic dance house music. In 2019, i_o received substantial attention after collaborating with Grimes on Violence. The next year, i_o released an EP trilogy called 444.
In late 2020, i_o was signed to Armada Music Label, an exclusive record label. Unfortunately, later in the year, in November 2020, i_o passed away suddenly at 30 from Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, an autoimmune disorder that involves thyroid inflammation. Soon after, i_o’s estate released his first and likely last posthumous album, Warehouse Summer.
The 14 songs on Warehouse Summer are best described as house music with elements of techno, including titles like “Hold Me Down” and “Prayers.” [10]
These albums stand as testaments to the power of music and the human spirit. Each artist, facing their own mortality, poured their heart and soul into these final projects, leaving behind legacies that resonate long after their passing.
Which of these farewell albums touched you the most? Share your thoughts and memories in the comments below!
