As I suspected, Keith Emerson's death was an act of suicide.

[Miles Archer]

Same thing happened when Ronnie Montrose died, requests for a "respect for the privacy of his family." Rolling Stone just revealed it in the story that carries Greg Lake's eulogy. The tragedy of his passing just grew a little larger.

"As you know Keith and I spent many of the best years of our lives together and to witness his life coming to an end in the way that it has is painful, both to myself and to all who knew him," Lake wrote. Emerson died of a single gunshot wound to the head, with Santa Monica police ruling the keyboardist's death as a suicide.

"As sad and tragic as Keith’s death is, I would not want this to be the lasting memory people take away with them," Lake wrote. "What I will always remember about Keith Emerson was his remarkable talent as a musician and composer and his gift and passion to entertain. Music was his life and despite some of the difficulties he encountered I am sure that the music he created will live on forever."

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/greg-lake-on-keith-emerson-music-was-his-life-20160313

[Enrique]

1. sad

'He read all the criticism online and was a sensitive soul. Last year he played concerts and people posted mean comments such as, 'I wish he would stop playing.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3489624/ELP-star-Keith-Emerson-shot-no-longer-perform-perfectly-fans.html#ixzz42ptwWQ1n
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[Enthusiast]

2. Sorry to hear of this. The pain must have been great.

[BeyondGeography]

3. I didn't know who Aaron Copland was before I heard ELP's take of Hoedown

Now I can't live without him. Music is a huge part of my life, most of what I listen to now is classical and the prog rockers like Keith were my entrée. These guys loved music and expanded a lot of people's horizons. Very sad about this.

[pintobean]

4. I have no need to know this.

I'm all for respecting for the privacy of his family.

[HughBeaumont]

5. His problems were long-standing, according to another interview with Lake:

https://www.express.co.uk/news/obituaries/652126/Emerson-Lake-Palmer-bandmate-feared-for-ELP-star-Keith-Emerson

“I have to be honest and say that his death didn’t come as a shock to me,” he said.

“The situation with Keith didn’t happen suddenly, it had been developing from as far back as the Works Vol 1 album (1977).

At that point, I began to see things happening with Keith which didn’t look or feel right.”

Lake did his best to help his friend – “when you’re close you always hope tomorrow will be better” – but eventually he became “impossible” to work with.

snip

The pair last worked together two years ago when they played a festival in London.

But by that point Emerson was also beginning to suffer from an affliction which made it hard for him to play the keyboards.

“Part of Keith’s problem was that, especially in later years, he’d begun to develop a degenerative disease that affected his hands.

He lost control of some of his fingers.” Lake is reluctant to link this illness too firmly to his death.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

6. Critics can be incredibly destructive. And nasty.

And they are often wrong in the judgment of history. I've seen critics that are quite nasty, just because they CAN be nasty. A lot of performers are told not to read bad reviews. I would agree.


I studied classical piano for many years and I was never as good as Keith Emerson. I can see why he would be crushed by criticism, given his classical background, his virtuosity and level of commitment to his art. People who make music the center of their lives are not understood by those who don't care about music or don't think it's vitally important to their lives. Critics don't care about sensitive musicians or how much they destroy some people.


As Rick Wakeman said, "Critics are all up in their own backsides," and Brian May added, "And all up in their mates' too". They're two of the finest musicians in the rock world. Rick was interviewing Brian when they got on the subject of critics.


It has amazed me what some people have said about some rock musicians and why they disliked or hated them, when they were quite competent. This has applied to a lot of classical people I have heard as well.


If you have classical chops like YES or Emerson, Lake & Palmer, then you're "pretentious". Because you know your classical material and learned that FIRST, before you went into rock and roll. Because showing off your virtuosity is pretentious. It's not showing off. If you can do it, it's not showing off. It's just how good of a musician you are.


That is like the woman next door who was in my house once (the only time she's been in my house) and called me a "showoff" loudly and rudely, when I opened my upright piano and played some Chopin waltz from memory. That tells me she's not interested in being around anyone with enough discipline to master an instrument. She's ignorant and proud of it.


There were people they hated because they were square -- John Denver and the Carpenters. Both John Denver and Richard and Karen Carpenter were extremely talented.


There were people they hated because they were weird & NOT on drugs too--Frank Zappa. He baffled them because he was making weird music and didn't need drugs to do so.


The critics at Rolling Stone absolutely hated The Eagles. They spat out the words "Southern California rock" like it was an insult. Maybe they didn't like the Eagles because they were quite competent and sold an awful lot of records and concert tickets.


What I'm saying is that what I've read of critics' opinions of musical acts, they come up with really silly excuses for their opinions. Excuses that have nothing to do with the quality of the music. Sometimes they just need somebody they can trash.


Some critic in the 1950s said that "Tosca" by Giacomo Puccini was a "shabby little shocker". It was premiered in 1900 and is the fifth-most performed opera in the general repertoire.


"Nobody ever put up a statue to a critic." -- Jean Sibelius, famous Finnish composer