Obituaries
Bernie Worrell, Parliament Fundakelic keyboardist & co-founder passes away at 72
Bernie Worrell, keyboardist and co-founder of Parliament/Funkadelic and member of Talking Heads passed away following a battle with cancer. He was 72.
Bernie Worrell, keyboardist and co-founder of Parliament/Funkadelic, has passed away.
Worrell passed Friday following a battle with cancer. He was 72.
Statement on his passing
“Bernie transitioned Home to The Great Spirit,” Worrell’s wife Judie wrote on Facebook Friday.
“Rest in peace, my love — you definitely made the world a better place. Till we meet again, vaya con Dios.”
“This is a huge loss,” George Clinton said in a statement to Billboard. “The world of music will never be the same. Bernie’s influence and contribution — not just to Funk but also Rock and Hip Hop — will forever be felt.
Bernie was a close and personal friend and this is a time of sadness for me personally.
P-Funk stands with his family and fans alike in mourning this loss. The world is a little bit darker and a little less funky without Bernie in it.”
Bernie Worrell the musician
Born in Long Branch, New Jersey in 1944 and raised in Plainfied, NJ, the Julliard-trained Bernie Worrell met George Clinton, then leader of a doo-wop act called the Parliaments, in the early 1970s.
Soon after, Bernie Worrell, along with the rest of Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic crew, moved to Detroit, where they completed work on their 1970 debut Funkadelic.
Worrell was also a member of Talking Heads and was and a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.
Source : Rolling Stone