Tuesday, August 19, 2008

RIP LeRoi Moore

BREAKING NEWS - Dave Matthews Band saxophonist, LeRoi Moore, died today (Tuesday) of complications from a June 30 ATV accident, according to several sources.

Moore, who had been in and out of the hospital after puncturing a lung and breaking ribs in the accident, died in Los Angeles today at the age of 46.

[UPDATE] Despite the members' loss, the band played its scheduled show Tuesday at the Staple Center in Los Angeles. Amidst the opening song of "Bartender" -- "if I go, before I'm old/oh, brother of mine, please don't forget me if I go" -- and the rest of the show, repeated chants for LeRoi could be heard. Posts on AntsMarching.org forums describe the pain felt throughout.

Dave also took a moment to describe the first time he met Roi here, saying, "I fell in love with that man, and I'm still in love with him."

Tuesday night, the opening page of the band's Web site was changed to a memorial for LeRoi, with the following post on the main page:

LEROI MOORE 1961-2008

08/19/2008

We are deeply saddened that LeRoi Moore, saxophonist and founding member of Dave Matthews Band, died unexpectedly Tuesday afternoon, August 19, 2008, at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles from sudden complications stemming from his June ATV accident on his farm near Charlottesville, Virginia. LeRoi had recently returned to his Los Angeles home to begin an intensive physical rehabilitation program.

For casual DMB fans (or the occasional DMB hater), this probably isn't big news. But unfortunately, this is absolutely devastating news for the band's fanatical and tight-knit community.

My friends and I attended the June 28 show in Bristow this year, which was not only our third and last show of the summer, but turned out to be Roi's last show with the band. It's sad to look back on our conversation that day, planning our summer 2009 road trip to see the band and hoping that 10 years down the road, we'd still be afforded the opportunity to see the best live show on the planet.

After the ATV accident, fans flooded LeRoi's hospital room with e-cards and the band's setlist each night encouraged fans to "send good thoughts for LeRoi."

Absolutely devastating.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Moore family and members of the band.

For an excellent tribute cover of #41 (a song Dave recently announced, ironically, that Roi hated playing), click here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just unbelievable. We are deeply sad here in Peru.

Anonymous said...

What a tragedy. They've changed my life so much, and he was a big part of it. One of my idols died today, life will never be the same.