Key takeaways:
- ‘His tune will live on eternally,’ says Juno-winning singer’s son.
- B.C. singer Jerry Doucette has a vinyl replica of his triumph album, Mama Let Him Play, backstage in April 2016 after a music eve in Thunder Bay, Ont.
Vancouver guitarist and musician Jerry Doucette passed away at age 70 on Monday.
His son said that the Juno-winning rocker behind the 1977 famous single Mama Let Him Play passed surrounded by family after a fight with cancer.
Fellow Vancouver singer Dalannah Gail Bowen was one of Doucette’s live backup musicians in the 1970s.
“I was a Doucette girl,” she disclosed to CBC News. “When Jerry set the guitar on, it was supernatural — he brought it to another level … He learned how to work for a crowd.”
“With Mama Let Him Play, he went nationwide. It transformed his life and his connection with music.”
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‘Such iconic tunes — and an amiable man’
The album featuring his Billboard Top-100 hit single achieved platinum certification. People who know Doucette define him as style, fascinating on stage, and doggedly constant.
Longtime bandmate Mark Ibarra stated the Doucette band’s original lineup was his primary motivation as a drummer. When Ibarra drove to Vancouver over two decades back, his one expectancy was to play with the icon.
“As a child, when I first began playing drums, I used to play along to Jerry’s albums,” Ibarra told CBC News.
“One day, Jerry phoned me and said, ‘OK, you’re coming with me’ … When Jerry called, I would always say yea.”
His son told CBC News his father’s tune “will live on eternally.”
Source – cbc.ca
