Freddie Mercury:
Age 45
Queen
(b. Frederick Bulsara, 5 September 1946, Zanzibar, Africa, d. 24 November 1991, London, England)

Best known as the flamboyant lead singer of the multi-million selling UK group Queen, Mercury also branched out into extra-curricular musical activities…Following much speculation over his health in November 1991, he finally admitted that he was suffering from AIDS. Within forty-eight hours, on 24 November, he died from bronchial pneumonia at his Knightsbridge home. A major concert was arranged in April 1992 at London's Wembley stadium. Known as the Freddy Mercury Aids Benefit, it attracted the largest world-wide viewing audience when televised live. 

 Fela Anikulapo Kuti:
Age 58
(b. Fela Ransome Kuti, 15 Oct 1938 Abeokuta, Nigeria,  died 2 August 1997)

   Fela: The Life & Times of an African Musical Icon
by Michael E. Veal
 

Lonnie Pitchford:
Age 43
B. 8 October 1955  D.8 November 1998 

 Liberace:
Age 67
(b. Wladziu Valentino Liberace,
16 May 1919,  West Allis, WI, 
d. 4 February 1987) 

This larger-than-life pianist had no major chartbusters—but had an indefinable charm and talent that gave delight to multitudes of fans across the globe. Of Polish-Italian extraction, he was raised in a household where there was always music— particularly from father Salvatore who blew French horn in both John Philip Sousa's Concert Band and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. George and the younger Wladziu seemed keenest on likewise becoming professional players. Wladziu's piano skills were praised by no less than Paderewski, and he won a place at Wisconsin College of Music at the age of seven. During a 17-year scholarship—the longest ever awarded by the academy—he made a concert debut as a soloist at 11 and was fronting renowned symphony orchestras before leaving adolescence.   He moved to Columbia Records where, supervised by Mitch Miller, he cut a flamboyant version of September Song which, supplemented by an in-concert album, brought Liberace to a national audience.  Nevertheless, he struck the most popular chord with encores in which doggerel like Mairzy Doats or Three Little Fishes were dressed in arrangements littered with twee arpeggios and trills. He also started garbing himself from a wardrobe that would stretch to rhinestone, white mink, sequins, gold lame and similar razzle-dazzle. Crowned with a carefully-waved coiffeur, he oozed charm and extravagant gesture with a candelabra-lit piano as the focal point of the epic vulgarity that was THE LIBERACE SHOW, televised coast-to-coast from Los Angeles, which established a public image that he later tried in vain to modify.  While in the UK, he instigated a High Court action, successfully suing the DAILY MIRROR, whose waspish columnist, Cassandra had written an article on the star, laced with sexual innuendo. Nonetheless, Liberace's mode of presentation left its mark on stars such as Gary Glitter, Elton John,  and Queen. When the singer died on 4 February 1987 at his Palm Springs mansion, the words ‘kidney complaint’ were a euphemism for an AIDS-related illness. ~Music Central '96 

Ricky Wilson:
Age 32
(b. 19 March 1953, Athens, GA
d. 13 October 1985)
B-52's

The lyrically bizarre Rock Lobster was originally a private pressing of 2,000 copies and came to the notice of the perceptive Chris Blackwell, who signed them to Island Records in the UK. Rock Lobster became a belated US hit in 1980 and they received John Lennon's seal of approval that year as his favourite band. Their subsequent albums continued to make the group hard to categorize, and consequently they remained a popular cult band. Their music is: polyrhythmic Captain Beefheart meeting '50s' rock with punkish energy. Ricky Wilson died of AIDS in 1986 (although it was initially claimed that cancer was the cause, to save his family from intrusion).

 Tom Fogerty:
Age 48

(b. 9 November 1941, Berkeley, CA, 
d. 6 September 1990, Scottsdale, AZ)

Tom Fogerty continued to record, to little sales or public acclaim, throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He, Cook, and Clifford became increasingly estranged from John Fogerty in disputes over use of the Creedence catalog and John's feuds with Fantasy Records. By re-signing with Fantasy in the early 1980s (he had left for a couple of albums on PBR in the late 1970s), Tom further alienated John, although all four bandmembers managed to set aside grievances and play together one last time at Tom's wedding in 1980. The brothers, sadly, grew further apart over the 1980s before Tom died in 1990 of AIDS, believed by his family to have resulted from blood transfusions during operations for back trouble. -- Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide

Over the years, Cameo has reflected the numerous changes in the world of funk. When they started in 1974, they frequently toured  with Parliament and Funkadelic, which is a clue to how their  sound was styled. Even though they were in the hard funk vein of  George Clinton's classic outfits, they were not copycats. As the '70s became the '80s, they started to play around with their sound slightly. In 1984, they found a successful style -- the synth- powered title track to their album She's Strange. But that only hinted at what was to come. With 1986's Word Up, Cameo recorded a funk classic -- bass-driven and synth heavy, the album was the sound of the mid-'80s. "Word Up" was also the song that broke them into the mainstream, reaching the Top Ten on the pop charts; thankfully, the album didn't   have just one good song, it had a whole album's worth. Word Up proved to be the pinnacle of Cameo's career. Although the group kept recording and touring into the '90s, their style became a bit formulaic, as synthesizers and robotic funk took precedent over songs in their later records. By the mid-'90s, Cameo was, for most intents and purposes, finished as a recording artist, yet they still could tour successfully.  ~Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Lance Loud w/ The Mumps Fatal Charm

 Klaus Nomi:
Age 39
Born: 1944 Died: August 6th 1983

Klaus Nomi was born in Germany in 1944. His real name was Klaus Sperber.   In his youth he worked as an usher at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin and would imitate such singers as Elvis Presley and Maria Callas. He didn't get to   the Deutsche Oper as a singer. He got depressed and went to New York.There he first had a job as a pastry chef at the World Trade Center and later  formed a freelance baking company but sang in rock clubs too.  Then he met David Bowie who asked him and Joey Arias to sing with him in the Saturday Night Live TV show. Nomi and Arias sang backing vocals on Bowie's songs "The Man Who Sold the World", "TVC15" and "Boys Keep Swinging".  After that Nomi got a lot of gigs. He made his records in the early eighties and died of AIDS August 6th 1983.  
~From Tribute Site  

  Ray Gillen:
Age 31

Birthplace: Cliffside Park, NJ
Band Position: Lead Vocalist
Birth: July 12, 1961
Died: December 3, 1993

Black Sabbath

Rumors that Ray had contracted the AIDS virus had been floating about since 1990, but by the fall of 1993, there was little doubt that Ray was indeed afflicted with the ... disease, and on December 3, 1993, Ray ultimately succumbed to AIDS-related complications, dying at his home in New Jersey.  In a career that spanned nearly a decade, Ray found himself performing with some of the greatest names of rock, appearing with such bands and artists like Black Sabbath, Badlands, and George Lynch on a variety of stellar album releases and subsequent tours. ~Marc Fevre, Napa, CA (1998)

Sylvester:
Age 44

Born: Sept. , 1944 in L.A, CA
Died: Dec 16, 1988 in S.F.,CA

Sylvester was born Sylvester James and was raised by his grandmother, blues singer Julia Morgan. After a short-lived gospel  career, he performed with the transvestite vocal group the Cockettes. His solo-career backing vocalists included Martha  Wash, Izora Rhodes (both of whom went on to form Two Tons of Fun and the Weather Girls), and Jeanie Tracy, and his shows were often outrageous and won him a large following in San Francisco's gay community. He died of AIDS- related complications in 1988. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide

Sylvester's Greatest Hits

Peter Allen:
Age 48
Born: February 10, 1944
Died:June 18, 1992

In the 1970s, Peter Allen gained recognition both as a composer of romantic ballads such as "I Honestly Love You" and "Don't Cry Out Loud" and, contrastingly, as a flamboyant stage performer. He learned to play the piano and began entertaining people at the pub in his small Australian hometown when he was still a child...  During the late 1960s, Allen became involved in the Greenwich Village music and theater scene, and grew disenchanted with the more conventional show business world represented by his professional partner and his wife. He and Minnelli separated during the holiday season of 1969 (though they were not divorced until July 24, 1974), and the Allen Brothers broke up in the spring of 1970. On June 24, 1970, Allen played his first show as a solo act at the Bitter End nightclub in Greenwich Village. He wrote songs for the Off-Off-Broadway La Mama Theatre Company, and made his Broadway debut on January 12, 1971, in Soon, a rock opera that played only three performances...The introspective style of much of Allen's music was increasingly contrasted with his bold performing style, and in 1977 A&M issued a double live LP, It Is Time for Peter Allen, that showed off his concert work. Back in Australia, his recording of the frothy "I Go to Rio" (co-written with Adrienne Anderson) topped the charts… He died of complications from AIDS in 1992. — William Ruhlmann

Robbin Crosby
Age 42

Died June 6, 2002

SAN DIEGO, June 11, 2002 -- Robbin Crosby, a guitarist in the heavy-metal rock band Ratt, died on Thursday of complications related to AIDS, his brother-in-law Bill Decker said. He was 42.

"Robbin had everything kids dream of growing up," Mr. Decker, of La Jolla, Calif., told The San Diego Union-Tribune. "But then he started getting heavily into the drugs, and his marriage started to fall apart. He lost his way."

Mr. Crosby disclosed that he had AIDS in July during an interview with a Los Angeles radio station. It was unclear where he died. Mr. Decker said Mr. Crosby spent time in several rehabilitation homes, including Pathfinders in San Diego.

"The heroin got in the way, and the cocaine, and all the other stuff," Mr. Decker said. "At some point he just gave up. There wasn't a will anymore to go on."

Mr. Crosby said last year that he may have contracted the virus that causes AIDS when he started using heroin as a member of Ratt, which had hits like "Round and Round" and "Lay It Down."

Warren DeMartini, also a guitarist in Ratt, said that the first time he saw Mr. Crosby he was playing at a party at La Jolla High School. "He had the focus, and he already looked like he'd been doing it for 20 years," Mr. DeMartini told The Union-Tribune. "Even then he had the idea of going all the way, and he did, beyond probably what he thought was possible."

Mr. Crosby was born in San Diego. He teamed with Mr. DeMartini and Stephen Pearcy, both fellow San Diego musicians, in Ratt, along with Juan Croucier and Bobby Blotzer. The group's 1984 debut album, "Out of the Cellar," reached No. 7 on the national charts. Its first four albums each sold more than a million copies. Ratt disbanded in 1992.

Mr. Crosby is survived by his parents and two sisters.