(Rodney Keith Eskelin, d. December 15, 1974)

Keith has become a cult figure among record collectors for his work in the “song-poem” (send us your lyrics) industry in the late 60s and early 70s.  

Rodd spoke of making a movie. It was said that he liked to take pictures and had bought one of the first video type cameras available.  Rodd described how the main character in this movie would jump to their death from a freeway overpass. Nobody thought much about it at the time. Two weeks later Rodd either jumped or fell to his own death in much the same way he described. Some of his friends thought he was depressed, perhaps the result of something in his childhood. Others swear that Rodd could have never taken his life intentionally. He certainly wasn’t happy having spent so many years doing demos. There’s a rumor going around that Rodd actually had his death leap filmed. It’s probably a distortion of Rodd’s movie story. Still, it’s telling that no one that I’ve talked to dismissed it as being totally ridiculous, as if it were actually within his character to have done so. All in all, there are just as many compelling reasons to think that Rodd’s death was indeed an accident. I like to think that he had a lot to live for. ~Ellery Eskelin  

I Died Today