Sharon Jones’ Final Days Discussed: “She Just Kept Singing”

On Friday, Sharon Jones died at the age of 60 after a prolonged battle with pancreatic cancer. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Jones’ Dap-Kings bandmate Gabriel Roth revealed that the singer suffered a stroke on the night of November 8 while watching the election results. “She told the people that were there that Trump gave her the stroke,” he said, laughing. “She was blaming Trump for the whole thing.” Then, on November 9, Jones suffered another stroke, after which point “she couldn’t really talk or respond.” Music played an important role in her final days, as she eventually began humming and singing songs while accompanied by the Dap-Kings. Roth said:

She was just moaning at first, and then she was moaning in tune and then she started following chord changes and pretty soon she was humming “His Eye on the Sparrow” with him. We all just kept playing and singing with her, and little by little over the next couple of days she actually started moving her mouth and started singing lyrics. She just wanted to sing these gospel songs. Every time we’d stop, she’d just keep singing—“Amazing Grace” and “Go Tell It On the Mountain,” “This Little Light of Mine.” We just stayed with her and sang with her and played music with her.

He added, “I mean, she was the strongest person any of us had ever known, and she just kept singing. She didn’t want to stop singing.” Read the entire interview here.

Sharon Jones’ passing has been met with tributes and remembrances from all over the music world. Read reactions here and here.

Comments are closed.